Search for "Suicide among Indigenous Peoples"

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Reserve Declares State of Emergency After Three Suicides and Four Attempts in One Month

Chief Ronald Mitsuing of the Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation, located northwest of Saskatoon, declared that the community of 1,000 people was in a state of emergency and a state of crisis after three people, including a 10-year-old and a 14-year-old, committed suicide in the space of a month. At least four others attempted suicide in that time. “The community and our frontline workers are looking for immediate relief; and we are calling on our local, provincial and federal governments for support,” Mitsuing said in a statement. (See also Suicide Among Indigenous Peoples in Canada.)

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Inuk Woman Completes Cross-Canada Bike Trip for Suicide Awareness

Hannah Tooktoo, an Inuk mother from Nunavik, Quebec, completed a 55-day bicycle journey from Victoria to Montreal to bring awareness to the crisis of suicide among Indigenous people in Canada. Tooktoo raised more than $22,000 from online donations. According to Statistics Canada, suicide rates among Indigenous people between 2011 and 2016 were three times higher than among non-Indigenous Canadians.

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Labrador Community Suffers 10 Youth Suicide Attempts in Less Than One Week

The Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation in central Labrador declared a suicide crisis after 10 young people in the community attempted suicide in less than a week. (See also Suicide Among Indigenous Peoples.) The attempts followed the drowning death of a 20-year-old woman, the most recent of more than a dozen deaths in the last year in the village of 1,300 people. In 2016, a study published in the American Journal of Public Health found that suicide rates among Innu people in Labrador were 14 times higher than suicide rates among non-Indigenous people in Newfoundland. (See also Reserves in Newfoundland and Labrador.)