Jackie Hookimaw-Witt, whose teenage niece committed suicide last autumn, said it was the third attempt for one 13-year-old girl who survived on Saturday. “There are so many things”, said Anna Betty Achneepineskum of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, a political organization which represents 49 First Nations communities including Attawapiskat.
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The crisis highlights the often bleak conditions for Canada’s indigenous peoples.
Dr. Laurence Kirmayer of McGill University, founder and director of the Network for Aboriginal Mental Health Research, said suicide is a behaviour, but it can also be seen as an idea.
A scary situation has arisen in an indigenous community in northern Canada known as Attawapiskat First Nation, and a state of emergency has now been issued.
“Community front line resources are exhausted and no additional outside resources are available”, said the hand-written declaration signed by Chief Bruce Shisheesh at 9:24 p.m. on April 9.
His recent federal budget promised billions of dollars in aid: Trudeau’s Liberal government pledged an extra $6.54 billion (5.75 billion euros) over five years to help the aboriginal population deal with its dire living conditions.
While Gravelle said reserves need to determine how that money is spent, Day countered that First Nations are still at the mercy of governments and other partnerships that allocate amounts well short of what’s actually needed to address long-standing issues. This comes after the community declared a state of emergency over the weekend.
The Attawapiskat First Nation is a small subarctic community of 2,000 people, located near the Hudson Bay and more than 300 miles from the nearest city.
Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation told The Canadian Press that “without having data right from the nursing station or our police service, I think it’s very hard to sort of differentiate what you would call a serious attempt vs. people just thinking about self-harm”.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during a visit to the United States earlier this year.
“There’s a few people that are taking it upon themselves to organize little activities for the young people, but we need more help”, she said.
Another, from the University of Victoria, found suicide rates among the young in these communities up to 800 times the national average. Titled “The People’s Inquiry Into Our Suicide Pandemic”, the January 2016 report reviewed a period from 2009 to 2011, when an estimated 600 Mushkegowuk people attempted suicide, according to the report. Many young indigenous people are angered by the disparities between their standard of living and that of the rest of Canada.
Another Canadian aboriginal community in the western province of Manitoba reported six suicides in two months and 140 suicide attempts in two weeks.
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She said if someone is depressed and talking about committing suicide it would be helpful if a family member could call someone for help either to talk to the person in trouble or take them to the hospital.
