Intergenerational Resilience in Aklavik, NWT

Abstract

"Against the backdrop of social change in the Canadian Arctic, Gwich’in and Inuvialuit community members in Aklavik, NWT live with the motto 'Never Say Die'. This paper explores the development of a model for Aboriginal resilience in the community of Aklavik across different generations. Attributes of resilience were used to build the model and found through a systematic review of the literature. To verify the applicability of these attributes to Aklavik, we held separate elder and youth focus groups to discuss resilience for each person and their community. The presence or absence of mention of an attribute in each discussion was noted and compared. Most of the attributes presented in the literature were also mentioned in the focus groups, however, one in particular was emphasized through the discussions. This attribute is agency and the action to create change in one’s life and community. We present a brief discussion agency, although its emergence in the recent literature and its focus in Aklavik begs the question: is agency a valuable attribute to resilience?"