The well-being of Inuit communities in Canada (original) (raw)
Related papers
American Journal of Community Psychology, 2011
Suicide among young Inuit in the Canadian Arctic is at an epidemic level. In order to understand the distress and well-being experienced in Inuit communities, a first step in understanding collective suicide, this qualitative study was designed. Fifty Inuit were interviewed in two Inuit communities in Nunavut, Canada, and questionnaires asking the same questions were given to 66 high school and college students. The areas of life investigated here were happiness and wellbeing, unhappiness, healing, and community and personal change. Three themes emerged as central to well-being: the family, talking/communication, and traditional Inuit cultural values and practices. The absence of these factors were most closely associated with unhappiness. Narratives about community and personal change were primarily about family, intergenerational segregation, an increasing population, more trouble in romantic relationships among youth, drug use, and poverty. Change over time was viewed primarily as negative. Discontinuity of kinship structure and function appears to be the most harmful effect of the internal colonialism imposed by the Canadian government in the 1950s and 1960s. Directions toward community control and action are encouraging, and are highlighted. Inuit community action toward suicide prevention and community wellness is part of a larger movement of Indigenous self-determination.
Suicide among young Inuit in the Canadian Arctic is at an epidemic level. In order to understand the distress and well-being experienced in Inuit communities, a first step in understanding collective suicide, this qualitative study was designed. Fifty Inuit were interviewed in two Inuit communities in Nunavut, Canada, and questionnaires asking the same questions were given to 66 high school and college students. The areas of life investigated here were happiness and wellbeing, unhappiness, healing, and community and personal change. Three themes emerged as central to well-being: the family, talking/communication, and traditional Inuit cultural values and practices. The absence of these factors were most closely associated with unhappiness. Narratives about community and personal change were primarily about family, intergenerational segregation, an increasing population, more trouble in romantic relationships among youth, drug use, and poverty.
2009
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Transcultural psychiatry, 2018
Inuit communities of Canada experience many disparities in health and psychosocial context. Research in community psychology has shown associations between such socio-ecological factors and individual well-being. The objective of the study was to explore how community-level determinants of well-being influence family well-being in a northern community of Nunavik, Quebec. A total of 14 participants were interviewed. A thematic inductive analysis was conducted to extract community determinants of family well-being from the data. A system science approach was used to explore the associations between determinants and larger psychosocial dynamics. A community workshop was held to discuss the results and their meaning. A total of 25 determinants were coded, 16 of which were community-level. Community-level stressors were highly interrelated, whereas community supports were generally disconnected and superimposed on narratives of stressors. Participants spoke of desired supports. In their ...
Inuit life in Canada's remote Arctic: Does it compare with Indigenous peoples of Australia?
Journal of Rural and Tropical Public Health, 2003
Indigenous peoples have a particular significance to many countries, and in particular to Australia and Canada. There are many contextual similarities between Australia and Canada and as well many differences. The land claims settlement that created Nunavut was heralded worldwide because it created an aboriginal run government within the federation of Canada. There are many challenges facing the new territory and its young government. The youth the hope for the future, have low self-esteem, particularly among girls. Unemployment rates among the Inuit are high. According to most standard measures and indices the Inuit have poor levels of health. Tension exists between the Inuit who are both creating their own government and have obligations as a territorial government within the federation of Canada. Communication technologies and open markets have created a global village, of which we are all a part. Part of the dilemma centers upon combining traditional values, culture and beliefs ...
