Preventing the Crisis:
Violence Faced by Indigenous and Inuit Women
During the past several months we’ve been provided the opportunity to partner with a Women’s Organization called Saturviit Inuit Women’s Association of Nanavik. Saturvitt is a non profit organization whose mandate is to advocate for Inuit women and children and support positive and healthy communities.
For those who don’t know, the word meaning of Saturviit, the root word, “satuq” means regaining what one has lost. Saturvitt is the plural and thus signifies “those who regain what was lost” symbolizing hope of a return of those aspects of a culture that we may think lost, a return to the Inuit way of doing things and pride in Inuit identity.
The task of Saturiviit is truly meaningful and very empowering. This organization is directed by Inuit Community Members, who have one goal, to support Inuit Women and children. The commitment this outstanding organization brings to thirteen Inuit Communities throughout Northern PQ , is nothing less than amazing. A commitment that will, and has brought change to many women and children living in these far north regions of Canada.
Pilot Project Development Plan:
To create a culturally sensitive, accessible, and impactful educational format tailored specifically for Inuit women to understand and address the dynamics of family violence, including the cycle of Intimate Partner Violence experienced by nearly 70% of Inuit women. Our mandate was also to provide reality fact-based information on ways to reduce or prevent sexual assault, a crime that has reportedly impacted close to 50% of Inuit Women! Based on the fact that less than 33% of sexual assaults are reported to law enforcement, you can now see the true impact this crime has on the women and children within these Inuit Communities.
As we began to meet and speak with community women, it became clear that our mandate needed to be expanded to cover a subject surrounding an element of Anti-Social Behaviour. Bullying!
Bullying is physical, mental, or socially threatening behaviour that includes threats, exclusion, verbal and physical abuse. Unlike harassment, which includes unwelcome behaviour that offends, humiliates, or intimidates a person. Harassment can be an element of bullying, harassment can be a one-off conflict, or it can happen between strangers. If these behaviours happen only once, its not bullying. Behaviour that involves conflict between equals, no matter how inappropriate, is also not considered bullying.
Bullying is a crime of domination of others and it’s committed by an aggressor to improve their own social status. Often times low self-esteem or a wanting to feel better about themselves, have a lack of remorse, or failure to recognize what causes their behaviour. Other causes include feeling angry, frustrated, or jealous of the victim. Often times the aggressor was a victim of experienced bullying themselves. Something else became very apparent to us as well during our conversation with Community Members, the need to understand the causes of Social Violent interaction and to provide a better and safer way of handling these potentially explosive social disagreements.
Reality Based Violence Prevention:
During our interview stage with Satriviit, we learned we were one of three “Self Defence” companies or individuals who had been requested to meet with the directors of this amazing organization and share with them why Street Safe Self Defence Training Company, should be the developers, trainers and educators for this very critical project. Our company, from its beginning, has taken a view on violence prevention and self-defence that many competitors within our Industry just don’t seem to understand. Rather than believing physical skills are the only answer, which it is not, especially when working with women and youth. Street Safe has taken a look at the psychology of violence, why it occurs, and what potential victims of violence can due to empower themselves to prevent falling into these situations or stop it from happening. Understanding violence is not difficult, preventing violence and understanding our own ego, however, can be. This failure, we believe, is the reason so many of our competitors within the self-defence industry are being negligent with the information and training they provide. When it comes to the physical skills we teach, we understand there is a disadvantage to teaching martial arts-based tactics to clients who will undoubtedly face an aggressor who is bigger, stronger and in many cases faster than the victim. Another issue that surrounds many Womens Self Defence programs is the lack of understanding who their aggressor is. Most will teach fear based responses that women need to be afraid of the stranger waiting behind a bush or the corner of a building, when in fact their greatest threat will come from individuals they know and in some cases the person they share their own bed with.
In developing this project, we needed to look deeply into the dynamics of family violence, relationship control, and the emotional power dynamics surrounding relationship violence. The effects of years of this abuse on the victim and the inability it creates in the victim to stop it, or worse defend against it if they must. Then understanding the lack of socially available assistance within these remote communities, which includes the lack of women’s shelters, the lack of availability to the court systems and proper representation, and the fact that most Inuit and Indigenous people are over-represented in the justice system and the systemic racism, over-policing and experiences with police misconduct they face within their communities. As well as being aware and mindful of the issue facing alcohol addiction and how alcohol is often blamed as the cause of much of the violence women and children are exposed to within these communities.
Unrolling The Project
During the month of January 2025, we had our first experience in providing a program that was in development for close to 6 months. We attended two Northern Communities, Puvirnituq a community with a population of 2100 people, located on the Povungnituk River and the shores of Hudson Bay and Kuujjuaq, a former Hudson’s Bay Company outpost at the mouth of the Koksoak (Kok meaning big and soak, meaning river) on Ungava Bay.
During the next several weeks and months we will be attending several other Norther Inuit Communities bringing an understanding, awareness and preventative measures to change the cycle of violence far too many Inuit and Indigenous women face.
We will be actively involved with Satriviit in the near future, ensuring the understanding of this culturally accepted violence is challenged. All of our work is important and vital for peoples safety and well being, however, there was something that hit both Beth and I during our travels through the North. This undertaking will take years before changes occur, however, if we make the difference in the lives of one women, at each session, then the changes will start and the end will become that much closer. We have said it over and over again.. Changing and Empowering Lives, one person at a time.
I will be following this blog up with updates with our experiences as we continue our work within these Inuit Communities. Oh, I forgot something, we had a gift brought to us during one of our training sessions, a cut from a recently taken Caribou. Guess what, we ate as its meant to be enjoyed within the Inuit culture… raw.
