Our future is in great hands! More than 40 per cent of Labrador Inuit are young people under the age of 25. Driving forces full of ambition and ideas. Full of interest in the future of Nunatsiavut and full of interest in preserving Inuit culture.

In addition to the various educational supports provided to assist our young people make choices with respect to their post-secondary education, LIA, through the Torngâsok Cultural Centre, has empowered a Labrador Inuit Youth Division. Its role is to ensure that our culture and traditions reach out to our youth and that the views of our young people contribute to the shaping of Nunatsiavut. Following are key initiatives that are driven largely by Inuit youth.

Strengthening Our Democracy

Rising Youth Council (RYC) is a regional youth group with 13 representatives from the Inuit communities and the Upper Lake Melville Region. Its President is elected every two years by youth in attendance at an Annual Youth Symposium and its Vice President is elected from within RYC. This energetic council meets monthly by teleconference and has face-to-face meetings twice a year. LIA's youth division looks to the council for program and activity ideas and to ensure strong linkages to youth in their communities.

Labrador Inuit youth also contribute to our democracy through the Annual Youth Symposium. The symposium usually includes a career fair. LIA departments and affiliates report on their activities. Presentations and workshops focus on issues of importance to young people. Past issues have ranged from tobacco use to HIV/AIDS awareness.

Past symposia have also included self-government role plays/youth parliaments. At the end of the symposium, delegates make recommendations to LIA and to the youth division, and these are brought to the LIA annual general meeting for consideration and action.

Preserving Our Language and Culture

Spring and summer Language and Culture Camps engage up to 14 Inuit youth selected from all communities to live and work in a traditional Inuit setting with a team of language instructors, elders, supervisors and guides. While at camp, youth participate in language lessons, Inuit games, throat singing, sewing, traditional cooking and hunting. Through living as well as learning Inuit traditions, youth come to appreciate the true context of Inuit values and tradition.

Elder and youth gatherings have been a huge success, energizing and bringing two of our most important generations together. Today more than ever we must ensure that we have a place for those who keep us grounded and those who will make Nunatsiavut soar. While at these gatherings, elders and youth discuss a variety of topics, including suicide prevention, relocation, climate change, language and culture and parenting.

Youth have also been instrumental in the establishment of the Nunatsiavut Drummers, ensuring that these skills are re-established in the context of traditional Inuit gatherings and events.

Youth Addressing Youth Issues

We believe that through empowering youth to address youth issues we are building the leadership skills that ensure a bright future for us all. The Torngâsok Youth Division delivers Peer Mediation Workshops with junior high and high school students in five schools. Peer mediation is a program that helps students solve conflicts with their peers instead of getting adult involvement or going to detention.

Youth employment is both an important issue and a building block of leadership. The Youth Employment Strategy, funded through Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, gives Inuit youth important exposure to work situations and career choices.