We need Indigenous-led solutions to suicide crisis

Suicide is the most personal of choices an individual can make, and it leaves behind the most public of pain. Suicide leaves a family devastated and the grief is felt throughout the community.

In Saskatchewan, the suicide rate for Indigenous people is three times the national average. It’s an ongoing tragedy that destroys families and deeply affects communities.

Last May, the provincial government released a suicide prevention strategy, which was deemed inadequate by First Nations leaders. The government made the old mistake of treating suicide as a mental health problem and placed the responsibility on the individual.

Meanwhile Doyle Vermette, the NDP member for the Cumberland constituency, presented a bill to address suicide as a community health and safety priority. It was voted down by the government members.

The government had a chance to rise to the occasion and reach across to the opposition and depoliticize a serious issue and open it up for discussion. Rather than make suicide a political issue, it should be removed from politics and given the priority and resources that are required.

It is with this background that Tristen Durocher walked from La Ronge to the provincial legislature in Regina and where he is currently conducting a fast on behalf of the many suicide victims.

In a subtext that would by funny if it weren’t so serious, the provincial government took Tristen to court to get him to move because he’s not supposed to camp on the legislature lawn. This strange dichotomy has the provincial government concerned about their lawn, while Tristen and his supporters have set up a camp to commemorate our lost loved ones.

Tristen plans to complete his fast on Sept.

13, so the legal strategy appears to be to rag the puck and drag out the court process, so the outcome is meaningless. If they try to force the issue, teepees could spring up like mushrooms all over the legislature lawn.

The provincial government suicide prevention strategy addressed the symptoms. Suicide is a symptom of an individual and a community in pain. For First Nations people it is a collective tragedy and it requires a collective response.

First Nations communities are a historical group of families that have lived together for generations. Pain and suffering are shared since we are related, and family ties go back generations.

The suicide crisis does not have a simple fix. It is the result of generations of government policies that have torn our communities apart. There is a long litany of programs and institutions that were designed to change us or eliminate us. There was never any effort to build on the strength of our centuries-old culture and religion.

I recall once I was attending a ceremony on a reserve in Alberta. We were on a beautiful hillside and the scene stretched across the foothills to the Rocky Mountains. I remarked to a friend how beautiful it was. He replied, “I hate this place.” He then told me of the hopelessness and despair he and his people felt, the addictions, poverty and pain that were endemic in the community. It struck me that he was so removed from the land that gives us roots and nurtures us.

Our people selected some of the most beautiful land in the country for our homeland, but it is lost on us if our lives are meaningless and filled with pain.

When our important spiritual ties are cut, we lose a part of ourselves.

When a government states that they are willing to consult with us, I cringe and ask myself, where do you want us to begin? There is an enormous cultural and social gulf between our people and the folks in government.

The real answers to suicide prevention will come from within the community. We need to take control of our lives to make them meaningful. For so many years, missionaries, bureaucrats and outside politicians have done the thinking for us and tried to pound the beautiful round brown pegs that are our people into the square holes of their choosing.

It hasn’t worked and now it’s up to us. As they say, “If it’s your freedom you want, they don’t have it.”