Abstract
Sustainability issues are an increasing concern across the Circumpolar North. The often-intense social, health, and cultural stressors from multiple pathways—including climate change, resource extraction, socio-economic shifts, and the enduring legacies of colonization—affect social cohesion, community wellness, sense of place and heritage, livelihoods, and many cultural structures. Indigenous peoples are at the frontline of these changes and, as a result, a priority of many communities is to develop strategies to support community wellness, foster livelihoods, maintain cultural values, enhance resilience, and preserve and promote cultural continuity. Responding to these stressors and needs, and building from previous research conducted in the region that indicated a desire to ensure cultural continuity, the Inuit Community Governments of Rigolet, Makkovik, and Postville, in the Nunatsiavut region of Labrador, designed and piloted the IlikKuset-Ilingannet (Culture-Connect!) Program. This program was premised on the Inuit relational epistemology of piliriqatigiinniq (‘working in a collaborative way for the common good’), and united five youth with five adult mentors per community (n = 30) to learn cultural skills, including trapping, snowshoe-making, carving, art, and sewing. This research found that participating in the program supported hands-on knowledge transmission, created new or enhanced relationships between and among the youth and mentors; revitalized cultural pride and wellbeing; promoted cultural preservation and promotion; and showed promise as a strategy for supporting cultural sustainability and resilience to change. This resonates with growing emphasis on Indigenous-led programs supporting cultural preservation, promotion, reclamation, and resurgence, and contributes to a wholistic understanding of, and strategies for, Northern sustainabilities.
The IlikKuset-Ilingannet Team
Charlotte Wolfrey, Rigolet Inuit Community Government; Gemma Andersen and Herb Jacque, Makkovik Inuit Community Government; and Rebecca Brennen and Diane Gear, Postville Inuit Community Government
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Notes
- 1.
While there was interest from all Nunatsiavut communities in this program, during a regional meeting with all five community leaders and stakeholders from Nunatsiavut, it was collaboratively decided that Rigolet , Makkovik , and Postville were ideally suited to try a pilot program of this nature, as other youth -adult mentorship programming did not exist in the communities. At the time of publication, and based on the success of the program, funding opportunities are being explored to expand this program to all five communities as part of core funding through the Department of Health and Social Development.
- 2.
The Changing Climate, Changing Health, Changing Stories project.
- 3.
The Inuit Mental Health Adaptation to Climate Change project.
- 4.
The video can be found at https://youtu.be/EAulcH3uXnc
- 5.
For more information about the knowledge transmission or formalization of knowledge sharing aspects of this program, please see Stephenson et al. (under review).
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Acknowledgements
A huge thank you to all the youth and mentors involved in this program. Without you, nothing would have been possible! This program would also not have been possible without the support and participation of the communities of Postville, Makkovik, and Rigolet, in the Nunatsiavut region of Labrador and the Inuit Community Governments of Rigolet, Makkovik, and Postville. Special thanks to Charlotte Wolfrey, Herb Jacque, Diane Gear, Chris Brennen, and Melva Williams for all your project support, advice, and guidance. Thanks also to Jordan Konek/Konek Productions for editing the final video and Joanna Petrasek MacDonald for video assistance. Many thanks to editors Gary Wilson and Gail Fondahl for all their editorial assistance, and to the anonymous reviewer for the helpful, supportive, and insightful comments. This research was supported through funding from Health Canada, through the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch Climate Change and Health Adaptation in Northern First Nations and Inuit Communities program. Complementary funding was received from the Nasivvik Centre for Inuit Health and Changing Environments.
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Cunsolo, A., Shiwak, I., Wood, M., The IlikKuset-Ilingannet Team. (2017). “You Need to Be a Well-Rounded Cultural Person”: Youth Mentorship Programs for Cultural Preservation, Promotion, and Sustainability in the Nunatsiavut Region of Labrador. In: Fondahl, G., Wilson, G. (eds) Northern Sustainabilities: Understanding and Addressing Change in the Circumpolar World. Springer Polar Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46150-2_21
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