Effective northern #mental #health strategy must include #housing @northernpa #NWTpoli #NWT @leonaaglukkaq #CDNpoli

[@northernpa excerpt]
http://www.northernpublicaffairs.ca/index/christensen-an-effective-northern-mental-health-strategy-must-include-housing/
"...

Christensen: An effective northern mental health strategy must include housing

Posted by Julia Christensen on May 25, 2012 in Articles, Economy, Health

Guest contributor Julia Christensen on why housing should be a priority if Canada's national mental health strategy is to be effective.

The recent release of a national mental health strategy by the federal government was largely praised in the Canadian North, where mental health is highlighted by health care practitioners, front line workers, and NGOs alike as an urgent, and fundamental, area of concern that is inextricably tied to social cohesion and community wellbeing.

In the Northwest Territories (NWT), we now wait with baited breath for the announcement of a territorial mental health strategy, something that GNWT Health Minister Tom Beaulieu has promised will be tabled in the next legislative sitting. Beaulieu has hinted that the new plan will address key gaps in services to small communities as well as the lack of a treatment facility geared specifically towards promoting mental health. These same gaps have been illustrated in several recent studies on northern health services, as well as in my own research on homelessness and northern housing insecurity. While Beaulieu has mentioned some important gaps that the strategy will aim to address, housing must also feature front and centre in his Department's vision for promoting mental health in the territory.

---

In 2007, I began a four-year doctoral research project on homelessness in two northern urban centres: Inuvik and Yellowknife. The project, and resulting thesis, is titled Homeless in a homeland: housing insecurity and homelessness in Inuvik and Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.

While the initial focus was to understand the factors contributing to visible homelessness in those two communities, this study also shed significant light upon what is taking place in other northern communities, the reason being that many (the majority, in fact) of homeless men and women in both locales call other, smaller northern communities 'home'. Not only did this study illustrate the rural-urban geographies of northern homelessness, it also exposed a common relationship between collective and personal traumas and homelessness in individual experiences. Overwhelmingly, homeless men and women linked their experiences with homelessness to residential school and its intergenerational impacts, apprehension by the child welfare system, or domestic violence....."

RT @northern_clips: Effective northern mental health strategy must include housing http://t.co/NMVSuytv

'White guilt' helps finance independent films - Dennis Allen offers advice for budding Northern filmmakers

Dennis Allen's apology for his White quilt News North July 26 2010 column ©2010

'White guilt' helps finance independent films
Dennis Allen offers advice for budding Northern filmmakers
Published in the Northern News Services' News/North - Northwest Territories Volume 65 Issue 14 Monday, July 26, 2010 Page # 17 Click on image to enlarge

Antoine Mountain's take on Dennis' column
Columnist should apologize for comments

Antoine Mountain
Guest columnist
Monday, August 9, 2010

[excerpt]
Friends, I would like to respond to the minor uproar that has resulted from a totally insensitive column recently written by filmmaker Dennis Allen. 'White Guilt helps finance independent films (News/North, July 26).
I also agree with Patrick Kane's letter to the editor about this issue, and I apologize to anyone in an official position who has had to deal with some of our First Nations people possibly misusing government funds, and in this case even seeming to brag about it. When I contacted Mr. Allen about this he stated his article was meant as a satire. Now I have been doing my own "A Mountain View" for more than five years, through the good graces of News/North and I take whatever I have to say very seriously so have always tried to keep the reader in mind, even when playing devil's advocate at times.
It is necessary in print to try to get and keep the reader's attention, but not at the expense of hurting people in some way, or as with this our First Nations' causes.

Full text available here

#Inuit #Circumpolar Council acclaims new leader, 63 yr elder & former chairperson

[excerpts]

NEWS: Around the Arctic July 01, 2010 - 11:54 am
Inuit Circumpolar Council acclaims new leader
ICC general assembly gives "unanimous consent" to Aqqaluk Lynge
NUNATSIAQ NEWS

[...]

According to an ICC biography, Lynge started his professional career as a social worker after graduating from the National Danish School of Social Work in 1976.

For several years, he was a radio broadcaster, until he entered Greenland politics.

Lynge, one of the founders of the Inuit Ataqatigiit Party, was first elected to the Greenland parliament in 1983 and has served as a member of parliament and as a minister of various portfolios.

Lynge is also an author, having written books of poetry and essays, and has also contributed to several works and anthologies written in the English, Greenlandic, French and Nordic languages.

Lynge was instrumental in bringing Russian Inuit into the ICC family when, as early as 1985, he travelled to Moscow in the former Soviet Union to lobby for their inclusion into ICC.

Lynge is a member of the United Nations Forum on Indigenous Issues.

He lives in Nuuk, Greenland with his Erna and their two children.

Speaking to the ICC meeting on June 1, Lynge vowed to help Inuit realize their destiny.

“Our destiny is in our hands,” he said, outlining his vision of a future with healthy and happy children, clean water, respected and involved elders, “a modest and sustainable economy,” and a “strong social fabric.”

Lynge called on Inuit to ensure that companies who want to develop Arctic resources keep the environment clean, train local workers and respect Inuit rights. He urged everyone to make sure their political leaders develop projects that are “good for Inuit.”

