Alcohol and drug use in Nunavik

Converging views on the future Inuit’s viewpoints and the researchers’ perspective

Plourde, C., Brunelle, N., & Landry, M. (2011). Alcohol and drug use in Nunavik: Converging views on the future Inuit’s viewpoints and the researchers’ perspective. Québec, QC : Presses de l’Université Laval. www

This book focuses mainly on the views of Quebec’s Inuit regarding a situation that affects and concerns them, that they have something to say about and for which they have solutions to propose. Following a request from Inuit commu nities in Nunavik, a study financed by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services (NRBHSS) was conducted between 2003 and 2006 on psychoactive substance use among Inuit youths and their families in four Inuit communities in Quebec, Canada. The study used a mixed methodology, combining qualitative and quantitative approaches. Despite its major limitation of being written in Inuit’s second language, the book provides global, public access to all the accounts collected in the qualitative interviews conducted during this study. Although it does not observe Inuit oral tradition, we believe that this book presents an extremely interesting look at a set of culturally adapted solutions proposed by Inuit themselves to deal with the problems they face regarding substance use. It is from this positive, solution-driven perspective that we want this book to be viewed. We hope to honour Inuit’s pragmatic, vibrant spirit. We were deeply touched by the voices of Inuit who spoke about alcohol and drug abuse and its many impacts on their lives. We hope readers will sense the hope reflected in this book through the solutions proposed by Inuit themselves.

From another perspective, as academic researchers, we would like to share our experience in this collaborative process, without any pretension, with future researchers and students who will work with Inuit communities, so they might draw inspiration from it. We would have avoided certain mistakes and blunders had we had access to such valuable knowledge.

Visiter la page de Natacha Brunelle
Visiter la page de Chantal Plourde