This project will further develop existing operations and resources of the Inuit Women in Business Network (IWBN), to be available in both languages, English and Inuktut, and made available across Inuit Nunangat and the rest of Canada. The project will also provide strategic direction on the organization’s broad economic development activities directly from Inuit women.
The inital goals of the project have shifted with the onset of COVID-19. Several vulnerabilities have quickly become apparent for Inuit women and children living outside Inuit Nunangat. The pandemic has deepened pre-existing gendered inequalities and exposed vulnerabilities in social, political, and economic systems which compound one another. For example, the lack of available and affordable childcare, makes earning a livelihood difficult for Inuit women. Children not attending school because of COVID-19 require full-time attention, while home confinement exacerbates family tensions. The loss of income creates additional stress in an already difficult reality for Inuit women.
The proposed project is innovative and will reach and target a largely underserved population: Inuit. Pauktuutit is responding to the need for public education, awareness, harm reduction and prevention initiatives that align with the social context of Inuit knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours around cannabis consumption, and in the context of a shifting Northern health, social and economic environment.
The research from the first phase of the project will be translated into culturally relevant and Inuit-specific key messages and multimedia resources for a FASD public awareness and anti-stigma campaign.
Pauktuutit is working with Indigenous services Canada (ISC) to support a project that will inform and advise the Government of Canada on economic relief, stimulus and recovery planning targeted for Inuit women in business.