Hunter Training
Prior to European contact virtually all Inuit male were hunters. Today there are fewer hunters than in the past because of the major changes in their lifestyles have undergone. These changes have caused a transformation in the aspirations of the youth. The southern schooling system which was forced upon the Inuit over the past 40 years has greatly influenced the youth. Having been taken out of a hunting environment, which was the educational milieu of the past, many of the young people have not had the opportunity, and in some cases no the interest to learn the skills of the hunter.

"In Dorset over 60% of the young men don't and can't hunt."

"The second year I was in school in Yellowknife I returned to Coral Harbour and went fishing with Dad. He didn't like it when I got an earache and backache, plus, on the way back he shot a baby seal and its eyes were open and I started crying. Now I love it. When I was a teenager, hunting and eating seal wasn't a cool thing to do."

"I was taught to hunt when I was thirteen years old because I was the eldest child, my younger brother was never taught to hunt."

"Older people sometimes teach how to build an igloo in the culture course at school. We have learned about hunting and land skills but we don't really know how to do it. We could if we wanted to go out on our own and keep practicing.
"In the late eighteen-hundreds the youth did everything their parents said to do, not now. We're in the nineties right! And we want to go crazy and wild!"

"I get out on the land only about two or three times a year, I don't have any equipment and it costs a lot of money to get it. Big families don't have enough room on their komatik or in their boat to take the entire family on the land."

"I love to go fishing, but I am always left behind because I have two young girls."

Despite the fact that today fewer teenagers are interested in learning to hunt, there still are some young people who are keen on learning the skills. Manu Inuit are not interested in hunting until later in life. This may be a reflection of the fact that Inuit defer to their elders for decisions. The way decisions are made influence the informal economy by limiting the available resources at specific times.

"There are always a few children who go out hunting with their father. Often the best hunters are also the most competent wage earners, they use their wages to hunt on the weekends."

"To be a good hunter you have to hang out with the pros and do what they do, watch them and talk to the elders, listen to anything to do with hunting. The most important thing is to be interested in hunting. Anyone who has the interest and the drive to think like an animal can learn to hunt. Interest is the most important factor. Some people start and after awhile say it's not for me. Most people hunt, shoot, get a few, and that's it. Others are aware of the weather, snow, animals, what's around them, they are really a hunter. Those are the people I want the HTA to help. I want to keep that professional hunter alive. The elders may be counted as hunters but they don't go out anymore."

"I see a small group of young people, my generation and younger, who want to hunt like my grandfather did. Some of the up and coming hunters want to use new technology. Today we need to talk to the young kids. They need to pick up the skills different from the historical skills. Some young people spend too much time in the gym and need to learn hunting skills. Just wait until they're older and get more mature and interested in learning how to hunt.
"In Inuktuit [this term can encompass Inuit culture as well as language] many people are late bloomers. They are ready for knowledge later in life, when they lose their parents but rarely before. In our EuroCanadian culture we kick our children out of the nest early. In Inuktutit that is not the case. Usually Inuit make decisions when they are forced to do so, including hunting decisions, not until their parents die do they make these decisions.

"If all twenty year olds were hunting as hard a 40 and 50-year olds, we would have big problems. There are different life stages, hunting decisions are made later in life. One Inuit left town when he was in his late teens and traveled around, returning years later. He is now hunting on a full time basis."

Counsellors

Inuit help to satisfy the social needs of their community by using local specialists who are known as excellent counsellors with different types of expertise.

Counsellors include volunteers who put pressure on their peers to lead an improved life, counsel marital problems, help young offenders, and counsel substance abusers. These individuals contribute significantly to the quality of life in the community by providing free counselling services within the Inuit cultural context.

Peer pressure and Enforcement Agencies
Volunteer peer pressure is used for a variety of issues and has recently helped improve health conditions in individual homes in the community.

"There was a lot of talk about anti-smoking on the radio and in the community, and the community members gave each other heck about smoking at meetings. By using the community support the Health Committee promoted non-smoking successfully."

Traditionally, communities held the responsibility for maintaining a peaceful and safe environment. These peacekeeping responsibilities have shifted over to the RCMP.

"In the nineteen-seventies a drunk was dressed up in caribou skin clothing, lashed to a komatik, taken out on the ice in the dark, and told not to move, they'd be back to pick him up tomorrow. Now the Baffin Correctional Centre is set up as a place for people who threaten the safety of the community."

