The Current - Iqaluit Elders on the joys of aging in place

Episode Date: September 5, 2025

For Inuit elders in Nunavut aging in their community is what they want. For years —  elders were relocated south, to receive care. But now members of the community are leading the charge for a new elders residence to be built in the next few years here.

My group chat thinks I'm the smart one, but I have a cheat code. I take 10 minutes each morning and listen to World Report. Knowing what's happening in the world helps me feel connected and make better informed decisions. But endless doom scrolling is not my idea of fun. So I just listen to World Report on my commute, get informed, and get on with my day. World Report, the day's top stories in 10 minutes, wherever you get your podcasts. is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is the current podcast.

I need you go in here. Oh, yeah, okay, thank you. Thanks, is Monica here? Hi, how are you? Hi, how are you? Matt. Yes. Welcome. Thank you.

This week on the program, we've been bringing you stories from Akhaluit, Nunavut. And today, we're meeting Monica Al-Kanauk. She is executive director of the elders' hammock in Akhalwit. This is our kitchen area. The hammock is a small wooden building overlooking Frobeshire Bay, and it's the only space in this community where people over the age of 55 can meet and socialize. This is our little storage room where we have two stand-up freezers for country food and other food that we might have bought to serve lunches from Monday to Friday for the elders.

And our chairman is Aynak Hauagak, who happens to be here today. Hi, I'm Matt from CBC. It's called the current. It's running after what, 100 years? No, not right now. Tell me about this space. What does this space mean to you? Before this place to open, you know,

elderly did get together, you know, but they didn't have a place to stay that was designated not just for them, but for the community. But this place is called Khambak, which is a traditional name for a home or a house, you know, that any people use, you know,

before they moved into settled places. They would be out on the lap, you know, using the well bones, you know, for structures and so on. People enjoy themselves here. They mostly know each other and they have fun. They can do puzzles, play card games. We have bingoes once a week and other activities. It's usually a nice place.

Some people like to sew. Sometimes we get funding to sew things like parkas, mitts, or what have you, and sometimes we have young people occasionally come and learn from the elders or speak to the elders. Finding adequate space and care for elders across Nunavut is nearly impossible. As people age here, there is limited affordable housing, and health care can be scarce. This means that elders are often sent out of their communities, sometimes to Ghaluit, which is already in the midst of a housing crisis, or often south to Ottawa or other big cities. And Monica, along with Jamie Flaherty, is hoping to change this. Together, their leading

plans for a new elders' residence in Eccala. So now they want to talk to us. My name is Jamie Flaherty. I do their work on the technical side for the Elder Society on the proposed new building on project consultation. How would you describe the state of housing for elders here in the territory? It's poor. There's a lot of elders that needs housing, and there's going to be a lot more elders within a few years, more than double, maybe triple elders that need accommodations. Monica, if that housing isn't available, where are elders ending up? Elders would either be with family or homeless shelters.

We have some here in the Kaluit now, but not a lot. Mostly elders would be with family in a very crowded situation. I mean, it sounds obvious, but what are the problems that arise in a situation like that? Well, I can give you an example of maybe a two-bedroom house with 17 people and some babies in there as well with an elder. That's a very crowded place. Some people take turns with the couch and beds. There's not a lot of dignity in that.

No. And a few people are like that. Some elders have housing and they're alone. But there's a lot that are in very crowded situations. How common is it that people in a situation like that would leave the community? They would be forced to go and live somewhere else, perhaps down south, because of the lack of housing. There's been some people that have moved south for sure because of lack of housing. Not just elders, but regular people that just can't find a space and they end up down south

because they have nowhere to live here in Haluit. The housing situation is really bad. You can't just find a place to rent or for a lot of people. income is a problem. So if you don't have the right income, you can't build your own house or rent from a private company. Most of the people live in a housing authority house, which means it's geared for public housing. Some of them are designated for elders or disabled people, but those are also filled up immediately, and there's not that many. What's your reaction to the fact that people are forced to leave?

