NTI, GN prep for climate change
Workshop draws youth, elders and community members to discuss moving into the future
Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services
Monday, February 6, 2017
IQALUIT
From across the territory and across the generations, Nunavummiut gathered to discuss resiliency in the face of climate change.
Joanasie Karpik, left, Paniloo Sangoya, Peter Awa and Simon Nattaq joined an elders' panel to share their perspectives on climate change at the Nunavut Climate Change Adaptation Workshop held Jan. 31 to Feb. 2 in Iqaluit. - photo courtesy of Climate Change Secretariat |
With funding from the federal government, Nunavut's new Climate Change Secretariat organized the three-day workshop, titled Our Changing Land, Our Changing People: Building Nunavut's Resiliency. The workshop brought together more than 60 elders, youth and community members Jan. 31 to Feb. 2 in Iqaluit.
"I'm sure you've heard of the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change ... Out of that there's a commitment to develop a Northern adaptation strategy, working with all five Northern regions - Yukon, NWT, Nunavut, as well as Nunavik and Nunatsiavut," explained secretariat acting director Colleen Healey.
"They've been supporting regional meetings that will feed into the bigger strategy."
Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI) was first approached, and NTI then asked the secretariat to team up.
"NTI and the GN recognized the need for community consultations - to hear from our communities - and really make sure their voices are reflected and understood, to shape any future policies, federal, territorial and regional."
Healey says the workshop was a first in bringing everyone together from across the territory to discuss the issues.
"It's about resilience. Inuit were really resilient before, we survived hundreds and hundreds of years in the harshest place on the planet. Now we are dealing with climate change and all of those impacts, which is causing us to have to address them really quickly and change the way we're reacting," she said.
"But Inuit are not as resilient now in our communities as we once were."
Discussions sometimes used the panel format - an elders' panels, a youth panel, a women's panel - with each group sharing their perspectives on the changes they were seeing in their environment and how that affects their lives.
"Youth discussed climate change impact, how it affects them, they talked about Inuit culture and identity, the challenges with the generation gap and transfer of knowledge. They were so open and so articulate. The elders spoke up and gave them a round of applause. It's been so supportive to hear and see the elders reflecting on what the youth were saying, talking about how proud of them they are," she said.
Likewise, the elders spoke of the changes they've seen, how undependable the environment has become, and how that affects them.
"Elders are saying it's hard for them to draw on the things they knew and the things they learned. They look out and say, 'The weather's going to be like this today.' And then it's the opposite," said Healey.
"It's like being picked up and dropped on another planet. And the feelings that creates, around your mental health and your confidence. There's more and more research coming out on climate change and mental health."
The secretariat works across government departments, territorial governments, levels of government, Inuit organizations and communities.
"We're working with infrastructure, we're working on permafrost hazard maps with Community and Government Services. We're working with the Department of Health on health-related climate-change impacts. We're working with housing. With QEC on diesel and emissions reduction. You name it, we work with them," said Healey.
"It's not a partisan issue. Everyone feels it. I was born and raised here and I'm feeling it. Iqaluit and Nunavut, it's not the same. I've seen the changes in my short life," said Healey.
