Acting On What We Know: Preventing Youth Suicide in First Nations

Culture

First Nations youth live in increasingly diverse and complex communities; still most of them hold language, land and legacy as integral to culture. For them, culture is made up of strengths they want to work on and to add to their past accomplishments and future prospects. In their seminal research, Chandler and Lalonde (1998) show that the concept of cultural continuity provides First Nations youth with a hedge against suicide because it sustains a sense of self and a will to live, especially in times of dramatic change.

The cautionary note here is not to erase the memories of First Nations youth or to sanitize the harsh realities they struggle with. Before forward-looking strategies for suicide prevention can be advanced, it is critical for them to reflect on who they are and where they have come from. On the former, a youth delegate at a conference stated: "Any kid is trying to find him or herself as an individual, but for Native youth there is the additional identity crisis of finding out who they are as a Native person."(Discussion Notes from the Suicide Prevention Workshop, 1994) On the latter, history has determined power relations for youth. To quote: "The loss of land, culture and language is an important factor in suicide. Native youth recognize that they have lost their country and their voice as a people."(ibid.)

With regards to language, First Nations youth have taken up traditional and modern legends, stories and songs, making them feel more competent and useful as a result. By the same token, ceremonies have given them a sense of belonging and have helped to transform their lives. Meanwhile, youth have helped one another to achieve and reinforce these ends and they have used them to come to terms with unmet needs and the problem of suicide. In the report called Choosing Life (1995), the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) underlined the importance of revitalizing or creating appropriate rituals like condolence ceremonies and spirit dances to counter the isolation of individuals and families and to afford them spaces to express their losses and grief. Similarly, mainstream institutions like schools, colleges and universities involve First Nations youth in ceremonies like graduation and awards events even though high drop out rates mark them.

Land is healing for First Nations youth who yield to it as a sense of place, a familiar landscape and an educational experience. First, land is a place or territory where family members reside and foster their unique cultures and livelihoods. Second, land is steeped in values and in a landscape made familiar by shared stories: "There was always trust (in the traditional way of life) and it did not get lost. My dad tells me of trapping with my mishomis (grandfather). They would be out on the trapline for days in really bad weather and life-threatening situations, and my dad would trust whatever he would say and trust him completely"(Discussion Notes from the Suicide Prevention Workshop, 1994). Third, land represents educational experiences in country settings for First Nations youth who often participate in nation-gathering events, back-to-the-land rituals and survival training activities where they learn skills like responsible living, problem solving, team building and other traditional teachings, which may prevent suicide.

As for legacy, First Nations youth are at high risk for suicide if they lack the roots and relationships healthy families and communities afford. To begin, it is important to examine this problem against the backdrop of the positive influence of culture:

• There is clear evidence in research and in Aboriginal experience that a clear and positive sense of cultural identity in institutions that allow for collective self-control, along with strong bonds of love and mutual support in family and community, can act as a protective force against despair, self-destructiveness and suicide(Choosing Life, 1995)

In theory, family and community roots need to be renewed and reconciled on an ongoing basis to ward off negative intergenerational impacts and tensions that may lead to youth suicide. Notwithstanding widely known problems such as the effects of the trauma of residential schools, isolated incidents can cause grief for First Nations youth as well. Some suffer oppression along cultural lines when individuals and institutions charged with looking after their emotional, physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing fail in their duties. For example, adoption poses special risks for them especially when family and community members label them as cultural outsiders, a situation which is made worse because they see little recourse for remedial action.

It is important to raise the legacy of residential schools and how this has affected the youth of today. Murray Sinclair (1998) writes about how the detrimental effects of residential schools have lasted over generations:

• For the most part, the children who were removed from their families and sent to residential schools suffered emotional and psychological harm that had differing degrees of impact upon their own coping and parenting skills. Often, the result was a belief on their part that what was "Indian" was bad - their languages, their ceremonies, their beliefs, their rituals, their religion, their Elders and other traditional people. When these children became adults, they sometimes carried on the culturally destructive attitudes and attacks of missionary people with whom they had grown up...None had received instruction in how to raise children. So that when they had families they experienced coping problems (Sinclair 1998, p.171)

In practice, First Nations youth long for better relationships with their parents. They want their parents to nurture and support them and to protect them against the vagaries of life. A case in point is the young men who are at highest risk to commit suicide. The fear, hurt, shame and anger youth sometimes feel is aided and abetted by parents who neglect and abuse them usually while under the influence of substances like alcohol. In the publication Stories From Our Youth, frank testimonials by youth attest to this:

• Sometimes my mom wants to move away from my dad because my dad always beats up my mom. But sometimes my mom gets drunk and she tells me she doesn't love me and it really, really hurts my feeling and it makes me cry.(Stories from Our Youth, 1999:24)

• Many people in our community say that alcohol and other addictions are causing very serious problems...it affected me because my mom drank when she had me.(Ibid.,27)

• I think alcohol, drugs and gambling are making problems. You might lose your family, kids, mom and dad because of alcohol, drugs and gambling...Your kids might do the same thing as you are doing. You might kill someone when you are doing drugs and alcohol.(Ibid., 34)

• Kids around my age like to swear for nothing. Instead of saying shut-up, they like to use the F-word, B-word or the A-word. They use those swear words because they heard it from their parents...Many people who don't drink show violence and abuse to those they love.(Ibid., 45)

• When you were a child, did your mom and dad spend time with you? Did they feed you well, did they tell you tons of evening stories? Did they show you how to do work, did they take you out on the land, did they make you beaded clothes, did they protect you? Did they show you how much they care, did they show you respect and love? Well, I guess my parents don't do that anymore because they love to drink more than they love me.(Ibid., 53)

In sum, culture is vital to preventing suicides among First Nations youth. Culture has its purveyors and protagonists so parents and peers need attention when youth's reflections and perspectives about suicidal behaviour and suicide are considered. Since language, land and legacy lie at the heart of culture for First Nations youth, provisions need to be made to connect them to these at an everyday level.