Elders in particular are forced to leave their own community because there's no way for them to live. I think it's very sad because Inuit are very family-oriented people. We thrive on helping each other, living with each other, respecting each other. And we like to spend some part of the day together and communicate and get to know each other. That is lost when you are forced to move elsewhere. You probably saw the price tag of your airline ticket. It's not just easy to hop on a plane and visit. What are those elders up against when they are taken out of their own community?

The elders lose their dignity, their pride, their sense of self-worth. You don't end up eating your country food. You don't end up talking in your language. You don't practice your culture. It, for some, depresses them. It's heartbreaking to think about. Totally. Like I can hear in your voice, it's really hard to talk about.

There's a historical context to this as well, which is why it's difficult, right? People being forced out of their communities. Jamie, how do you see that historical context? You were involved in a report about this in speaking with a lot of elders. And one of the things that came out in that was compulsory elder relocation is a territory-wide shame. What does that mean to you? Well, it is a shame. I think when Inuit gets sent south or wherever they are sent,

to the community lose the traditional cultural experience to teach the younger people in the community. That's a real, real hard loss. Can you give me an example of that? What would they lose? What is that tie that's broken? Well, one of the things that they lose is how their parents or their grandparents

who were brought up strong cultural ties, how to be a family, how to respect each other, how to survive hunting, And that's a very valuable part of life in the North. You spoke with hundreds of elders about what they want. What did they tell you about what they want as they get older? Well, one of the things that was very strong was that what they want is elders' housing in the communities.

And so there are plans now for more housing. Tell me about those plans or what's going to be built. Well, that's going to be a four-story elders' accommodations. Here in Akalit. It's got 45 rooms. It also have daycare for 25 people. It has a small pharmacy where you can go and get your prescription. There's a therapy room attached to it on another floor.

Hopefully a sewing room for the ladies on each floor. There's going to be a radio room where the guys can talk about old-time stories and hunting stories while they're looking out in the bay at some young guys going out, boating, and envy them. That place is going to have its own generator because we get a lot of power outage in the north. There's also going to be hunters and trappers' food distribution outlet so the elders there can get country food through that system.

You have a big smile when you describe all of the things that are going to be part of this building. Well, I'm smiling because I hope, and I'm pretty sure it will happen, you'll put a nice, good dent on the quality of life for elders here. Monica, what kind of difference do you think that will make having that building, but all of those parts to the building there? I mean, it's like a hub for life for those elders. Definitely.

It'll be a great place, I think, for elders to know their neighbors. It'll be a space where they can get support. I think we're going to do groundbreaking in the fall, and people will start real. it's happening. Jamie said something interesting, which was that you need the investment of not just the territorial government, but also the federal government, to really kind of move this forward. What do you think people down south, that's where the government is based? What don't they understand about what life is like here for elders?

I think what they don't understand is the family knit of our culture. When you're not here, you don't realize it's different. We need to have the security that our children are fine. That is just the way we are, and that has not been taken away from us yet, and we need to know where they are, what they're doing. We need to see them more on a regular basis. We're different that way.

And you think that can be preserved if the government pays attention to it and understands that? I hope so. I think if our elders can stay home more, and if there are ways to find how we could live in our own space a few years more, that'd be awesome. One thing I want to add to what Monica is saying is the fact that we have a big, big difference in Kasa living here. It's what people down south take for granted at the cost here in reality is like three, four times more higher in food. and also for the necessities that you need,

like lumber, material, components for the house and that in. Do you think the decision makers down south understand that? Hopefully it's getting to their head. They come here once in a while. They promise to help more, but it's like pulling teeth. It takes a long, long time if it ever actually gets started. So hopefully the new people that are in charge now

will realize that we do really need health. help that we are different day. Thanks for speaking with us. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you. Oh, hi. Come on in. How are you?

