Nunavik outdoor education program empowers Inuit youth

Nurrait is Inuktitut for baby caribou — or jeune caribou in French — and the Nurrait | Jeunes Karibus organization is all about helping young Inuit grow.

"For 2020, 2021 we had around 300 participants in our program, despite the pandemic," said general manager Hugo Dufresne. "Last year we were able to be present in all of the 14 [Nunavik] communities."

At at time when many youth are feeling the isolation brought on by the pandemic, Nurrait has managed to keep its programs going, with some modifications, and is seeing some of its first participants start to take on leadership roles of their own.

Created as an outdoor adventure program for students, Jeunes Karibus has expanded over the years to offer professional development, leadership training and opportunities to connect with Inuit elders and culture. 

"Not all the youth have the same access to being out on the land and doing traditional activities," said Dufresne.

"We never go out on the land for camping or for expeditions without hiring community members to guide us and share knowledge with the youth."

Last summer, the organization hired a social worker and launched a new intensive program for young people who are struggling to stay in school, coping with grief or facing other personal challenges.

"Today it's our eighth edition of the Nurrait program, but now we have three more programs also for the youth of Nunavik," said Dufresne, who's been with the group for three years and recently took over from founder Valérie Raymond.

"It's grown from practising a healthy lifestyle...to really bringing in some intervention tools: communication skills, how to express your emotions, how to understand them."

Raymond started Nurrait as a pilot project to to show her students the benefits of an active, healthy lifestyle.

The young people who signed up went cross-country skiing every week after class and were given tips to work on their mental health. They trained with Raymond throughout the school year, preparing an expedition. That summer, the group skied 90 kilometres from Kuujjuaq to the neighbouring community of Tasiujaq, camping along the way.

The program was so popular Raymond launched Nurrait | Jeunes Karibus as a non-profit in 2015. As the organization grew, it branched out to the other Nunavik communities and eventually the Tuttuit (full-grown caribou) program was a natural next step.

"Students were going through the Nurrait program, getting older, some of them still wanted to be part of the organization," said Dufresne.

"It's basically a professional internship program, they get to lead the team of students and we give them job opportunities for their first job out of high school."