Inuit youth learn about safe sex and self-respect

KUUJJUAQ – When Sevim Ilgun of Quaqtaq puts on a clunky-looking pair of thick-lensed glasses, her world immediately goes topsy-turvy.

It's impossible to find anything, and she has a hard time picking up the wrapped condom lying on the table.

The so-called "beer goggles," part of a display at the recent Inuit Youth Sexual Health Conference in Kuujjuaq, are made to show teens how alcohol or drugs affect the senses and alter even the best of intentions for practicing safe sex.

Nearly 30 youth from Nunatsiavut, Nunavik and Nunavut attended Pauktuutit's first Inuit youth sexual health conference, held Feb. 23-26 at Kuujjuaq's Kaittitavik town hall.

All but two of the participants were female.

Speakers included throat-singer, artist and 2008 national aboriginal role model, Jenny Williams, originally from Happy Valley-Goose Bay in Labrador.

Williams, 27, slim and small, with long reddish hair and tattooed arms, is a mother, like some of the other young female participants at the conference.

For her presentation to the group, Williams gives a slide show in which the message is "do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

Some of the teenaged males who were supposed to attend the conference preferred to participate in Junior Ranger activities rather than go to the meeting, which was organized by the national Inuit women's association.

"I wish men would get more involved in sexual health," says Jordan Lyall, 17, a student at Cambridge Bay's Kiilinik High School. "And I wish more men would be involved with women's organizations."

Lyall, who has attended other meetings organized by Pauktuutit, may have been in the minority at the conference, but he was happy to have made the long trip to Kuujjuaq.

Lyall says he's "really passionate" about improving sexual health among young Inuit. He's thinking about a career in sex education as a way to continue his personal stand against people who say youth are too immature to take some control over what they chose to do.

As Lyall speaks slowly, as if measuring his words, he seems much older than his years.

Lyall credits his own openness and knowledge about sex to his curious nature and his mother's frankness in talking to him about sex when he was younger.

Sex isn't just about the physical urges, but love, says Lyall, who has a serious girlfriend.

"Making love is the most beautiful thing I've tried," he says.

Although Lyall thinks asking teens to remain celibate until marriage is unrealistic, he says he's doesn't tell anyone to have sex – a common complaint received by sex educators who are accused of encouraging sexual activity by providing information.

"Am I encouraging people to have sex? Everything in life is a choice. I never tell people to have sex."

What Lyall wants, is for youth to develop a healthy understanding of the body and mind, so that they don't grow up thinking sex is bad or that some activities are unnatural.

"But if they feel uncomfortable, don't do it" is Lyall's advice.

Lyall tries not to be judgmental and, at the same time, provides lots of information. In Cambridge Bay he regularly speaks to school classes about sexual health.

At the sexual health conference, participants discussed "decision-making and healthy sexual health" and "decision-making and healthy relationships." They also practiced sharing what they learned with classes at Kuujjuaq's Jaanimmarik School.

And while the conference's man-sized yellow condom costume got lots of laughs, the impact of poor sexual health in Inuit regions is no joke.

Statistics Canada data from 2005 suggests many boys and girls have sex by age 14 or 15, and many become teen parents.

A sexually active teenaged girl who does not use contraceptives has a 90 per cent chance of becoming pregnant within a year and may end up with chlamydia, gonorrhea or some other sexually transmitted infection.

In Nunavut, teen pregnancy and STI rates exceed Canada's national averages and "continue to have devastating health and social consequences – particularly for Inuit girls and women," according to research by Iqaluit doctor Madeline Cole.

The teen pregnancy rate in Nunavut is more than five times the national average.

Nunavik also has high rates of teen pregnancies, its 2004 Qanuippitaa health study found. Eight per cent of births in Nunavik are from women under age 18, a rate 10 times greater than Quebec's provincial rate.

High STIs and teen pregnancy rates among Inuit would indicate "a grave potential for entry and spread of Hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS, the most deadly of STI's, " says a 2004 report, "Teenage pregnancy in Inuit communities," prepared for Pauktuutit.

As for the impact of the sexual health conference, Geri Bailey, the manager of health policy and programs at Pauktuutit, says knowledge is power.

Bailey says it's too early to gauge the success of this first conference, but that participants now have new skills to take back to their communities.

And they're already asking for a similar conference in the future, Bailey says.