As Lynge finished speaking, he thanked his family, who joined him on stage, and then invited everyone in the assembly to hold hands.

“We stand together now…let’s take our hands and be given strength… we are Inuit and we will always be there.”

Before the assembly ended, Mary Simon, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, received the Bill Edmunds award, the highest award ICC hands out during its general assemblies.

ICC meets again in 2014 in Canada.

As one of its last orders of business, delegates at the ICC assembly also passed the Nuuk Declaration, which outlines its objectives for the next four years.

Quoted from the Nuk Declaration:

"...Recognizing that universal human rights instruments including the rights of indigenous peoples worldwide, including those of Inuit are still not fully acknowledged nor implemented and Inuit must continue to work alongside others to achieve the goal of full recognition of Inuit rights;
Noting the recent increased developments at the international level affecting Inuit, and the rapid and exponential growth of interest and external activity in the Arctic by powerful states, industry, researchers, and special interests over the past four years will undoubtedly continue and will require considerable attention and vigilance from ICC into the next four years;
Recognizing the disaster unfolding from off-shore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and further recognizing the fragility of the Arctic environment and how any significant oil spill would be catastrophic for Inuit and finally that resource extraction industries are increasingly aiming to exploit offshore and onshore resource development:...:

Read the full Nuuk Declaration, posted below by NUNATSIAQ NEWS:
Nuuk 2010 Declaration

Arctic Film Festival Nominations

 North House Folk School [ http://www.northhouse.org ] has issued the followingcall for film nominations:

>Arctic Film Festival Nominations
>
>Greetings,
>
>I write from the North House Folk School here in Grand Marais, Minnesota (USA), aspiring to connect with a variety of Arctic related organizations as we are now accepting nominations for this year's Arctic Film Festival.
>
>The Arctic Film Festival is in its 5th year and has been the fulcrum that's connected our educational mission for teaching traditional northern crafts (www.northhouse.org), independent film makers, and Arctic research organizations and individuals with a focus on traditional circumpolar cultures, the arctic environment and the historical landscape of the Arctic.
>
>Attached is a nomination form, in the event that you or your organization has a film that you would recommend for a screening.
>
>If you have questions or would like to learn more about the nominating process, don't hesitate to ask or call.
>
>Best regards,
>Scott Pollock, Program Director
>
>- - - - - - - - - - - - -
>Scott Pollock, Program Director
>North House Folk School
>PO Box 759 - 500 W Hwy 61
>Grand Marais, MN   55604
>Phone: 218-387-9762
>Fax:   218-387-9706
>E-mail: spollock@northhouse.org
>Web:  http://www.northhouse.org
>

Winterer's Gathering & Arctic Film Festival
November 19-22, 2009

>
>The North House Folk School, an educational non-profit organization located in Grand Marais, Minnesota, USA, is now accepting film  screening nominations for the Winterer's Gathering & Arctic Film Festival. This multi-day educational event is a celebration of the crafts, customs, landscape, history and stories of winter travel and traditional lifeways in the north. Winter travel enthusiasts and northern culture admirers merge on the North House campus for four days of winter travel seminars, courses and workshops complemented by a number of inspiring thought-provoking international films about life in the arctic.

>The aim of the Arctic Film Festival is to celebrate the traditions, customs and lifeways in the circumpolar global arctic region represented in the media arts. The nomination process for Arctic Film Festival seeks to establish a network of arctic enthusiasts, organizations, businesses and film makers interested in arctic education, travel, history, art and culture. Connecting the film audience to the film makers to the educators promoting the films is a key element of the Arctic Film Festival.

>The Arctic Film Festival is a non-competitive, non-cash awarding festival. An independent committee reviews films and screening selections will be based upon distributor's consent and the overall content as it relates to the category in which it was nominated.

>As a non-profit educational organization and in respect to the non-competitive educational atmosphere North House wishes to instill, the film festival aspires to screen up to eight films related to the following categories:
>Environment – This category includes films that reflect on the arctic natural environment.
>Ethno-Historical – Films that reflect on the cultural landscape of the arctic region and the peoples who inhabit that region.
>Expedition – Films that relate to adventure travel expeditions.
>Shelter, Clothing, Food – Films that specifically address traditional arctic shelter, clothing and foodways.

>As part of the nominating process, individuals and/or your organizations are asked to:
>1. Nominate up to three films to be shown at the festival.
>2. Provide information about your organization or agency as it relates to the films nominated.
>3. Provide source information for obtaining the film, including key contacts such as director, filmmakers, producers, etc for screening rights and distribution
>4. If available, provide film information that includes availability of film, length of film, format of film (35mm, DVD, video cassette, etc.) and a brief summary of the film.
>5. Submit film nominations no later than October 1, 2009 using enclosed film nomination form. Fax, e-mail, or direct mail is acceptable.

>If you or your organization have any questions regarding the Winterer's Gathering & Arctic Film Festival, or specific questions related to the Film Festival, please contact Program Director, Scott Pollock, at North House Folk School.

You do not need to be in attendance for your nomination to be considered. Nominations will be considered by an independent committee by October 30, 2009 and screened during the Festival dates.