Qaujimajatuqangit and social problems in modern Inuit society. An elders workshop on angakkuuniq
Études/Inuit/Studies, vol. 26, n° 1, 2002, p. 17-44., 2002
Cet article présente les principaux résultats d'un atelier sur "L'intégration des Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit dans le domaine du contrôle social." L'atelier s'est tenu à Rankin Inlet en juillet 2000. Cet atelier a été organisé dans une perspective anthropologique avec l'objectif de recueillir la vision des aînés sur le contrôle social et sur l'angakkuuniq (chamanisme). À bien des égards, les résultats de ces échanges confirment le bien fondé des initiatives contemporaines visant à favoriser autant que possible la participation des Inuit aux différents processus juridiques, et en particulier ceux concernant les délits mineurs. Aujourd'hui, les savoirs traditionnels des Inuit ainsi que certaines de leurs valeurs fondamentales paraissent d'autant plus menacés que les aînés qui ont connu la vie nomade de jadis et vécu au contact des chamanes sont en train de disparaître, emportant avec eux des pans entiers des riches traditions chamaniques. Si la collecte de données auprès des aînés s'avère urgente sur ces thématiques, elle doit s'accompagner d'une prise en compte des richesses régionales et des variations locales. This paper discusses the main results of a workshop on "Integrating Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit into methods of social control" that was held in Rankin Inlet in July 2000. The workshop was set up from an anthropological perspective to record the views of Inuit elders on social control and angakkuuniq (shamanism). In many respects the results of the workshop confirm current trends and efforts to strengthen the involvement of Inuit communities in the judicial processes, especially with respect to minor offences. Today Inuit traditional knowledge and values are rapidly eroding. Many knowledgeable elders who grew up in the nomadic period and in contact with shamans are now passing away and with them disappears the knowledge of the great traditions of angakkuuniq and related beliefs and practices. Hence there is an urgent need to record knowledge from Inuit elders with due attention to its richness and local variation.
Using Alternative Measurements to Determine the Well-Being of First Nations, Metis, and
Abstract: While the GDP accounts for certain economic variables, rising levels in measurements do not always account for higher-quality lifestyles, happiness, or well-being. In light of these circumstances, the Human Development Index (HDI) was created in order to measure additional conditions such as health, education, and income. Although the Human Development Index provided further insight into measuring well-being, it was unable to accurately evaluate such conditions within First Nations, Metis, and Inuit communities. Consequently, the Registered Indian Human Development Index (RIHDI) as well as the Community Well-Being Index (CWBI) were created. However, due to the unique lifestyles associated with First Nations, Metis, and Inuit peoples, both indexes could not provide a concise assessment of well-being among the three groups because they excluded imperative variables associated with their distinctiveness. This paper will explore the fluctuating levels of well-being among First Nations, Metis, and Inuit peoples by examining alternative measurements.
Low-income and Homeless Inuit in Montreal, Canada : Report of a 2012 Research
Bulletin of the National Museum of Ethnology, 2015
The Inuit, whose native language is Inuktitut, live chiefly in the tundra region above 55 degrees north latitude. Until the mid-20th century, Inuit subsisted mainly on hunting and fishing. Today, they predominantly live in the Northwest Territories, Nunavut Territory, Arctic Quebec (Nunavik), and Labrador (Nunatsiavut).
Shifting transitions: health inequalities of Inuit Nunangat in perspective
2011
The health of Canadian Inuit has been the topic of numerous studies and reviews. Many of these studies have focussed on specific geographic areas, on specific diseases, or on broad reviews of the literature. However, few publications have sought to quantitatively overview the health of Inuit within a population health framework that uses comparable data over time for comparable populations. It has been noted that research on Inuit should address the broader relationships of health beyond health indicators and status, to include community well-being and socioeconomic characteristics. This paper examines the health of Inuit in Canada from a population perspective, focussing on demographic changes and core health indicators, as well as health status and socio-economic backgrounds. The broader population context is especially relevant for Inuit given the rapid demographic transition that has accompanied socioeconomic change. The ideal theoretical pattern of demographic transition has not occurred in Inuit Nunangat; rather, the transition has shifted where socio-economic development has occurred within a context of continued high fertility and high mortality. While the inequalities in health indicators between Inuit and non-Aboriginal people, or between residents of Inuit Nunangat and the rest of Canada, are evident, the story is not as clear when population dynamics, socio-economic characteristics, and access to health services are taken into consideration.
Inuit identity in the canadian arctic
2010
Contemporary Nunavut Inuit perceive their identity to be a combination of inherited substances as well as knowledge, skills, and values that one must learn in order to be considered authentically Inuit. Inuit understand the latter part of their identity as examples of inuktitut , which is learning how to act in the Inuit way. Equally important for the expression of Inuit identity is knowledge of qallunaatitut , the way of “white people.” This is why Inuit identity is best understood as an ethnic identity that influences how Inuit perceive themselves, their culture, and their relations to non-Inuit. The dominant discourse of Inuit identity rests on a reified notion of culture as well as a logic that equates the boundary between Inuit culture and Qallunaat culture as primordial and permanent. As such, Inuit identity is experienced as a set of primordial ties to specific places and persons and as a way of life that must be protected from the incursion of non-Inuit culture. Ethnic ident...