Mobility and Nunavut Inuit youth: lessons from Northern Youth Abroad

Abstract

In this paper we examine the impacts of the mobility that Nunavut Inuit youth experience with Northern Youth Abroad (NYA), a Canadian volunteer travel program that sends northern youth to southern Canada and Botswana. Using a case study approach and drawing from archival research and interviews with 10 former participants, a staff member, and a member of the board of directors, we argue that NYA illustrates how volunteer travel programs for Indigenous youth can yield distinct benefits for its participants in comparison to mainstream volunteer travel programs, particularly with regard to participants' sense of cultural identity and pride. By enabling participants to foster career goals and a deeper sense of cultural pride, NYA presents a counter-example to some of the common critiques of volunteer tourism programs, and illustrates the complex interconnections between cultural pride, well-being, and career advancement for Nunavut Inuit youth.

Keywords:

• rural youth
• mobility
• Inuit
• volunteer travel
• employment

Acknowledgments

We wish to warmly thank NYA's staff members, research advisory board, and alumni, who so graciously invested their time, stories, and wisdom. Thank you to Rylan Parker of the University of Ottawa for research assistance through the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program at the University of Ottawa. We would also like to thank the reviewers for their very helpful feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. That NYA staff members maintain strong connections with participants was also reinforced through the first author's first-hand observations during the five months of archival research, most of which took place at NYA's open-concept office.

2. Of the 91 Nunavut Inuit youth participants who were no longer completing secondary school, 34% were working full time, 21% were working part time, 19% were completing further education, 3% were on maternity leave, and only 18.7% were not employed and not in school.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council grant [grant number 766-2010-0484] to the first author.