Support for formal enforcement agencies is needed to reinforce socially acceptable forms of behaviour.

"In Cape Dorset today, the youth are between two cultures, they have no stability. They are on the streets and into drugs and booze. They sleep in the day and miss most of their schooling. If the community would get together and support the RCMP then the town would be cleaned up."

"There is excessive charging of assault and abuse among the Inuit; because of all the intervention by whites the Inuit are not accepting responsibility. The RCMP are enforcers of the social system, whereas the Social Services should be the developers of the social systems. Wildlife officers are likewise enforcers rather than developers of society."

Inuit counsellors work closely with the law enforcement officers in order to counsel young offenders.

Educators: Traditional and Formal

Community leaders emphasize the need for individuals to feel responsible for their children's education and to voluntarily contribute to their education by influencing the curriculum using a variety of means.

"School teachers teach vocabulary rather than lifeways, which include skills, values and family ways of Inuit. 'Inuktitut' does not refer to the language, it is a lifestyle. When the elders ask for Inuktitut to be taught in the schools they are not asking for the language to be taught but rather for the Inuit life skills and philosophies to be taught. Inuit teachers in the school teach the language, not live the Inuit lifeways or culture."

"When there was a problem child in school, the parents were told by the teachers that their child has a behaviourial problem, and that they have to deal with the child and correct the problem. The parents responded by saying that it was the school's problem, they had taken away their children, that the parents can't take the children out on the land and hence can't teach them, they are no longer responsible for their children. The government has taken from the parents their ability and responsibility to teach."

"Pudlat School is taught in Inuktitut up to Grade 4. On Cultural Day parents came in and made presentations on culture, everything from string games, stories, old tools (how they were made and used), to taking children on dog-team trips around the town. All the parents were volunteers, it really brought the people together, it helps the parents being in school with them."

Midwives
Midwives contribute to the informal economy by improving the quality of life during childbirth for some Inuit families. They are also important in extending the system of community sharing.

"Midwives bond with the children, they assist at birth and with the families for life. These are sharing relationships, it is an obligation of the parents to give gifts to the midwives continually throughout life and vice versa, similar to a godparent in the Christian religion, but much stronger. A male child gives his first kill to his midwife, a female child gives her first sewn object to her midwife. Parents and midwives often share babysitting, exchange houses, etc. Without local births these relationships are destroyed. Name giving and the ties between relations are also destroyed by sending women out to give birth in hospitals."

"There are midwives in Pond Inlet. As many women as can will have their babies by midwives rather than leave their family and give birth in the South."

"When my wife gave birth, her sister went to help her. There used to be midwives; however, none are practicing any more because Paloosie passed away two years ago. Paloosie also gave medical advice. Some women act as support to women who are giving birth; all women are given this volunteer support."

"The local midwife is used sometimes in the prenatal classes. This woman is in her mid fifties and an expert in childbirth."

Volunteers
Volunteer work provides a significant contribution to the quality of life in each community. The types of services, skills, and goods provided voluntarily vary between the smaller and larger communities.

"In Iqaluit, once a year, there is a sign-up list for volunteers for cross-country skiing, volleyball, basketball, badminton, gymnastic society, swimming, hockey, baseball, curling, Boy Scouts, Girl Guides, and theater groups."

Residents of Baffin Correctional Institute contribute voluntarily to community activities.

"Offenders all have to pick a job to do; jobs include town crews, food preparation, laundry, clean up, and floor waxing. With the Land Program, country food killed by offenders is given to the HTA and then delivered by the inmates to elders and widows in the community, and is used for special feasts. With the Work Release Program prisoners can work outside during the day. Town crews do a variety of volunteer type work including digging graves, cleaning up town, snow removal at public places, moving chairs for special events, setting up tents, preparing for Canada Day, Tunik Tymes, Christmas Festivals and other large events. During the food fair at Tunik Tymes. They wore white uniforms and said they felt terrific, loved the work and status. During spring clean-up they prepare hot dogs for the school children who clean up around the school. Offenders made ice sculptures for the town; the spirit in BCC was marvelous, they loved it. It is easy to get volunteers, they like doing it and feel good about themselves and what they are doing for the community. We always have enough volunteers and never had a problem."

Search and Rescue teams are supported with volunteers from the community, including the Baffin Correctional Institute.

"The Land Program officer and two to three inmates go out to help search for lost travelers on the land"