Nov-23-2011 standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples

Senate Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development
November 23, 2011

Speaking Notes for
Thomas Johnston, National Inuit Youth Council

Inuktitut Introduction

Good evening and thank you for the opportunity to increase the profile of Inuit Youth and the work of the National Inuit Youth Council.

I am Thomas Johnston, a member of board of the National Inuit Youth Council. I live in Iqaluit, Nunavut. Our president, Jennifer Watkins of Kuujjuaq, Nunavik, was not able to make this trip as she is a very busy woman, raising a family as well as working full-time on top of her presidency.

60% of the Inuit population in Canada is under the age of 25. Often we are told that we are the future, and that we must invest in education and capacity-building activities. But Inuit youth are taking on leadership roles already, sometimes by choice, sometimes because there is no choice. Youth are right now as much as we are the future.

The National Inuit Youth Council (NIYC) was created 18 years ago in 1993. It was created to give Inuit youth from across the country a way to voice their concerns to each other and to others in a position to support our work. The list of concerns raised at the first National Inuit Youth Summit back in 1994 are still very much the same: suicide, education, housing and living arrangements, and the preservation of Inuit culture and language remain a priority.

Nearly twenty years later, NIYC is still working to voice the concerns of Inuit youth across Canada, through media such as a website (niyc.ca) and a for-youth-by-youth magazine titled Nipiit, which means your sound/voice. Members of NIYC also, participate on a number of national boards and committees that relate to our priorities.

Our current priority areas include: language and culture, health and education, improving networking opportunities and communication between Inuit youth, supporting youth, youth councils and youth initiatives, and housing.

Here are some words our president spoke at a national gathering of youth in Inuvik, NWT, last summer: “My vision is to bring back our identity, our culture, our language without shame, to have pride in being Inuk.”

Throughout Inuit Nunangat, we are craving for our culture and a greater connection to our heritage. The more we lose the more we want it back. The more my grandparents become strangers.

We are the in-between generation, caught between traditional and modern styles of living. Many Inuit youth don’t have a firm grasp of either the traditional or modern world, leaving many Inuit youth with limited knowledge of themselves and Inuit around the world.

It is our hope at NIYC to create stable bridges. Bridges on which we can stand firmly, healthily and with pride in the traditional Inuk way and the way Inuit are heading today. Bridges that guide Inuit youth so we no longer have to live the multiple personality lives of the confused younger generation. Inuit youth want to reach a place where we are strong and whole and equal to the rest of Canada, both in a modern and traditional sense.

We want to move forward on a number of fronts. Currently schools in the North have very little or nothing to do with Inuit history and language. Graduation rates are low (25%) and the competency of graduates is at a level far below the rest of Canada. We live in homes that are overcrowded and in desperate need of repair. Unemployment rates in Inuit communities are the highest in Canada, and in many other unfortunate areas we can claim to be first. All these factors are leading to great dysfunction among Inuit youth, Each and every Inuk youth has been affected by suicide. Maybe it was a close friend, an uncle, a cousin, or your friend’s mother.

It is these areas: education, housing and suicide prevention that I challenge you to explore in greater depth. To work with Inuit youth, with the NIYC, to help us address our priorities and reach our goals.

All we want is for our children to live healthily and happily and to be proud of who they are. Maybe it doesn’t sound like I am asking for much, maybe it does, but what I am asking for is what we all are asking for Inuit, Canadians, citizens of the world.