Juliane Trudeau isn’t a stranger to tragedy.
The 20-year-old from Muskrat Dam First Nation says she has been surrounded by suicide, losing both family and friends.
Like many other First Nation students, Trudeau came to the city for school in 2005. She says she lost many friends to suicide while she was going through school.
She believes the culture shock of moving to a large urban centre from the remote Northern communities is a significant contributor to the problem.
“It’s a new way of interacting with people and I guess we’re not prepared for it,” Trudeau says.
“(Moving to a new city) is scary first of all. It’s a feeling of losing yourself because our identity for Aboriginal people is really rooted in the land that we grew up in as well as the traditions and customs of our people. When you lose that and move somewhere new, you kind of lose yourself.”
Most First Nation communities have a suicide rate that is dramatically higher than the national average. Health Canada states suicide and self-inflicted injuries are the leading causes of death for First Nations youth and adults up to 44 years of age.
Aboriginal youth are also five to six times more likely to commit suicide than non-Aboriginals are.
The problem escalated so much for Neskantaga First Nation that the remote-community declared a state of emergency in April following four suicides in a month.
In order to help make a difference, Trudeau became the youth amplifier for Feathers of Hope.
One of the projects that she is helping to develop is a video that will better prepare students when they arrive in the city for school. The video will address some of the cultural differences such as addressing someone ‘mister’ or ‘misses’ instead of using their first name or looking someone in the eye.
Trudeau said these were all things she had to learn.
She expects the video will be out by the end of the summer.
She was one of the representatives at the renewing of the Thunder Bay Youth Suicide Prevention Task Force declaration of commitment signing Tuesday.
The commitment was signed by 30 organizations and agencies including all of the city’s school boards.
Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School principal Jonathan Kakegamic also signed the declaration.
Having lost two former students in the past year, Kakegamic said the important message to send to youth is that there is hope.
“Youth go through so much more especially with social media,” he said. “Things happen very quickly. This is a big step. Sometimes we forget that our youth watch us how we interact with each other. It’s a good step and happy to be a part of this.”
Kakegamic said it’s difficult to talk about suicide because people feel shame but once everyone is more comfortable with talking about these serious issue then the healing can begin.
Sheila Hansen, co-chair of the Youth Suicide Prevention Task Force, said now that all the agencies and organizations have signed the declaration they can do more to help when there is a tragedy.
For example, if there is a student who commits suicide then the mental health agencies on the task force will do whatever they can to assist the school.
Hansen said the next steps include more awareness and workshops and working with health-care professions.
