First Nation Suicides
Leaders of the Attawapiskat First Nation in Northern Ontario, Canada, have called for help after eleven suicide attempts over this past weekend.
According to one report, the community experienced twenty-six suicide attempts in March and over eighty since September. The community has been plagued by suicide for decades.
The National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations noted the need to address “issues of hopelessness among our peoples.”
Suicide is understood by some of us as a manifestation of internalized genocide and internalized oppression, as the final effort to respond to the oppression.
I am discharging about this and trying to figure out what I can do. I am wondering whether others of you have heard about this crisis and had a chance to discharge about it, and what you might have figured out about what can be done.
Amherst, Massachusetts, USA
(Present Time 184, July 2016)