"Creating a Framework for the Wisdom of the Community:" Review of Victim Services in Nunavut, Northwest and Yukon Territories

3.0 Northwest Territories (cont'd)

3.0 Northwest Territories (cont'd)

3.2 Services Available in Northwest Territories Communities (cont'd)

3.2.2 Inventory Findings

Details regarding each service interviewed for this research can be found in Victim Services in the Territories: A Compilation of Contacts and Resources." Insights interviewees shared regarding successes and obstacles to service provision can be found in the following sections of this chapter. Their recommendations for service provision to victimized people can be found at the end of this chapter. In addition, many respondents shared their understanding of informal and traditional ways of dealing with victims.

Traditional and Existing Informal Victims Services in Northwest Territories

The purpose of gathering information on traditional First nations, Métis and Inuit ways of dealing with victimization is to explore approaches that may have worked in the past, and that therefore might be built into the design of any new victim-centred services. The purpose of gathering information on current informal ways of dealing with victims is to understand how gaps in contemporary formal services are being addressed. Given the degree of need, and the competing demands for limited resources, it is important to learn from, and to build on, the informal supports that have worked in the past, and continue to work in the present.

The information in this section is based on interviews with Territorial First Nations. Métis and Inuit people, most of whom are currently key service providers in NWT. Their names are among those listed in Appendix A. Other respondents include women who were, or are, victims of interpersonal violence. The largest group of respondents are those community-based service providers contacted during the inventory of NWT service providers (see Appendix B).[82]

Traditional Approaches to Dealing With Victims in Northwest Territories[83]

There are a variety of opinions regarding the extent to which the victimized people of northern Canada were supported and assisted in traditional times, prior to the advent of colonial intrusion in the mid-1800s. Some respondents, referring to both Inuvialuit and Dene customs, say that women were traditionally treated with respect and that any abuse would meet with the disapproval of her family and the elders. Others say that wife assault, sexual assault and child abuse was not acknowledged by the wider group and victims had to cope on their own.

It is widely understood that the various Dene tribes throughout the Mackenzie valley area, known traditionally as Denendeh, had their own system of law and dispute resolution, which included honouring one’s relatives and protecting them from harm. And it is also known that elders, spiritual leaders and medicine people played an important mediation, support and directional role within each tribal group. A few respondents stated that it was the role of the senior men, fathers and older brothers, to address the issue of violence against the women in their family.

However, some respondents believe that, despite these generally accepted rules for social interaction, there was not a universal attitude of sympathy, or assistance, for Dene women or children, or other powerless people, who suffered abuse at the hands of others. Most respondents believe they suffered in silence and attempted to avoid the gossip and intimidation that could result from any sign of violence or upset in the family unit. Apparently this attitude did not change a great deal with the advent of the RCMP in the Northwest Territories in the early 1900s. At that time, according to respondents, wife assault was considered a family matter in which the police did not intervene. However, when health professionals were placed in the north by the federal government, in the mid 1900s, some support was offered to abused women and children.

The Inuvialuit had social norms similar to the other Inuit peoples bordering the Arctic Ocean, Hudson Bay and North Atlantic.[84] These norms were not dissimilar to those of the Dene, and other land-based indigenous cultures the world over. Gender roles were very clear and marriages were, according to most respondents, arranged between families, often at birth. Some violent and inappropriate behaviour may have been tolerated when the person in question was of some value to the group in terms of hunting skills, or because they had special abilities, such as the ability to locate game or cure illnesses. And as with the Dene, Inuvialuit elders and spiritual leaders made most major decisions and provided direction within their own small group of families. Respondents say that it was not unknown for elders to intervene in violent situations, although whether they intervened in situations of wife assault, child abuse or sexual assault is not clear. (Some respondents say these types of problems did not exist amidst the Inuvialuit in pre-colonial time. Others say they were common.)

One thing that is clear, in both Inuvialuit and Dene culture, is that everyone understood implicitly the importance of working together as one unit if they were to survive the harsh conditions of northern Canada. Towards that end each person was expected to put their own needs and problems after the needs and problems of the group. It might be reasonable to assume therefore that violent or unhappy situations were not addressed unless they threatened that cohesiveness.

