The family life of the Inuit has been radically altered

With the meeting of the White people, the Inuit people have suffered a cultural upheaval that has questioned their ancestral traditions. Over the last sixty years, the Nunavik Inuit have been facing an unprecedented historical development. The provision of family-centered care would likely build more effective and supportive relationships with women experiencing domestic violence. Education, compassion and service is the way to promote values. Education with cultural sensitivity is the most powerful tool there is.




Children, mothers and communities are the object of this project No Child Should Have to Take the Long Way Home.  After all, every child is born with the right to have a better chance at a life free from abuse and violence. 

Children belong to their family and their community

Children belong to their family and their community. When they are removed not only from their families, but from their community, children lose out on being raised by their own families, in their own communities. As a result, there are increased numbers of Inuit children in child and foster care. 

Their traditional family values

The traditional family model in the Inuit culture promoted the patriarchal pattern of relations within the family and continues to be one of the reasons why women have difficulty in the sphere of decision-making.

The will to assimilate Indigenous children into the dominant culture

Moreover, the removal of children into residential schools removed them from the influence of their communities, their families and their traditions. From the various testimonies Commission of Truth and Reconciliation, it is clear that was wanted was to dissociate them from their culture to integrate them by assimilation into the dominant culture. Unfortunately, the consequences of the life they had in residential schools have been passed on the intergenerational level.

Families were prevented from teaching their children

The feeling of isolation attributed to the location of the schools as well as the lack of direct interaction with other community members prevented the family from teaching their children how to interact, how to behave and communicate with members of their community creating an almost irreconcilable clash of cultures among family members.

The children could not be protected from the dangers they met in residential schools

The families could not protect their children from the dangers they met in residential schools and work camps. The physical and emotional risks associated to poverty, violence and isolation, the lack of resources, the stress encountered in these surroundings lead to depression that contributed to the transmission of the chain of violence, dependence and mental health issues they face nowadays. Considered the most efficient way to give children born in primitive societies a civilized Christian education was deemed necessary to prepare them for the white man’s economy.

Due to these circumstances, the children, separated from their families and dissuaded from speaking their native languages and practicing their culture, were unable to learn trust as they did not benefit from a safe environment to explore.

Time to restore pride and honour

Among the various testimonies on the Commission of Truth and Reconciliation, the loss of their mother tongue and cultural rituals and traditions contributed to their feeling ashamed of their traditional way of life, and many acquired disdain for their parents and their culture for which they later felt guilt and shame.

The long-term consequences of residential schools or camps

These circumstances currently have devastating long-term consequences on three or four generations of residential school survivors struggling with serious problems of alienation.

Moreover, the settlement into permanent facilities has caused major economic and sociocultural effects that have radically altered the family life of the Inuit. Their living conditions have been seriously altered and this has created new needs.

Wanting to understand women

Today Inuit families develop around a center with multiple institutions perceived as necessary for their daily lives-nursing, hospital, food store, day care, schools. The entrance of young mothers in the work market has modified their life conditions and contributes equally to the instability of couples.
Before, the men used to work and provide for their family while the women handled domestic and family work and raised the children.

A young Inuk woman among my contacts said this to me: “You came here to understand women…so many live with violence…If you speak of Inuit women, you speak of battered women. Many hold their tongue because they are scared. But if no one speaks of it, it will not go away. There is no available solution if it is not spoken about »

All must adapt to their contemporary context

All the Inuit must feel that problems in families are a matter that concerns them. The lives of families must be geared toward their well-being and adapted to their contemporary context. Their actions must try to resolve societal problems of addiction, suicide, sexual abuse of children and determine the contents of their education.

Education is a key to understanding and change

Workshops, awareness campaigns on best educational practices demand extensive culturally sensitive knowledge to examine new family realities in order to answer the real needs of the Inuit. The analysis of their social and ethical issues in the face of a changing family structure must emphasize the importance of preserving and reinforcing their truly distinctive identity, a sought-after family legacy with its unique scope of expression, values and characteristics.

Family strengthening programs must be developed to ensure that children have access to essential services, to support families to protect and to care for their children. Support systems must be enhanced  as well  to assist vulnerable children and their families within the community.

It is the wish of the Inuit parents to play a fuller and more influential role with their children.

No Child Should Have to Take the Long Way Home is a grassroot initiative to help children in need of loving care, of a protective and stable environment to meet their basic needs in a safe house in their own community.