Good. I'm Matt. Hi, Matt. Nice to see you. A short drive from Akalewit is the small town of Apex. Anne Hansen has lived here for decades. Her blue house is immediately identifiable in this community. It's a house that she and her late husband brought

across the ice in pieces to rebuild on this picturesque spot overlooking the bay, on a street named after her. It's not very often you get to interview somebody who lives on a road named after them. Yeah, well, it's been like that for a long time now. This view out of here, it's remarkable. There's an island. Those two islands have a name. And the father one is Agnachach.

and sometimes, especially in the early summer, I watch hunters doing their whale hunt, Baluga, but they have to chase the whales down, farther down, because they can't shoot near the city. And there's a lot of harp seals doing their thing, and, of course, a lot of birds. And a question of polar bear. When I came here in 1957, from Kimmel to here by boat, I was 11,

there were tents all along the coast, and it was kind of nice. Now there's no more tents. That's the old boats here and there. Did you know Canadian News is still banned on Instagram and Facebook? And this August will mark two years since that ban began. So if you can't trust the algorithm to keep you updated, trust World Report instead. I'm John Northcott.

I'm Marcia Young, and we want to unblock you from the news that matters most. Give us 10 minutes every morning and we'll give you the biggest stories happening in Canada and around the world. You can find and follow World Report

wherever you get your podcasts. Tell me how you've seen this area change since you've been here. You have a few hours? Oh, drastic, drastically. Yeah, as I said, they were tent on the coast, and in the wintertime we had a hut, like a hut, one-room hut.

And that was before the government built small homes for the Inuit. I knew where every building is, because we've seen it being built. And those buildings up there, they're homes. and they went there a few years ago, and all of a sudden, boom. Me and my late husband, we built this building where we entered was across the bay, 28 miles, the A-frame part. And we took it apart one summer. I was a de-nailer, and piece by piece, and then winter came,

we went back and forth by Skidoo, and it was about 12 trips. to bring the parts of the house here. Yeah, because we couldn't afford a new home. That's incredible. Yeah, it is. I have all the pictures to prove it. Anne is a bit of a local legend. She has been a fierce advocate championing Inuit rights and culture.

She's been a journalist, an actor, and served as the third commissioner of Nunavut. And as she approaches 80, she is planning to stay in her community and in her own home, close to her family, including one of her daughters. Nevy, who also joined us. There's two things, two things that we cannot do anything about. One is aging, and one is the elements, the nature. To grow old up here, it's harsh, especially when you have health issues. And if you are seriously ill, you have to be flown out.

to a southern hospital. It's even harsher when you're living farther up north, this is, at Halloween here is considered south and more wimpy than farther north residents. And, yeah, it's harsh.

In all seasons, when you're getting old, there are times that people are afraid to go because that's in case they don't come back, Because in the old days, when Inuit had TB and they had to be treated in the southern hospitals, mostly Hamilton, Ontario, where my mother died. My mother was there from 1953 until she died in 1958.

And from that memory, people are afraid to go south, that's in case they don't come back. I think that's number one that we dread the most about getting older because we have to have people looking after us we're so used to looking after ourselves then all of a sudden your daughters and sons and grandkids have to look after you, doctors and nurses

who are strangers from the South and they don't speak your language that's even harsher So that's number one dread that we have as elders up here. And the other one is nature, the weather. We can't do anything about when it's cold in the winter. And we can't be outside too long because we will freeze our lungs. I think that's why there are so many lung issues up here

because of the harsh coldness, we breathe in the cold. My uncle taught me how to breathe in extreme colds. He says, breathe in very slowly inside because he knows that there's hairs in your nostrils inside to warm up the cold air, then breathe out very slowly. And he told us to move slow in the extreme. cold. You can't rush around. Otherwise, you will sweat, and then that sweat will freeze.

So that's how we were taught. You mentioned people having to go down south to Ottawa or what have you, to hospitals there to get treatment. You saw that firsthand when your husband was sick. Yes, exactly. What was that like for you? Having to, I mean, that's a long trip. It's three and a half hours in the plane, and it's a different community. And what was that like? My goodness, three and a half hours is nothing to compare to what my two grandfathers went through when there were no hospitals anywhere except Pannuktu. They had a hospital up there in 1920s and 30s. We were living in Kimmelut.

