$400k spent on hip-hop for Nunavut children's health

The federal government and the territorial government of Nunavut are splitting the $400,000 cost of setting up hip-hop workshops to promote healthy lifestyles to Nunavut youth and fight suicide and crime, the Nunatsiaq News reports.

The spending was announced last week by federal Health Minister and Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq and Nunavut Premier Eva Aariak. The program will produce healthy eating and exercise kits to be distributed to Nunavut schools, said Ms Aglukkaq. "Hip hop reaches out to youth, including youth at risk, and teaches them to respect themselves, their peers and their communities," Ms Aariak told the News.

The workshops are to be run by a Ottawa-based consulting firm called Blueprint for Life, which was founded by social worker Stephen Leafloor, also known as Buddha (pictured above, right, striking an incongruous pose next to an inukshuk), to provide "social work through hip hop."

The Nunatsiaq News article called the $400,000 spending a "splurge" on "high-priced hip hop." Given the drug violence and crime that corrupted much of American hip-hop culture when artists began pulling in large sums of money, resulting in a string of high-profile murders in the 90s, it's uncomfortably ironic to find this among the featured photos on Blueprint for Life's website:


Photos: Blueprint for Life

Get Canadian Medicine news by email or in an RSS reader