In order to fully appreciate this blog please watch these two you tube clips in the respective order that they are displayed: 1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eynv-E35mHM and 2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2AHcitZ4x4&feature=related
The two videos powerfully demonstrate the effects that Aboriginal youth suicide has on an entire community. Issues are discussed such as: spirituality, historical trauma, intergenerational pain, identity loss among youth, coping through addictions, and the urgent need for Aboriginal youth to reconnect with their culture through dialoguing with elders and grandparents.
The issue of Aboriginal youth suicide is not something to be taken lightly. According to Kirmayer, Brass, Holton, Paul, Simpson & Tait (2007) rates of Aboriginal youth suicide are currently higher than that of the general population. The overall suicide rates among non-Aboriginal people in Canada has declined, however in some Aboriginal communities they have significantly risen in the last two decades. It is also noted that Inuit rates of suicide are 6 to 11 times higher than the national average suicide rate. Why is suicide so prevalent among one particular group of Canadians? What are the factors that have brought these communities to such dire circumstances? And what is the role of the older Aboriginal generation in all of this?
Kelly (2007) identified three specific cultural effects that Aboriginal reserves have experienced over the past century: first, there has been an overall breakdown of cultural values and belief systems through the interruption of the normal family life cycle by the Indian Residential Schools and the Child Welfare “Sixties Scoop”; second, there has been a loss of control over both land and living conditions among Aboriginal peoples living on reserves; and third, prejudice, racism, and discrimination have contributed to the development of negative attitudes within non-Aboriginal persons towards Aboriginal persons. Kelly posits that these three factors have set the stage for the marked increase in Aboriginal youth suicide on reserves. The Advisory Group on Suicide Prevention (2003) has noted that Aboriginal suicide rates are two to three times higher than non-Aboriginal suicide rates. Aboriginal youth’s suicide rates ages 15-24 are five to six times higher than those of non-Aboriginal youth.
Masecar (2007) has examined the effects that Aboriginal youth suicide has on the community as a whole. One youth suicide has a ripple effect within the whole and further deteriorates reserve communities. It is a vicious cycle, because research has shown that a break down in reserve communities only further increases suicide risk for the community as a whole. To restore healing and harmony within the reserve community one must first examine the source of the intergenerational pain. The community needs to address the historical and cultural trauma it has endured for the past 200 years.
Masecar (2007) defines cultural and historical trauma as a cluster of events that disrupts the social and cultural patterns of a community. The disrupted patterns are transformed into maladaptive patterns of behaviour which are then manifested as negative symptoms such as substance abuse, addictions, and self-destructive behaviours. The break down in community social functioning can last for years, or in this case, centuries. Disruptive events that have led to the breakdown in normal Aboriginal family processes, and the passing down of culture from one generation to the next are: the Indian Act, the residential schools, the sixties scoop, and the systemic racism built into Canadian institutions. The high rates of Aboriginal suicide only further traumatize and imbed pain within the community. The effects of historical and cultural trauma within the community is then perpetuated and re-embedded with each loss endured.
What is the role of Aboriginal older adults one may ask? After the previous discussion focused on the disruption of normative family life cycles, and the interruption of the transmission of Aboriginal culture from one generation to the next; the future of Aboriginal culture lies in the hands of grandmothers, grandfathers, and Elders who have the culture and the ways of their people within themselves. The older generation is a fading source of Aboriginal culture. There we find the language, wisdom, and teachings of centuries past. It is through this older generation that the transmission of culture will be passed down to the younger generation.
Hallett, Chandler, & Lalonde’s (2007) did an exploratory study on Aboriginal language retention and the buffering effect it had within Aboriginal communities against suicide. It was discovered that between 1987 and 1992 bands in which the majority (over 50%) of population who had working knowledge of conversation level Aboriginal language experienced low to absent youth suicide rates; 13 out of 100, 000 youth. Such rates were below provincial standards of both Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal suicide rates. In contrast, those communities in which less than half the population reported conversational knowledge had suicide rates six times greater than the previous; 96.59 out of 100, 000 youth. It was determined that language retention is an indicator of cultural resilience within Aboriginal communities. The inverse relationship between language retention and suicide rates demonstrate that language, as an indicator of cultural retention, is a strong buffer against suicide in reserve communities.
Who carries the language within them? It is the older generation that holds the key to healing and to the restoration of the traditional way of life. Currently, Aboriginal youth are beginning the process of dialoguing with their grandparents, elders, aunts, uncles and community leaders in an attempt to restore what was once lost. I hope this helps to highlight the extremely important role that older Aboriginal people have in their culture, especially during this limited time that they have to pass what was once thought lost, onto the new generation. Thanks for reading.
Michelle Kehler
References
Advisory Group on Youth Suicide. (2003). Acting on what we know: Preventing youth suicide in First Nations. Ottawa, ONT: Health Canada.
Hallett, D., Chandler, M., & Lalonde, C. (2007). Aboriginal language knowledge and youth suicide. Cognitive Development, 22, 392-399. Retrieved March 28, 2010, from Google Scholar.
Kelly, F. (2007) Traditional and contemporary approaches to youth suicide prevention. Ottawa, ONT: National Youth Council
Kirmayer, L., Brass, G., Holton, T., Paul, K., Simpson, C., & Tait, C. (2007). Suicide among Aboriginal people in Canada. Retrieved March 28, 2010, from: http://www.ahf.ca/pages/download/28_13246
Masecar, D. (2007). What is working, what is hopeful. Ottawa, ONT: Health Canada.
No comments:
Post a Comment