Popping Bubbles hits Kugluktuk
Community youth like reality TV star Ariel Tweto's positive take on suicide prevention
Laura Busch
Northern News Services
Published Monday, April 21 2014
KUGLUKTUK/COPPERMINE
The first step to seeing past depression and anxiety to how wonderful the future could be is getting out of your own bubble.
This is the main message of reality-TV star Ariel Tweto's tour, Popping Bubbles, which she started in Kugluktuk late last month. By touring Northern communities, Tweto - an Inuk from Unalakleet, Alaska - is spreading a message of
suicide prevention in her own unique way.
"We all live in little bubbles. (Never leaving the village, hanging out with only certain people, not trying a new food, not being open to different ethnicities, religions, ways of life, etc.) So I want to go around and pop them!" she wrote in a blog post on the Society for Building a Healthier Kugluktuk's website.
"I want people to pop their little bubble that they are stuck in. I think that is a big reason why suicide happens. We are lonely or sad or confused and feel like we lack a purpose ... so with Popping Bubbles I hope to help us all step outside our comfort zone and dream big and set goals and reach those goals."
The way Tweto approached the conversation struck a chord with youth in the community, said Mike Webster, executive director of the Society for Building a Healthier Kugluktuk, the organization that brought Tweto to the community.
For example, 114 youth participated in a doodle event on Tweto's second night in the hamlet, "and a lot were kids you don't normally see at events," said Webster.
Tweto plans to continue her tour by visiting more Northern communities over the next few months, and promised to be back in Kugluktuk in time to go fishing this summer.
The visit "opened some doors for future work with Alaska," said Webster.
"We've always looked kind of east to Greenland and Northern Quebec and even Labrador, but our culture here and the culture in Alaska are tied, too," he said.
His research into how things are done in Alaska revealed "true community economic development" with proactive language and cultural programming heavily supported by the state. As a result, Inuit language use and the number of residents who hunt and participate in other cultural activities are very high, he said.
"I haven't seen anything in Nunavut remotely close," said Webster. "The hamlet here is really big on bingos and starting up its own hamlet radio."
He said he and everyone else in the community are looking forward to Tweto's next visit, and to working together in the meantime to create a healthy community for all Kugluktummiut to live in.
For Webster, a healthy community means "just people getting along and being productive together as individuals," he said.
"I think that would go a long way into ultimately healthier choices into how people live and what they consume."
