Qujannamiik. Ullukut, members of the committee.
Standing committee, my name is James Arreak. I'm the chief executive officer of Nunavut Tunngavik, the land claims organization responsible for ensuring the rights of the Inuit of Nunavut set out in the Nunavut agreement, the Constitution Act of 1982, and elsewhere are upheld.
On behalf of the president and the vice-president and the board of directors of NTI, I want to thank this committee for coming to Nunavut.
I join you today to discuss a very sensitive and important issue that affects every Nunavummiut.
Over the last few decades historical trauma and social problems at the community and individual level have contributed to a steep and unfortunate rise in the rates of suicide in Nunavut. To give you some perspective, in 2009 the suicide rate among Inuit in Nunavut was 83.9 per 100,000, while in the rest of Canada it was 11.7 per 100,000. Other data from 1999 to 2011 shows 259 deaths by suicide in Nunavut.
In 2015 the conclusion of the coroner's inquest into the high rates of suicide in Nunavut led to the declaration of a public health crisis in Nunavut by the Government of Nunavut. The Nunavut suicide prevention strategy partners, NSPS, which include NTI, GN, RCMP, and the Embrace Life Council, have since released a one-year action plan for suicide prevention, and we are working to develop a suicide prevention plan for 2017 to 2020.
The coroner's recommendations directly and indirectly implicated key systemic causal issues in the suicide crisis. These include intergenerational trauma as a result of their residential school and other colonial experiences, inadequate housing, lack of early childhood education, and the failure of the current Nunavut education system to deliver on the rights for Inuit and our children to be educated in our own language and in accordance with Inuit culture. The NSPS partners are working closely more than ever to see that these recommendations are put into action. We need investments in all these areas to improve the overall quality of life.
In recent years we've struggled and worked hard to understand this issue in ways that we can address in our communities. We've developed and contributed many resources: The community consultation report was submitted; the Nunavut suicide prevention strategy; the Nunavut suicide prevention strategy action plan; evaluation of the NSPS; research documents on child sexual abuse, substance abuse, and early childhood education; the Nunavut Youth Centre Environmental Scan; as well as a historical look at deaths by suicide in Nunavut from 1920 to 2014.
It's been extremely difficult to engage communities at times because it's an extremely painful and difficult issue. Some elders have suggested that talking about suicide too loosely is irresponsible and draws more of it into our lives, while others acknowledge that we need to talk about it to address it and prevent it from continuing. Examples are: a Inuktitut term used to describe suicide in itself is a concern, imminiiriq “to do by oneself”; suicide prevention is imminiiqtailimaniq, “to prevent one from doing something on their own”.
We also got instructions from Nunavut Inuit not to sensationalize suicide because so many are deeply affected, at first second-hand, either by direct family relations or through other relationships in the community, the workplace, or through their support systems.
Page 7 of the NSPS describes the impact of rapid societal change, historical and intergenerational trauma:
The trauma experienced firsthand by Inuit in the settlement transitional period has had an immense impact on all generations....This unresolved trauma compromised their ability to cope with stress in a healthy manner.
As a representative of roughly 30,000 Inuit in Nunavut, NTI knows that suicide is preventable and that we must do all we can to reduce the rates and advocate for programs and services, which is why NTI continues to invest in this area and treat it as a priority.
In May, Atausiuqatigiingniq Inuusirmi United for Life Stakeholder Summit on Suicide Prevention took place in Iqaluit. The summit was a successful initiative taken by the partners to get a better understanding of resources, programs, and initiatives in our community, as well as the challenges communities are facing and their perspectives on the issue of suicide.
The themes included the need for healing at the community level, the need to address intergenerational trauma and build confidence in Inuit identity, the need for education that is reflective of Inuit culture and language, the need for addiction treatment throughout Nunavut, and the need for parental programming. Among other historical government policies that have impacted Inuit, it is the crown's responsibility, alongside Inuit organizations, to help Inuit reclaim our identity, language, and customs. You, as the federal government, hold fiduciary responsibility to provide continuous, multi-year funding and assist Inuit organizations in funding services in suicide prevention and addictions treatment. I emphasize that Inuit need to heal from intergenerational trauma that exists within our families, communities, and our society.
Identity is a key issue for us. Our youth are currently straddling two worlds, being told that in order to be Inuk and be confident in oneself, you need to do A, B, and C, yet also being told that their language and culture are insignificant and of less value than that of western Canadian society. These beliefs are reinforced through the education system, through the media, popular culture, and everywhere.
In June of this year, Prime Minister Trudeau observed that restoring indigenous languages is a key to addressing youth suicide. Loss of language is one of the most serious threats facing Inuit today. The biggest factor in the erosion of Inuit language and culture is the predominantly non-Inuit school system. In Nunavut, there are 9,247 students enrolled, and 300 are non-Inuit students, yet there are 453 non-Inuit teachers and only 126 Inuit teachers. There are more non-Inuit teachers than there are non-Inuit students. Ninety-five percent of Nunavut students are Inuit, yet 80% of the teachers are non-Inuit.
These numbers reflect a continuation in present-day terms of the cultural assimilation experienced by Inuit in the residential school era. The Inuit of Nunavut and our children have the inherent aboriginal right to be educated in our own language and culture. The right is not being honoured today.
It is instructive to note that federal investment in Inuit language education and services is a slight fraction of the figure for the comparable French language services in Nunavut. NTI welcomes the recognition and support of French language, but the expenditures for Inuktitut should be comparative with the Inuit population. As a means of addressing suicide, low graduation rates, and other problems, both levels of government must ensure that adequate funding is available to implement the Inuit right to be educated in their language.
Our education system needs your investment. NTI has requested Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit become a core curriculum subject or core element.
Why does it take eight years for curriculum on staking the claim in Nunavut, based on the negotiations that happened and why the territory was created, to get approval and implementation into the classroom? That's eight years.
Regarding mental health services, there are urgent needs for mental health workers in our communities to speak Inuktitut and understand our culture. We must train Inuit to fill these roles. We have to start the process of engaging bodies like Ilisaqsivik, which is in Clyde River. We know measures have been taken by the GN, Government of Nunavut, in recent years to enhance the capacity, but we need much more in this priority area. Proper intervention measures must be put in place. In partnership with the NSPS and our health partners at the table, we are trying to figure out what the healing, grief counselling, and bereavement support groups are going to look like, and implement the action plan, Resiliency Within.
NTI continues to advocate for access to culturally appropriate mental health services in Nunavut. This includes being able to receive care in Inuktitut.
Mr. Chair, the “Annual Report on the State of Inuit Culture and Society” was tabled in Parliament. The report focused on the state and the status of Inuit children and youth in Nunavut, and emphasizes the importance of the need to access early childhood development programming in the language of their homeland.
We also need to shift our work in monitoring programming for men and inunnguiniq parenting, which directly create reinforced protective factors in suicide prevention. I cannot overstate the appreciation and the gratitude we have had for many years with this initiative, the front-line workers who continue to lead these initiatives, and the community leaders who spend countless hours standing at the front line; so we accept them, and we appreciate them.
Lastly, I echo what our elders have said, that there is hope and there are many ways to celebrate life. Many of our elders survived hardship and starvation, and have a proven way to survive millennia, to pave a way forward, and to always embrace a new day.
Qujannamiik , Mr. Chair. Thank you.