Existing Informal Methods of Dealing with Victims in Northwest Territories

Within the last 20 years, since 1980, there has been a growing awareness amongst NWT service providers, although not necessarily the public, about the wide variety of victim issues in the territory. These issues, according to respondents, are:

This awareness has given rise to a growing variety of services. However, most service providers agree that the majority of victimized people in the NWT do not have access to these services, don’t know about them, or are afraid to use them. They report that in most cases families and communities will not support victims and will often go further to shun, blame and shame the victim. This is reported to be the reality in the majority of small communities and, to a lesser extent, in the larger communities too.

However, in the largest centres (Yellowknife, Hay River, Inuvik, Fort Smith and Fort Simpson) respondents believe they are seeing a steady shift in this attitude. They report that while families are still reluctant to help family members who speak up about abuse there are now many more community women, and men, who will defend the victim, advocate for services for them and assist with housing, money, childcare, transportation and other necessities. Some will even go to court with the victim. This is a risky undertaking as the family of the accused, and other community members, often attempt to intimidate victims, and their supporters, throughout the court process.[85]

In smaller communities, however, where the victim and her family are being pressured to drop charges, or are otherwise threatened, victim support may mean moving the victim, whether a child, teen or adult, permanently to a larger town in the region. This saves them from the harassment of the community, and the perpetrator’s family, and also allows them greater access to services such as counselling, housing, employment and education.

In terms of this phenomenon, some respondents said that the support and assistance given to victims is dependent on their place within the community power hierarchy. That is, victimized individuals belonging to the least powerful families are more blamed, shunned and intimidated than victims belonging to the more powerful families. However, not every respondent agreed with this perception saying that all victimized people in smaller communities, regardless of the status of their family, are ignored or threatened into silence and obedience.

Victims are further disadvantaged by the chronic lack of housing in all communities, large and small. Even if it were considered acceptable to leave an abusive relationship, there is nowhere to go. And not all communities have shelters or family violence programs. (There are five shelters for women and children in the NWT and four Victim Services programs, all in larger centres.) These shelters and programs are often accused of "breaking up families" and attempts to start new shelters or programs are often strongly opposed by powerful community members.

To complicate matters, several respondents wondered if all community-based support programs were really delivering a service. They report that victimized people have told them that when they approached some agencies for service, they were ignored. Instead of receiving the mandated assistance, or even given a referral, they are sent home. One respondent noted that the local hospital has even turned away severely beaten women who needed hospitalization.

However, respondents see hope in a number of community and regionally based developments. For example, residential school abuse survivors are encouraged and supported through several community-based healing circles which have been funded by the national Aboriginal Healing Foundation. Correctional facilities, and many addictions and mental health programs, are increasingly relying on Native spirituality and an Aboriginal, holistic approach to healing. Women’s shelters, and other victim service providers, have banded together to raise public awareness at the local level and have started some support groups for abused women. In some towns people are volunteering to work with programs which assist victimized community members. There are more conferences and workshops on victim issues, and the territorial government recently held a major conference on the social conditions in the NWT.[86]

Respondents working directly with victimized people also report that an increasingly common reaction to family violence, sexual assault and child abuse is the migration of families into Yellowknife and, to a lesser extent, into the major towns in each region. These families are mostly women and children with a history of victimization, but some men are migrating too. The current estimate is that three to four families per week are moving into Yellowknife.[87]

These families may move back to their smaller community but eventually reappear and settle more permanently in Yellowknife. Almost all of these migrating families are Dene or Inuit. Whatever their origin or ethnic group, this migrating phenomenon is, according to respondents, creating a sub-dynamic of its own. The reality of several families living in one small public housing unit often leads to evictions and stresses the already desperate housing shortage. Most migrating families also have a vast array of needs: financial, employment, education, medical, and transportation. And many are lacking the basic life skills, experience and information needed for life outside a small community.

Perhaps the best way to summarize the situation in terms of informal assistance to victims of crime would be to say that a change in the public attitude about victimization, and therefore a shift in behaviour towards them, is in its beginning stages. Most formal programs, aside from police, health centres, schools and some women’s shelters, are still in their infancy. As a result, the effects of their programming, and sheer presence, cannot yet be measured. Likewise, the formal acknowledgement by public and First Nation governments of the serious social conditions in the NWT is a relatively new phenomenon. To put things into some northern perspective, it appears that informal systems of support for victims, and for that matter, formal systems of support, appear to be more developed than they are in Nunavut, and less developed than in Yukon.