Nunavut suicide inquest: Inuit must break the silence

Before his 11-year-old grandson, Antonio 'Rex' Uttak took his own life, Joe Attagutaluk says he "wasn't really interested" in speaking about suicide.

Now, he hopes more Inuit will break the silence.

"Inuit used to say, 'Don't talk about it. If you talk about it, it's going to surface,'" he testified. 

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But Attagutaluk, who was also testifying on behalf of the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, said it's important for youth to feel comfortable speaking about their struggles.

Like Rex's mother and the RCMP, Attagutaluk has no idea why the young boy decided to end his life.

"I don't want it to happen to anyone else. But it's still happening," he said.

"This is an epidemic."

'Living in two worlds'

When Rex died, Attagutaluk says he didn't know what was going on in his life, because the boy had moved from Igloolik to Naujaat two years earlier. 

On the first day of the inquest, the jury heard that Rex was living in extreme overcrowding, was dealing with an abrupt separation from his father and was grieving the loss of an older brother to suicide and a sister to murder. 

Though he died in Naujaat, Attagutaluk says people in Igloolik struggled with the loss and the grieving grandfather began a healing circle.

"The first night there were 60 young adults that needed help," he said in Inuktitut. 

Attagutaluk says many of the youth shared with him a familiar struggle — between the traditional Inuit ways and modern Nunavut life. 

"They feel like their lives are tangled up, like they're living in two worlds and trying to understand how to deal with this on a daily basis."

"I care for them a lot," he said. But after a while Attagutaluk said he no longer had the strength to keep going. 

He called out to local elders and other residents to take over the healing circle, "but nobody showed up."

Traditional teachings instill pride

Representatives from Nunavut's two other regional organizations also testified about the inability of some youth to "balance the two worlds" they now live in. 

Bernadette Dean, the social development coordinator with the Kivalliq Inuit Association, says elders have told her about an "urgent and pressing need" for youth to reconnect with Inuit traditions — and even simple acts can carry a greater significance.

"When you're learning how to make kamiks (boots) or learning how to clean a seal skin, there's an amazing feeling of pride," she said.

For years, Dean says the Kivalliq Inuit Association has run grief and loss workshops for elders and youth, who camp out on the land. 

"I remember it was so powerful to..." Dean began, before breaking down in tears. 

"One of the young men [at the camp], he was about 16 or 17, had lost his father to suicide a year or two before," Dean remembered. 

She described how elders instructed the teenager to lie down alone on the floor of the tent and allow himself to connect with his feelings. 

The small act made a big difference.

"That time I think was his first opportunity to deal with his grief and loss," she testified. "He had to release it."

"When I see that young man, I am always grateful. He is a capable young man now."

The federal government provided stable multi-year funding for several years, Dean said. But now, the association needs to write proposals and funding applications annually. 

It's a process Dean said "is like moving a mountain."

Solutions 'by Inuit, for Inuit'

Since Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada announced funding cuts to aboriginal organizations in September 2012, Jason Tologanak, who works with the Kitikmeot Inuit Assocation, said Inuit were hit especially hard. 

Tologanak told the inquest about KIA's suicide prevention events and Inuit language revitalization programs, which he said are making a difference.

But if it only had more money, Tologanak said his organization could do so much more.

"Suicide is everyone's issue," he testified. "[Youth should know] thinking these things is normal." 

He argued that the territorial government and non-profit organizations can help, but the most effective programs will always be those made "by Inuit, for Inuit."

Inuit life plagued by 'dysfunction, fear'

Politician Jack Anawak agreed, testifying that — prior to settlement and the introduction of Southern social workers and mental health experts — elders had important roles as advisors.

"We need wise elders in front of these young people in classrooms."

Anawak, who is a residential school survivor, told the inquest that assimilation has replaced the traditional Inuit values of perseverance, always moving forward and never giving up, with "disorder, confusion, dysfunction and fear."

Inuit should not rely on the government to make the changes necessary to deal with this pressing issue, he argued, saying the "shocking non-involvement and disinterest" among those in power is "unbelievable."

When the inquest resumes today, lawyers for every partner in the Nunavut Suicide Prevention Strategy will get the chance to make their final arguments, before jurors begin the substantial task of recommending how future deaths by suicide can be prevented.