WHAT ARE THE CONTRIBUTING FACTORS TO ABORIGINAL YOUTH SUICIDE?

Sexual abuse, family violence, alcohol and drug abuse, solvent abuse, deterioration of family structures, lack of proper leadership etc. are only the symptoms of a bigger and more devastating cycle of oppression and depravation first initiated with colonial contact in 1492.

We can group four major risk factors into four families of related attributes:

• Psycho-biological factors: ie. mental disorders
• Life history or situational factors: early childhood trauma; current family dysfunctionality; conflict in intimate relationships; imprisonment; substance abuse; current access to lethal means; absence of religious and spiritual commitment
• Socio-economic factors: unemployment, individual and family poverty; relative deprivation or low class status; low standards of community health, stability and prosperity
• Culture stress: the loss of confidence by individuals or groups in the ways of understanding life and living (norms, values and beliefs) that were taught to them within their original cultures and the personal or collective distress that may result.

Culture Stress

Culture stress - a category of risk that applies to those whose societies have undergone massive, imposed, or uncontrollable change.

Culture is the whole complex of relationships, knowledge, languages, social institutions, beliefs, values, and ethical rules that bind people together and give the collective and its individual members a sense of who they are and where they belong.

In a society that enjoys normal continuity of culture from one generation to another, its children absorb their culture with every breath they take.

Children learn what is expected of them and they develop a confidence that their words and actions will have meaning and predictable effects in the world around them.

In cultures under stress, the smooth operation of society and the sense life makes to its members can be seriously impaired culturally transmitted norms fall into disrepute.

Indigenous cultures around the world have been subjected for forces of change which are strikingly similar to the disruptions suffered by victims of war:

• Loss of land, loss of control over living conditions and restricted economic activity
• Suppression of belief systems and spirituality;
• Weakening of social institutions;
• Displacement of political institutions;
• Pervasive breakdown of cultural rules and values and diminished self-esteem;
• Discrimination and institutional racism and their internalized effects; and
• Voluntary or involuntary adoption of elements of an external culture and loss of identity.

The transformations that result from these oppressive experiences are gathered together in the term culture stress, which has a central role in predisposing Aboriginal people to suicide, self-injury and other self-destructive behaviours.

Aboriginal traditions, beliefs and institutions were ignored or ridiculed. Despite resistance to imposed institutions and belief systems, and despite the brave unwillingness of some Aboriginal people to abandon traditional ways, all indigenous cultures were weakened as a result of their encounters with non-aboriginal society.

* Source: Choosing Life, Royal Commission on Aboriginal People

RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLING

The traumatic impact of historical and cultural losses upon First Nations peoples has led to a significantly increased suicide rate in some communities. Among youth, those living on reserve are most at risk. This is specifically an issue on some reserves, where the suicide rate is three to six times higher than in the non-Aboriginal population.

For more than a century, First Nations children were taken from their parents (often by force) and required to live in a religious institutional setting. It was not uncommon for a child to remain in the residential school system from the age of four to seventeen. Beyond the many well-documented individual abuses, the schools systematically destroyed the children's self-esteem by inflicting a series of profound losses upon them. Without self-esteem it was believed that the children could be "civilized" or re-created in the image of the colonizer. As a result, they were violated.

With the residential school system and the outlawing of traditional ceremonies and languages, the government and the churches met their goal of solving the "Indian problem" and creating a cheap and assimilated labour force by breaking or weakening ties to family, language, traditional lands and culture.

The impact of residential schools and the numerous incidents that took place there on individuals, families, communities, and culture itself, poverty, alcoholism, the lack of safe affordable housing and of supportive resources have all been named as possible explanations for the high rate of suicide in Aboriginal communities.

While some had less negative experiences than others, many of the children and youth never had the opportunity to learn to be a parent, to develop a sense of personal or cultural identity, or in many cases, to receive a basic education. They were also denied the chance to develop their self-esteem, leaving them vulnerable to crisis, addiction, suicide, and the risk of repeating the neglect and abuse in their turn. This is now commonly called "residential school syndrome" and many individuals and groups are working hard to respond to its multigenerational impact.

There are two important exceptions to the tragic suicide statistics in First Nations communities: Native Elders have a significantly lower suicide rate than non-Aboriginal senior citizens and reserves where traditional culture has been preserved or rebuilt have lower rates than those without tradition. Culture then is a protective factor against suicide.

Source: Darien Thira, Through the Pain: Suicide Prevention Handbook, 2000.