Skip to content

Local2Global shines spotlight on youth mental health in the North

Alaina Joe Beaudin and Kyra Buckle want councillors to remember a very simple step when a youth comes to them to discuss an issue: lock the door.
28362202_web1_220317-INU-Local2Global-_2
Marty Kunnizzi and Bobbi Rose Koe demonstrate how to skin and butcher a caribou as part of the Stewards on the Land workshop March. 3. Eric Bowling/NNSL photo
                                            Youth representatives Kyra Buckle and Alaina Joe Beaudin hosted a “reverse town hall” where they discussed mental health issues faced by youth in the North. Photo courtesy of Arrowsmith Productions/Taylor Smith.
Youth representatives Kyra Buckle and Alaina Joe Beaudin hosted a "reverse town hall" where they discussed mental health issues faced by youth in the North. Photo courtesy of Arrowsmith Productions/Taylor Smith.

Alaina Joe Beaudin and Kyra Buckle want counsellors to remember a very simple step when a youth comes to them to discuss an issue: lock the door.

“It’s not that comfortable,” said Beaudin, a grade 9 student. “Some kids, if they see you talking to a counsellor they’ll think something’s wrong with you. Or they’ll go and say something to someone and it just gives you a scare of people talking about you.

“As soon as someone says something, everyone knows. So everyone’s scared to go talk to someone because they think they’re doing something wrong.”

The pair were joined by Western Arctic Youth Collective project director Alyssa Carpenter for a “reverse” town hall on meaningful youth engagement March 3, which was broadcast live from the Inuvialuit Communications Society as part of the Local 2 Global youth summit, which was held in Inuvik as part of a multi-year circumpolar youth empowerment effort. The summit ran March 1 to 4.

This is the second year Inuvik hosted the four-day gathering, which drew youth representatives from Indigenous communities from around the Arctic circle and attended online through Zoom. The Local2Global initiative began in 2019 and is hoped to continue through 2023, focusing on life promotion and mental health wellness.

“We were approached by Gwich’in Council International,” said Carpenter, who estimated there were about 30 youth participating locally, including 15 who travelled from elsewhere in the North. “We did it last March and we were asked to take on the event again to showcase and build upon workshops that were created a few years back by other youth across other Northern countries.

“So this is our take on what a lot of those themes the youth were sharing in those videos and we were lucky to have a the youth who did those videos here.”

Alongside WAYC, the Gwich’in Renewable Resource Board was also involved in programming with a “Stewards of the Land Workshop” at the Inuvik Native Band gathering space, showing traditional knowledge such as skinning, butchering and drying a caribou, contributed by Anita Koe Tetlit.

A demonstration on the art was put on by Liz Jerome, Marty Kunnizzi and Bobbi Rose Koe.

                                            Liz Jerome cuts caribou into chunks as part of the Stewards on the Land workshop. The meat was cut into small bites for the youth to eat. Eric Bowling/NNSL photo
Liz Jerome cuts caribou into chunks as part of the Stewards on the Land workshop. The meat was cut into small bites for the youth to eat. Eric Bowling/NNSL photo

“Chief Robert Charlie and Administration provided the site location, fire set and tea - who those two we wouldn’t have been able to host the caribou demonstration,” said GRRB executive director Wanda McDonald, who thanked members of the GRRB working group and contributors for helping make the caribou workshop happen. “We would be remiss if we didn’t recognize those who made the workshop a reality.”

Traditional knowledge was at the heart of every session and lesson in the four days, as youth exchanged stories, watched topical films, learned crafts and competed in hand games. Speakers covered topics ranging from sobriety, language preservation, photography, career building and traditional tattoos. Inuvik’s Laska Nerysoo taught a workshop on Macrame making, Rachel Schooley discussed mental wellness while Taalrumiq taught a workshop on beading, and Megan Lennie and Alexia Mirion educated youth about safe spaces and mental wellness. A food bank drive was also run in conjunction with the summit.

Connecting all the workshops was the art of storytelling, which helped express the ideas of youth, well-being, sharing and respecting the land and nature. Drum Dances were held at Ingamo Hall independently of the festivities and during the evening youth gathered at Duck Lake park for bonfires and fireworks.

Underlying the project is a goal of helping improve the capacity of youth to deal with stress, be that from school, peers, family, global events or other pressures, through storytelling, both verbal and digital. By helping youth find a way to get their voice out, the Local2Global initiative hopes to help put a stop to youth suicides in the Arctic circle. It was built on lessons learned from the Rising Sun initiative, the Sharing Hope project and Project CREATeS.

As different communities have different takes on how to best approach mental health issues, Carpenter said it was important for Inuvik to be able to contribute to the effort in its own special way.

“A lot of the youth have a voice, it’s just a matter of creating space for us to listen,” she said. “Some of the most powerful pieces is the storytelling and how that is very much part of Indigenous ways of sharing and passing knowledge.

“Youth are here and they’re sharing information on what helps them or their friends. Having space to have those conversations and hopefully for the people who can make these showing up and being willing to learn. That’s how you do proper, meaningful engagement.”

As for Beaudin and Buckle, they both just want people to be more mindful of how they approach youth.

Simple things like counsellors making sure they’re giving patients enough time to vent, or providing more opportunities to connect with mental health resources, would go a long way to helping maintain a sense of trust between parties.

“There are programs surrounding mental health promotion for young people,” said Buckle, grade 11 student. “But there’s not really anything being done. There’s no programs that say ‘Hey, come down,’ — it’s more that you have to take the first step. But sometimes it’s hard to take the first step, you need that little push.

“Mental Health and Wellness is something that should not be taken lightly and should be something talked about more than what it is right now, especially in the North.”



About the Author: Eric Bowling

Read more