It took them over two weeks to go see a doctor when they were getting older. So when I have to wait for a few hours to see a doctor, I try and remember them having to go by doctor team to see a doctor. So that comforts me too. But then my modern ways, oh, I hate waiting around. Yeah, it was quite hard when my husband got sick having to be medevac. Then we couldn't get in the medevac plane because it's, very tiny. And there has to be a nurse who looks after the person. We had to go next day

to go down to be to with our loved ones. And it's hard on us, but it's harder on the patient having to be moved around. That's hard. What has to happen, do you think, so that people, there's this whole idea of people aging in place, right, and being able to grow old in the community that they live in. What has to happen so that that is possible here for everybody? Well, first of all, I try and stay healthy as long as I can, but it's not possible for all people in the north because of different circumstances.

Overcrowding in the homes, there are at least two to the, three families in each home up here in many cases, not all, but many. It has been like that since day one. When we moved here in 1957, I was 11 years old with good memory, didn't speak in English. People were living in the tents, as I told you, along the coast. Then a few years later. My uncle built a makeshift, a hat, one room hat, which we had to scrounge for wood, pieces of wood, pieces of tar, pieces of tar paper, that's what I think. So he could build a shelter. That's what it was. It was a shelter. And so that happened in 1957, and it's still happening. There are many homeless people now.

This village, I call it village, it grew too fast. And people moved here from other places hoping for a better life, hoping for higher education, hoping for jobs, hoping for overall better life. But quite often, it doesn't turn out that way, so they become homeless.

We never had homeless people when I was growing up, growing up on the land. And we've always looked after our people, our relatives, our families. Nevy, we were standing with your mom, standing outside, looking at

the city, the town, the village, however she wants to describe it. And she was talking about how it's changed. And her role, she's an icon, a pillar. in this community and the role that she has had in helping to shape this. How would you talk to us about your mom? How would you describe what she means to this community?

I mean, I only have to, I don't think about it very often. She's my mom. But we were asked, I think, two weeks ago to speak to principals and vice principals around Nunavut who were starting school. And I was like, you want to talk to me and my mom? Okay. So we had a conversation. And on Zoom, I was like, wow, okay, I get it.

But to me, she's just my mom. Like, I don't see it until I see it through another lens. How important is it for you that she is able to age here in this home and in this community as an elder? I think it's really important that she gets to pick how she wants to age. She had a wonderful career. She raised five beautiful smart daughters. She's had many different jobs and roles in the community. I think she should definitely have a choice in where she wants to spend her final years.

Do you worry about that given, again, the lack of support in the territory for elders, for people as they get home? Honestly, I don't worry about it so much because she has five of us daughters who could advocate on her behalf. There's other elders who is just heartbreaking that they don't have anybody who could help them, who could speak English, who could speak eamsuk to them, who could work the system. So when she spoke of dad being medevac, he would get medevac in the plane, mom would go on the next. next flight to Ottawa, usually with one of us, one of us daughters, who could drive around Ottawa, who could drive back and forth to the hospital, who could speak to the doctors, ask all the questions. We're very fortunate with that to be able to speak two languages and live in the modern world with the understanding of mom's traditional life. I mean,

when mom spoke of coming to live in a village, how much better life could be, that's what they were told. Come live in the village. Life will be better. Life will be easier. But it wasn't. I asked you how much had changed in this community and you said how long do I have to hear what you wanted to say. What gives you hope and optimism about this community? People, young people like NIVI and people who are getting educated in both, Inuit and Kalu and Atitude. Because when we were We were Baffan Education Board trustees. That was our goal. It was to have Inuititude alongside with Kalu Natitude or French to be alongside, to be equal, to be taught in our own language.

What about for you, Nevi? I mean, young Nevi, as she said, but as that next generation, what gives you hope about this community? that we still have our elders around that we could lean on and call on when we need them and we just need to believe in ourselves

that we're capable of doing it it might look different it might sound different but we're going to definitely lean on our elders when we need them thank you very much thank you for welcoming us

into your home and taking the chance to talk to us that's it for our special series of programs from Mikhailuat thank you to everybody in the community who was so welcoming

and so willing to talk to us It is, I said this at the beginning of our programs, a remarkable place. Unlike anywhere I've been in this country, and I wish that every Canadian had the opportunity to see it. We felt really, really honored and grateful to be there in that community. You've been listening to the current podcast. My name is Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening. I'll talk to you soon.

For more CBC podcasts, go to cBC.ca slash podcasts.