'My pain had a place': Youth mental health event in Inuvik focuses on grief and loss

Monica Dillon says she left a recent youth mental health workshop in Inuvik feeling enriched and inspired. 

"We all … kind of went there and put our pain all together," Dillon said. "We even had this tears box that we put all our used tissues in and they're all going to be smudged and burned.

"I feel so much lighter after that."

Dillon, 27, currently lives in Edmonton, and arrived at the event with a hunger for community and a sense of place. 

She got that in spades, with a weekend that brought youth together to talk about mental health, and face some of the recent challenges in the community together. They did that through arts and crafts, music, and meetings with elders. 

"The painting, the sewing, the talking, the eating … just everything coming together and connecting made me feel … a sense of home," Dillon said. "And that my pain had a place."

Alyssa Carpenter works with the Western Arctic Youth Collective, which organized the workshop from Dec. 9 to 11. 

She said it came about at the request of young people. 

"It's been a really hard two years due to the amount of losses to overdose and suicide," she said, "especially to the demographic of 18 to 30."

This past fall, the N.W.T.'s chief coroner warned that suicides had risen "dramatically" in the Beaufort Delta region between January 2021 and September. 

"I had some young people asking, like, we have to do something," Carpenter said.

Carpenter said the weekend focused on giving the young people the chance to get to know each other, and share their stories. It also included elders, Indigenous cultural support workers and Indigenous counsellors.

"What we do is really balance the hard conversations with other activities that model why it's important to cope," Carpenter said. "But the most important thing for us is to create a space where youth can share and relate." 

Mataya Gillis, 19, also from Edmonton where she's going to school, took part. 

"I've been lacking community," she said. "To have the space, the whole community, and whole grief and pain, but also laughter and happiness, was just … the whole entire event was very impactful."

She also enjoyed the rap performance of the artist who goes by Northern Knowledge. 

But most important was the confidence she walked away with. She's interested in learning to facilitate similar workshops herself. 

"I really think just from this past weekend … I found a new purpose in life."