Recap — Inuit Youth and Community Well-Being, Art and Hope

SeeChange Initiative has launched an awareness and fundraising campaign dedicated to supporting Inuit youth in Nunavut.

The fundraiser was launched at a powerful event at Dorset Fine Arts, Toronto’s premier Inuit Art showroom gallery representing the renowned West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative on October 17, 2024, bringing together members of the community and special Inuit guests who shared their personal stories and insights into the pressing issues young people in Nunavut are facing today. Attendees were moved by 21-year-old Iola Oshoweetok, who joined virtually from Kinngait. “The suicide rate is so high. I have lost friends and relatives. It’s really hard,” he said. “We need more resources and activities for youth.” He spoke of his dream to create opportunities for youth in his community, against a backdrop of the many struggles they face, including exorbitant food prices, boredom and family issues.

Nunavut faces one of the highest suicide rates globally, a crisis driven by factors such as social isolation, loss of culture and language, the profound impacts of climate change and historical and intergenerational trauma.

SeeChange’s Iqaluit-based staff Naomi Tatty wept as she recounted how her mother was forcibly sent away from her Nunavut home in the 1960s to Southern Canada for tuberculosis treatment, separated from her infant daughter and other family members for years, and how the trauma caused by this experience has been passed down to her children.

Celebrated Inuk artist and producer Sylvia Cloutier inspired the audience with a song and drum dance dedicated to young Inuit, sharing a message of resilience and cultural pride. “I want to remind them that they come from very strong people, from the strongest survivors in the world,” Cloutier said. “They are inside of us, and we have to remember that.”

“Witnessing the passion and resilience of Inuit artists and youth firsthand was a powerful reminder of the strength and spirit alive within their communities. Despite the many challenges they face, their energy, creativity, and unwavering commitment to preserving and sharing their culture inspired me deeply. I left feeling both grateful and motivated—this experience opened my eyes and my heart in ways I hadn’t expected.” Nilanjana (Nell) Ganguli, Doctoral Candidate, Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change, York University, Graduate Scholar, DIGHR

SeeChange’s new initiative, Guiding Inuit Youth to Thrive (ᒪᑯᒃᑐᓂᒃ ᒪᑭᒋᐊᖅᑎᑎᓂᖅ), is a project co-designed with Inuit youth, facilitators, and leaders to support young people in Nunavut. Through a program focused on intergenerational healing, the sharing of traditional Inuit knowledge and art, climate resilience, and mental health, the initiative aims to empower youth with pathways to thrive despite the challenges they face.

William Huffman, the executive director of Dorset Fine Arts/West Baffin Cooperative, first met members of the SeeChange team during a visit to Kenojuak Cultural Centre in Kinngait and saw parallels to the Guiding Youth To Thrive initiative. “Our work with artists in Kinngait is all about community well-being, community building, capacity building, and this is what this initiative is all about.”

SeeChange’s executive director Rachel Kiddell-Monroe said the organization was founded in 2018 in response to the alarming tuberculosis epidemic in Nunavut, where Inuit are 300 times more likely to contract the disease than Canadian born non-Indigenous people.* SeeChange’s community-led and trauma-informed work in response to tuberculosis in Nunavut led to the organization’s youth focus.  “We first worked with youth when we took them along on a historic healing journey of Inuit TB sanatorium survivors to Hamilton in 2023. The visit had an enormous impact on both the Elders and the youth and contributed to healing,” she says. “We want to carry on with that work.”

The campaign has set a goal to raise $100,000. Every contribution will bring vital resources and hope to the next generation of Inuit leaders.

For more information or to donate, please visit our crowdfunding page or contact us at: carol@seechangeinitiative.com

*Rachel Kiddell-Monroe and Carol Devine of SeeChange are DIGHR Community Scholars. SeeChange is collaborating with The Social Science & Health Innovation for Tuberculosis (SSHIFTB) Centre, DIGHR, and the Department of Family and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario on a TB Scoping Review, “Exploring the intersection of Tuberculosis, Climate Change and One Health from a Community Response Perspective: A Rapid Scoping Review and Context Analysis”. The scoping review team includes Dr. Sumeet Sodhi, Dr. Amrita Daftary, Carol Devine, Cristobel Agbor and Meerab Anwar.

About SeeChange

SeeChange is a Canadian social purpose organization that firmly believes that lasting and meaningful solutions to health emergencies must be co-designed with the affected communities. In Nunavut, we have partnered with Inuit-led organizations and communities since 2018 to combat the ongoing tuberculosis epidemic. Through our work we learned about the alarming mental health crisis affecting youth in Nunavut and will support them to co-design solutions to improve their wellbeing and develop leadership skills.

About Dorset Fine Arts

Dorset Fine Arts was established in Toronto in 1978 as the wholesale marketing division of the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative. The Co-operative is in Kinngait (Cape Dorset), Nunavut and is unique among the Arctic Co-operatives for its focus on the arts and artists of the community. Dorset Fine Arts was established to develop and serve the market for Inuit fine art produced by the artist members of the Co-operative.

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