Music star Susan Aglukark uses song to kick off conference on child sexual abuse

An Ottawa conference on child sex abuse prevention among Canada's Inuit population kicked off with some star power on Tuesday, as Inuk singer-songwriter and triple-Juno Award winner Susan Aglukark shared her own story as a survivor of abuse.

The two-day event at the Wabano Centre has brought together about 100 people, including experts, community representatives and survivors of abuse from the across the North as well as northern Quebec, Labrador and Greenland.

Organized by the national Inuit group Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), the conference is the first of its kind. It's part of the 2016 National Inuit Suicide Prevention Strategy, which identified the close link between suicide and child sexual abuse trauma.

Experts at the conference suggest the prevalence of abuse is higher than the general Canadian population, highlighting the results of the 2007-08 Inuit Health Survey, which found 52 per cent of women and 22 per cent of men reported having experienced "severe sexual abuse" during childhood.

"If we are to reduce suicidal behaviour, we have to identify and address risk factors that are uncomfortable to confront," said ITK president Natan Obed, who addressed the conference first.

"We owe it to our children to discuss the situation in all its complexity."

Aglukark's story

Aglukark gave the keynote speech, sometimes singing her own songs to illustrate her story — how she overcame abuse at the age of eight by a family friend, and the ongoing struggle that followed her to adulthood. 

"Although we had won the case, he served less time than it took to get the conviction," Aglukark said, explaining how her abuser returned to her tiny community, where she bumped into him constantly.

Meanwhile, there were few resources for victims of violence, she said.

"You don't feel like you've won anything," she said. "There was no alternative, there was nothing else to do but to leave and start over — whatever starting over meant."

The fight for resources continues today, with the Nunavut government struggling to get treatment and services into all of its communities.

'Heart-wrenching' choices

The deputy minister of Family Services for the Nunavut government, Yvonne Niego, said she grapples with having to make choices between big-ticket items, such as providing adequate housing — which is also linked to safer living situations.

"It's heart-wrenching knowing the needs in the community and doing your best to try to make things happen in the community," said Niego, who, as a former RCMP officer, undertook interviews with child victims throughout her career.

"It puts you in a difficult situation when you can't make things happen."

The conference is paid for out of ITK's National Inuit Suicide Prevention Strategy, using some of the strategy's one-time $9 million in federal funding, which runs out next year. 

The conference will flag new policy solutions that organizers hope warrant continued federal funding beyond next year.

'Money well spent'

Psychiatrist Allison Crawford at Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health said spending on more resources is money well spent, since childhood trauma is linked to costly negative social and health outcomes. 

"Now that we know that link, we really need to find ways to intervene early," said Crawford, who shared some of her experiences working with communities.

"If we intervene early, then we stand to prevent all of the long-term consequences, and it's a public health crisis and that money would absolutely be well spent."

Aglukark said the solutions lie in an Inuit approach to solutions — in her case, using music and culture — and she continues to find her way.

"But it's not finished."