Suicide In Canada

In April of 2016 the remote First Nation of Attawapiskat was forced to declare a state of emergency when eleven members of the community attempted suicide in a single night. This was not an isolated event, many of the forty-nine First Nations that make up Nishnawbe-Aski Nation in Northern Ontario have dealt with generations of disproportionately high rates of suicide in contrast to both the national average and other First Nations across Canada. In the seven months prior to April 2016 there were more than 100 reported attempts in Attawapiskat alone (Russell, 2017). This paper will examine the way in which the media has reported on youth suicide, primarily focusing on Attawapiskat. There are many factors that have led to this climate, including,

The first report was titled Buried Voices: Media Coverage of Aboriginal Issues in Ontario was released in August of 2013 and the second report released in March of 2016 was titled Buried Voices: Changing Tones. These reports have found, through qualitative analysis, a steady increase in the number of Indigenous stories written by Ontarian journalists. However, this increase in coverage still fails to adequately represent the Indigenous population. As Indigenous people account for approximately 2% of the population of Ontario, but only 0.5% of media engages with Indigenous issues (JHR, 2016, p. 6). A remaining problem with the coverage is that it is focused on current issues indigenous people are facing, but not on why they are facing them. The media needs to do a better job explaining to the general public as to why Indigenous people in Canada are suffering. The failure in doing so creates a uniformed society that perpetuates myths or negative stereotypes of Indigenous people in

These communities are also a part of the greater Nishnawbe Aski Nation. The article discusses how the funding and resources that were promised by the government following the deaths had not yet appeared despite being publicly announced. The content and theme of this article is not uncommon. There are dozens of articles that discuss how following crisis in Indigenous communities the government promises change which satisfies the general public’s outrage, but the communities never see the results. A lot of settler media also focus on mental health supports in the communities. While mental heath resources are extremely important they fail to acknowledge that the Indigenous perspective of health is vastly different to the Western or settler approach. Indigenous health is holistic and places great importance on overall wellness meaning that all aspects of their life must be healthy and balanced. Whereas the Western concepts of health is highly segmented. The failure of the government to approach this issue from an Indigenous perspective is not conducive to fixing the problem. First Nations need to have self-determination so that they can decide how to heal their communities, and it will