Working together to elevate the voices of Inuit youth

Canada

Communities

Youth

Temperatures in the Canadian Arctic are rising several times faster than elsewhere in the world. This is resulting in ecological changes that are impacting the mental health and well-being of Inuit communities, including their youth. A collaborative project called Carving out Climate Testimony: Inuit Youth, Wellness & Environmental Stewardship is working with youth to address change.

Karla Jessen Williamson and Jen Bagelman are the principal investigators of the project, which is one of 13 recently funded by the Canada-Inuit Nunangat-UK Arctic Research Programme. Along with other researchers at their universities, they are working with youth aged 18 to 24 in four northern communities in Canada—Tuktoyaktuk, Kuujjuaq, Makkovik and Rankin Inlet—to explore how local practices can identify solutions to the changing climate and elevate youth voices at the same time. They spoke to The Circle about how they are looking to Unikkausivut (storytelling) and other artistic expressions to convey how Inuit youth are experiencing climate change and come up with constructive responses.

Carving out Climate Testimony builds on an existing four-year participatory video project with youth in Tuktoyaktuk led by Maéva Gauthier from the University of Victoria with Jaro Malanowski from Avatar Media and Michèle Tomasino from Mangilaluk School with support from the community, the Tuktoyaktuk Community Corporation, Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, MITACS, the Government of Canada, and many others. It will help young leaders in the com- munity use other arts-based tools to document change and support mental health.

Group photo taken after the youth interviewed the late Randal ”Boogie” Pokiak for the youth-led film, Happening to Us. Row 1 left to right: Jaro Malanowski, Eriel Lugt, Brian Kikoak, Michele Tomasino and Maéva Gauthier. Row 2 left to right: Darryl Tedjuk, Carmen Kuptana, Randal ”Boogie” Pokiak and Nathan ”Muk” Kuptana.

How would you describe this project?

JEN: We’re using storytelling and other art-based tools to capture the impacts of climate change and develop some responses to the challenges. We’re trying to elevate youth leadership. In essence, it is about empowering the youth leaders and other researchers, artists and activists who live in these areas. I think it’s important to acknowledge that the project is part of a new funding programme that has collaboration at its heart. In particular, I think this new programme aims to elevate research expertise in the Arctic. So, it’s not about flying a bunch of white academics to the Arctic, but acknowledging the strengths already based in this diverse region.

What is the connection between climate change and the mental health of Inuit communities?

KARLA: Climate change impacts the physical environment, of course, but it also has social effects because it changes the migration patterns of the sea and land mammals that Inuit depend on. It also changes the normal patterns of sea-ice freeze-up. Thawing permafrost and eroding coastlines have consequences for homes, buildings and transportation in communities. All of these disruptions are compounded by the fact that people are still dealing with the legacy of colonial systems, and their knowledge system has been set aside. We hope to be able to provide new knowledge, or organize the knowledge that is based on their own observations of what is going on, to help youth meet their own needs.

Photo: Darryl Tedjuk practices his new camera skills.

Why focus on youth for this project?

KARLA: Because they’re the ones who are going to be living with the effects of climate change and who are going to have to make changes to their culture as a result. We also felt, as a group, that this segment of society has been neglected and really needed to be empowered.

JEN: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has noted that youth are a vulnerable group when it comes to climate change. It has dramatically changed their ability to live on the land the way even their parents did. The reality is that there are higher suicide rates, particularly for Inuit youth, due in large part to colonial practices, policies and mindsets. We think it is urgent to begin better resourcing Inuit communities and listening to them, especially the young people.

What role will the youth play in the project?

JEN: We’re building on the youth leadership strengths that already exist in these communities but have not been resourced efficiently and effectively up until now. These youth will be guiding the research questions and co-designing the workshops that we hold. Young people will have opportunities to present their own research to the IPCC. They’ll have an opportunity to present it in their own terms to this influential panel, including through art and storytelling.

Photo: Eriel Lugt interviews local harvester Mason on his subsistence hunting practices and the changes he has seen.

What do you want to come out of this project?

KARLA: For too many years, it’s been about researchers coming into the community for two weeks at a time, at the most, and leaving with knowledge that is later published by academics and remains inaccessible to the people most affected. So we would like to see a sense of ownership on the part of the community of the knowledge that’s being gathered.

For too many years, it’s been about researchers coming into the community for two weeks at a time, at the most, and leaving with knowledge that is later published by academics and remains inaccessible to the people most affected. So we would like to see a sense of ownership on the part of the community of the knowledge that’s being gathered.

Karla Jessen Williamson

Why do you think this kind of collaboration is important to address the impacts of climate change?

JEN: We know that many of the crises we face globally are the result of western cultures implementing their visions, ignoring and often violently displacing diverse cultural knowledge systems. These knowledges need to be brought to the forefront. In the case of the Arctic, researchers need to stop treating Inuit communities as passive endurers of climate change and instead understand them as sources of incredible knowledge gained over generations, especially in terms of adaptation and monitoring change. These communities have an understanding—through the very visceral act of being in that landscape and experiencing the dramatic changes to their realities—that we can’t actually glean from distant geographies.

By Karla Jessen Williamson and Jen Bagelman

Inuk Assistant Professor & Assistant Professor

KARLA is an Inuk Assistant Professor in the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Education and co-principal investigator on the Carving out Climate Testimony: Inuit Youth, Wellness and Environmental Stewardship project. She was born and grew up in Greenland. JEN is Co-principal Investigator of the study and a reader (Associate professor) at Newcastle University in England. She is originally from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.