The Indigenous peoples of Canada and the tragedy of suicide.

Duality- A traditional style tipi in a yard in West Broadway, with Youngs United Church steeple in the foreground. Dec/17/09/ D.Hayward

          One of the most pressing mental issues facing our Indigenous peoples of Canada is the many tragic suicides of young persons.  The Indigenous peoples of Canada have faced so much adversity in their community that some of their youngest, most innocent children are responding too it with frustration and hopelessness.  Every year many lives are cut short; but what is being done about this and how is suicide viewed from an Indigenous person’s perspective?

A recent article in Macleans magazine entitled “The hurting: Award-winning novelist Joseph Boyden on the link between residential schools and the devastation of native suicide,” discusses the author’s personal experience talking to a Cree friend and an Anishinaabe Medicine man (Boyden, 2010).  The Cree friend of the author lived through her 17 year old son’s suicide.  In was in the worst possible manner; he hung himself in a friend’s closet, kneeling down with an extension cord tied around his neck (Boyden, 2010, para 1).  As if this was not enough for any mother to bear, five months later her 15 year old daughter hung herself, in her closet at home, in despair over her brother’s death (Boyden, 2010, para 5).  This happened on a James Bay reserve named Kashechewan, which may make it easier for people outside the community to ignore (Boyden, 2010, para 6).

            If you look closer to home, the Indigenous community in Winnipeg is no stranger to the tragedy of suicide.  A well known case in 2005 brought this to the forefront.  A 11 year old named Kathleen Beardy, distraught over her father’s arrest a week prior and the theft of her new puppy, hung herself in a tree with a dog leash (“Bullies took her dog, police took her dad,” 2005).  During the arrest of her father, Kathleen witnessed officers roughing him up to the point of nerve damage and a broken nose (“Bullies took her dog, police took her dad,” 2005).  Also present was Kathleen’s then pregnant 17 year old sister Beverly, who attempted to aid her father, but was restrained    (“Bullies took her dog, police took her dad,” 2005).  Almost unbelievably, Beverly Beardy left home for a night of partying in 2009, and ended up frozen to death in the back of a stolen SUV (McIntyre, 2009).  She was just 20 years old and left behind a three year old daughter, whom she had been pregnant with at the time of Kathleen’s death (McIntyre, 2009.)

            In an Indigenous person’s perspective there are a few main ideas on suicide.  An Anishnabe medicine believed that the residential school system released many evils including a high suicide rate (Boyden, 2010, para 4).  The destruction of the Indigenous family system through residential schools is also cited as a cause of high suicide, which was not a major issue before residential schools (Boyden, 2010, para 6).  An elder of Cross Lake First Nation, listed an overall sense of hopelessness coupled with addictions and poverty resulting from a lack of job opportunities as major factors in the suicide epidemic (Kitching, 2010).  The elder went on to say that it is important to discuss suicide in order to reduce the feelings that result in it (Kitching, 2010). 

            The biggest underlying cause for Indigenous people’s suicide is obviously the systematic destruction of their way of life and community.  Researchers have started to conduct more community based research in order to seek preventative measures.  An article by Issak, Campeau, Katz, Enns, Elias, and Sareen (2009), most of who are affiliated with the two universities in Winnipeg, investigated suicide prevention on remote reservations.  From their research they found that the Indigenous populations risk factors for suicide stem from family dynamics, community functioning, personal issues, lack of connection to the Indigenous culture, and repeated traumatic occurrences (Issak et al. 2010, p. 258).  The researchers called their group, the Swampy Cree suicide prevention team, and they are the first group to conduct suicide research in Canada with Indigenous peoples (Issak et al. 2010, p. 261).  They have received funding for a five year project which commenced in 2007 and will finish in 2012.  They are utilizing participatory action research in order to keep Indigenous peoples active in the research process, which aims to understand issues from their perspective (Issak et al. 2010, p. 261).  The name of the project is “From risk factors to culturally sensitive interventions: A programmatic approach to Aboriginal suicide” (Issak et al. 2010, p. 261).  This type of research is very encouraging and hopefully will yield results that could be applicable to Winnipeg as well.

