Improving the health and well-being of Inuit in Canada and other Arctic nations is a major challenge, according to a circumpolar Inuit health committee.

The Inuit Circumpolar Council's steering committee told delegates at the council's general assembly last week in Nuuk, Greenland, that Inuit in Canada, the United States, Russia and Greenland have health indicators below national averages.

The committee also found that Inuit have among the highest numbers of health and social problems, from lung cancer and tuberculosis, to suicide, substance abuse and domestic violence.

"I will not say I'm saddened by our state. All I can say is that it is a challenge and we're up for that challenge," Minnie Grey, a Canadian member of the health committee, told CBC News in Nuuk.

"I believe that [the Inuit Circumpolar Council] can be a really good vehicle to inform the international world, the national governments and so on, and the Inuit themselves that they can stand up to take charge of their own health and well-being."

Action plan in works

The circumpolar Inuit health committee was created in 2008 to guide the Inuit Circumpolar Council on its work to improve Inuit health.

The council will spend the next four years working on an Inuit health action plan over the next four years. It hopes to present the plan at the next general assembly in Canada in 2014.

Grey, who presented the committee's findings to the assembly, said the Inuit Circumpolar Council's priority is to advocate for better Inuit health and well-being around the circumpolar world.

Grey's presentation gave Elisapee Sheutiapik, the mayor of Iqaluit in Nunavut, an opportunity to tell the international assembly about her Angel Street project against domestic violence.

In 2007, Sheutiapik had the road leading to the local women's shelter named "Angel Street" — after a lyric in the song Lovely Irene by singer-songwriter Lucie Idlout — as a tribute to victims of violence.

Since then, Sheutiapik has lobbied other civic leaders across Canada and around the world to do the same in their communities.

"It has no race and no gender, and that's violence," Sheutiapik said at the assembly.

Inuit health was among the various topics discussed at the 11th general assembly, which wrapped up Friday in Greenland's capital city.

Inuit delegates from Canada, the U.S., Russia and Greenland also talked about climate change in the Arctic, resource development, and Inuit rights.