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Press Release - For Immediate Release
NWAC Supports World Suicide Prevention Day September 10, 2011 and brings attention to the Call for Help issued by Pikangikum First Nation
Ottawa, ON (September, 2011) – On World Suicide Prevention Day, the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) wishes to acknowledge the gift of life and the strength of community. We seek to remember and honour those who have been lost to suicide, their families, communities, and loved ones through ongoing efforts to promote positive mental health and well-being for Aboriginal youth.
NWAC also expresses its sincere condolences on the recent suicides of four young women and one young man fromPikangikum First Nation in Northern westernOntario. Thesefive youth suicides have occurred over a period of less than two months, as Pikangikum First Nation member Mr. Gordon Peters writes in a letter dated August 30, 2011. Mr. Peters is calling for international attention on this issue andbelieves that governments and First Nation leadership have forgotten about Pikangikum and simply do not care. He describes theheartbreaking reality thatPikangikum youth think suicide is a “normal way of life”.
While NWAC is pleased with the positive work to prevent youth suicide, as illustrated by the ongoing desperate situation in remote communities like Pikangikum, much work still needs to be done.
NWACwishes to express its vehement support for the community of Pikangikum. Mr. Peters is correct in stating that suicide should never be an alternative to life, anywhere,in any community in Canada. But for many isolated communities suicide has become part of normalized behavior. Every time suicide occurs in a small remote community it becomes less of a stigma and more of a reality.
Youth suicide has been a long standing issue in this community and governments have been aware of it for some time. “I would like to reiterate Mr. Peters’ sentiments;just because it is not reported in the news, does not mean that it is not still happening,” says NWAC’s President Jeannette Corbiere Lavell.
It is most appropriate on September 10, 2011 World Suicide Prevention Day to honour the strength of communities like Pikangikumwho have been impacted by suicide and commend those who are implementing prevention strategies.
As President of the Native Woman’s Association of Canada and a national leader of one of Canada’s National Aboriginal Organizations (NAO’s) I support Mr. Peters and the community of Pikangikumin his urgent call for implementing the Chief Coroner’s recommendations and I call upon on all of the NAO’s to join me in urging Canada and all levels of governments to make the Chief’s Coroners Recommendationsa reality towards a better life for the youth and members of Pikangukum First Nation.
For Further Information Please Contact:
Dan Peters
NAYSPS, Coordinator
Native Women’s Association of Canada
Phone: (613) 656-3029
Email: dpeters@nwac.ca
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