            In a Canadian Indigenous worldview, life can be understood as a circle with various components, interrelated, connected, with human beings being at the centre of a “relational dance” (Morrissette, 2006, p. 171).  Another way of describing a Canadian Indigenous worldview is that “all of life is a manifestation of a spiritual reality” (Evans, 2004, p. 147).  The view of life as spiritual, as a circle with each part leading into the next, can somewhat explain Indigenous suicide.  When the Europeans settled here they broke the circle.  Indigenous cultures were reduced, children failed to learn the languages of their ancestors.  Anyone who has studied languages knows that certain concepts are lost in translation and can only be understood in the original language that they originated from.  Forced to live in the white dominated political sphere, the Indigenous suicide rate appears to be, in part, caused, by young people who are still struggling to find their place in a Eurocentric country.

            It is very hard to believe that the current approaches to the high rate of suicide of Indigenous Canadian’s are working.  Suicide strikes people of all cultures, but not to the same extent.  There seems to be a lack of firm ideas on how to help improve the mental health of Indigenous Canadian’s.  The best solution is to improve their overall lives.

            In my time in Brandon Manitoba working at the local pork plant, I worked with many younger Sioux from the Sioux Valley reserve.  It was my first exposure to Indigenous peoples on a personal level and I learned a lot from it.  I was a volunteer with the Union there so I heard many of the issues; suicide was not one of them but many were related to mental health.  I can recall one time when an Aboriginal man in his early forties passed away of a heart attack and he was not found until a co-worker went to his home.  The Union Representative explained to all of us that the health care system was not trusted by Aboriginals and that we all had to encourage them to access care, which our benefit plan covered in any case.  I remember being shocked by the way it was bluntly put to us; Aboriginals would rather die at home in many cases than seek care in the hospital.  If that resistance is there for physical care one can only imagine how hard it is to seek mental health aide.

I learned about the tough life young Sioux faced in the Brandon area.  One co-worker of mine was fairly comfortable with me and he told me about things like having the Brandon Police ask him to account for why he was waiting at a bus stop at 6 a.m. in the West End.  He told me of the gangs and having been beaten for not wanting to join one.  I learned about the hardships of being in and out of foster care and being placed in white families.  He told me it was horrible, he hated it but he was in it for three years while his mother sobered up.  He was an intelligent young man, so I was disappointed when he told me he had not completed high school.  I thought that just did not seem right so I made a strong effort to convince him to get G.E.D.  I even brought him all the info he would need to apply for it.  One day after we had been talking and I had been telling him of all the benefits of education, he said something to me that has stuck with me along time.  He said “You know I am just surprised; I am just not used to anyone caring.”  It really strikes me that for all the hardships Indigenous peoples go through in Canada, they actually are a pretty resilient group to keep going.  They are still just looking for that place to fit in, in a world opposite many of their traditional beliefs.  When I read about the suicide of a young Indigenous person, I often wonder “Did anyone care?” 

David Hayward.

References

Boyden, J. (2010, July 1). The hurting: Award-winning novelist Joseph Boyden on the link between residential schools and the devastation of native suicide. Macleans. Retrieved from http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/07/01/the-hurting/

Bullies took her dog, police took her dad.  (2005, April 10).   Winnipeg Free Press. Retrieved from http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/historic/31614569.html

Evans, A. (2004). Chee Chee: a study of Aboriginal suicide. Montreal, Canada: McGill-Queens University Press.

Isaak, C.A., Campeau, M., Katz, L.Y., Enns, Elias, B., Sareen, J. (2009). Community-based suicide prevention research in remote on-reserve First Nations Communities.  Mental Health Addiction, 8, 258-270. doi 10.1007/s11469-009-9250-0

Kitching, C. (2010, September 10). Discussing suicide to save lives. Winnipeg Sun.   Retrieved from http://www.winnipegsun.com/news/winnipeg/2010/09/10/15315461.html

McIntyre, M (2009, January 16). Left to die in stolen vehicle. Winnipeg Free Press. Retrieved from http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/found_dead_in_stolen_vehicle.html

Morrissette, V. (2006) Towards an Aboriginal perspective that addresses ideological domination in social policy analysis. Chapter 5: Implications for Social Work (pp. 162-189). Unpublished master’s thesis, University of Manitoba.