Susan Aglukark remembers the day she met a frantic student at a school in Nunavut who wasn't feeling ready to take a test because she hadn't had time to study.
"She was in a panic because she's the primary caretaker for her younger siblings," said Aglukark, a JUNO Award-winning Inuk singer-songwriter and the founder of the Arctic Rose Foundation, a charitable nonprofit that runs the Messy Book Program.
"I told her she had time to study, and I would bring her some food. She was so excited.”
Feeling cared for can have an immeasurable impact on a young person, she said.
The Messy Book Program is an after-school program for young people in northern Indigenous communities. Young people in grades 5 to 12 explore Indigenous-led art processes that connect them to their culture. They also get access to healthy snacks, mentorship, a quiet space to express themselves, and consistent emotional support.
"The Messy Book Program offers kindness, but also consistency. We're telling them we're here for them," said Aglukark.
The program, delivered in English and the language spoken in the community, partners with artists from Indigenous communities. These artists share their stories and teach artistic practices to the young people.
The program also trains and hires local high school students to become Community Artist Liaison and Mentor (CALM) workers, who lead the program in the community and are paid for their work.
Younger students who’ve participated in the program in the past often return to become CALM workers, Aglukark said.
Using artistic tools and calm spaces to manage mental health
Piloted in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, in 2018, the Messy Book Program has since been delivered in the Nunavut communities of Arviat, Cambridge Bay, Arctic Bay, Sanikiluaq, Igloolik, and Chesterfield Inlet. It's also been delivered in the Northwest Territories communities of Yellowknife and Edzo, and in the northern Ontario communities of Pikangikum First Nation and Deer Lake First Nation.
Within each program, usually run out of the local school, there's a designated Arctic Rose Room, where young people can go and work on their creative expressions, study, or simply take a break in a calm, safe setting.
The goal is to help youth from northern Indigenous communities find and tell their own positive stories and explore modes of self-expression, while building healthy relationships with adults and peers, Aglukark said.
“We [Indigenous Peoples] have an extraordinary past, much of which has been kept from us, and removed from the history books,” Aglukark said on the Arctic Rose website.
“To give them, and ourselves, the opportunity to learn about our very own heroes – heroes our children and youth desperately need right now – to engage them in that story and that culture, will help them to aspire for more, to dream and to reframe who they are in today’s world.”
Aglukark was raised in Arviat, an Inuit hamlet on the western shore of Hudson Bay, before moving to Ontario 33 years ago.
"In our community, there's a demographic of us who don't need medication, who don't need a diagnosis, but still have mental health challenges," she said. "This program meets this need [for mental health support] in the community."
In 2022, TD committed $1 million for three years to support the Messy Book Program through the TD Ready Commitment, the Bank's corporate citizenship platform.
Organizations like the Arctic Rose Foundation — that are working to support positive change in their communities — can apply for funding.
Funding that spans multiple years is beneficial because creating change and building relationships in each Messy Book location takes time and consistency, said Arctic Rose executive director Ulrike Komaksiutiksak.
What is a “Messy Book”?
Each young person who participates in the program receives a Messy Book kit as a gift, Aglukark explained. The kit contains crayons, a plain-page notebook, a pack of pencil crayons, a pen, a pencil, a glue stick, and a sharpener.
The young people are invited to create inside their Messy Book notebook, but the kit itself is about more than expressive or mixed-media arts, Aglukark said.
"The symbol with the kit is: they have control over this," she said. "Even if they have no control of anything else, this kit symbolizes the one part of their day they have control over."
Aglukark said she knows she's on the right track with the program when she hears about students who lean on the Messy Book Program to proactively manage their mental health.
She recalls the story of student in Rankin Inlet, who was a CALM worker in the program.
"What we didn't know is that this student had high anxiety," she said. "One day her anxiety was off the charts, and she thought she was going to have to go home. But then she remembered that she had access to the Arctic Rose Room at her school."
The student was able to access a peaceful and predictable space where she could do art, use her Messy Book notebook, and regulate her emotions, Aglukark said.
"They know they're going to be emotionally safe in that room," she said.
The Messy Book Program also acts as a reliable place for young people to go when school has finished for the day, but parents and other caregivers are still at work.
Snack options like fruit, juice, and granola bars are offered during the after-school program, and students might grab two or three if they haven't had enough to eat that day, Aglukark said.
"It makes all the difference that you're emotionally safe in the program," she said. "No one is going to judge you for needing two or three snacks."
One mother, who works at an airline in Nunavut, ran into Aglukark at the airport. The mother showed off the bracelet her child had made for her through the program and expressed her gratitude for the Messy Book Program.
"This mom said: ‘I know where [my daughter] is Monday through Friday. I know she's safe until 5 p.m. And I know my daughter is excited to go there,’" she said.