Northerners know, perhaps more than anyone, solving Northern problems takes Northern knowledge.
While the territory hemorrhages transplanted teachers and doctors to the south, home-grown problem-solvers are doing it for themselves — and their neighbours.
The ripples started by these programs affect positive change well beyond their individual mandates; their nuts and bolts are the seeds from which mentally and physically healthy communities grow.
In this age of celebrity for its own sake we should be celebrating the rock stars in our own communities: Mentors and learners teaming up to revitalize their Gwichya Gwich’in mother tongue in Inuvik; people embracing vulnerability and sharing their own stories of substance abuse, harm reduction and sobriety on video; a teenager growing food and community in Fort Good Hope.
The ripples from these efforts affect positive change well beyond their individual mandates; their nuts and bolts are the seeds from which mentally and physically healthy communities grow.
They also remind us that nourishing our minds, bodies, and spirits takes a village.
The Mentor-Apprentice Program —a language revitzalization program in Inuvik, which pairs language mentors with learners, breathes new life into words and relationships.
Jacey Firth-Hagen said her drive to learn Gwichya Gwich’in was born out of the pandemic when she and her cousin would connect over Zoom. Now, she’s paired with a fluent speaker of the language who hopes Firth-Hagen will one day become the teacher.
Taking the time to listen to and learn from our Elders and knowledge keepers connects us to our past but also ensures our future.
When our community knowledge and relationships break down, it’s easy to feel isolated in our personal struggles.
The GNWT’s recently announced We Need to Talk about this Stuff campaign discusses substance abuse, mental health and fighting the stigma that keeps so many from having necessary conversations.
There is so much shame surrounding substance abuse it’s no wonder people don’t line up to talk about it.
The people who shared their experiences with substance abuse in short videos created for the GNWT’s We Need to Talk about this Stuff social media campaign showed incredible courage in their vulnerability sharing their own journeys with substance abuse.
Passing on knowledge through example and mentorship not only keeps traditional knowledge alive, it creates lasting relationships with people we might not otherwise have occasion to know.
Teen green-thumb Marcus Proctor told News/North about his plans to make home-made fries with potatoes he’s growing in Fort Good Hope’s community garden plot.
For Proctor, growing food and community are intertwined. He credits tending the plot with building relationships with Elders and other adult community members organically.
“You can really bond on those things and have conversations about things you wouldn’t usually have in town,” he explained.
The ability of a community to feed its members is no small victory, especially at the edge of the Arctic circle.
On June 21 the Cambridge University Press published a study which found youth in the Northwest Territories, especially girls, are far more likely to experience severe symptoms of depression related to food insecurity.
In January of this year, The Journal of Affective Disorders published research detailing a causal link between depression and food insecurity in adults in Northern Canada.
While studies like these help pave the way for government funding and grants, they tell Northerners what we already know — when we can’t meet our basic needs our communities suffer.
We are frontier people, we turn toward one another not only to survive, but to thrive — here’s to us.