Another Light Dimmed From the Forgotten Tundras

Hopeless, a word with an overlooked profound meaning behind it. In the end, when the world around us may crumble, especially if it is in ruins of no fault of our own, it is the will to hope that keeps us going. And, to no fault of their own, a man without hope faces the abyss of no return, on the scale that attempts to equalize such a deep emotion with the possible path of fragile meaning. With this dilemma placed before him, he jumps into the abyss with the last dying thoughts disregarding the notion that he will ever be remembered. It is the work of a journalist to shine a spotlight on the darkened and rusted caverns, and to give the world an understanding that could have saved a life. I therefore bring your attention to the indigenous people known as the Inuit, and their decades long struggle with suicide.

Back in 2015, The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry released a study on suicide in the Canadian province of Nunavut, and reported that, “In Canada, the rates of suicide among indigenous people have been consistently higher than in the general population” (Chachamovich et al., 2015). To illustrate the significance behind this assertion, the article then goes into detail regarding the statistics, stating that, “Between 1999 and 2003, the rates in Inuit regions averaged 135 per 100,000, more than 10 times the Canadian rates.”(Chachamovich et al., 2015). To put that into perspective, the CDC reported that Wyoming had the highest suicide rate of any state in 2018, with a suicide rate of 25.2. (Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). That would make Nunavut in between the 4 year range, 5 times higher than the American state of Wyoming, with the highest suicide rate. Luckily, this number has decreased as time goes on, but not by much. Global News released an article written by Eric Stober in 2019, reporting that, “For Inuit [Between 2011 to 2016], the rate was around nine times higher than non-indigenous, at 72.3 deaths per 100,000 person-years at risk.”(Stober, 2019). This is an issue that has to be addressed, but it doesn’t do any good to simply provide numbers without then explaining the details of who this is affecting the most in these communities.

The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry mentioned before, also provided an adequate outline of the demographic of these suicides, “Moreover, this rise is almost entirely due to an exponential increase in suicides by people under 25 years old … Among the suicide subjects, 99 (82.5%) were male and 21 (17.5%) were female. Ninety-six of the subjects died by hanging (80.0%), 19 by gunshot (15.9%), 4 by stabbing (3.3%), and 1 by overdose (0.8%).”(Chachamovich et al., 2015). At 25 most of these people would have just gotten out of college, 18 year olds who just graduated from high school. These are young teenagers, with a life in front of them, permanently removed because of the pressure and hopelessness they felt at what awaited them. There is a Native American saying by Chief Seattle that goes, “We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children''. The children and youth of a nation are what will push it to see a tomorrow, they are drivers in the car of progress and innovation. Interesting aswell, on a global scale we see men encompass the majority of suicide cases, and this is no exception. There is a uniquely male focused struggle that these statistics undeniably prove, that has and still results in them leading the suicide cases almost unanimously worldwide.

Humanity has a spine that doesn’t falter easy, we can handle and cope and adapt to plenty that we face. But, what if the struggles and hardships have no light to be seen on a seemingly endless tunnel? How long can a spine under pressure last before it breaks? The Inuit have for decades been hit with mass Tuberculosis cases, and it doesn’t seem to be going away for sometime. To add to it, the Inuit had encountered rapid colonization from the beginning to middle of the 20th, primarily with the introduction of Christianity which has forced traditionally revered Shaman to go underground in fear of prosecution. Without that pivital cultural figure, many began to convert, and that also meant changing the commonly held practices like polygamy and traditional tattoo art, for exchange of foreign Christian values. (Kral, 2016). It was under this foreign governance that the Inuit began to be moved into crowded camps, where they would be further indoctrinated, and there are even several reports of children being sexually abused while attending the mandated Catholic schools. As Michael J Kral said, “Children were taught that their parents and grandparents were inferior role models.”(Kral, 2016). This wasn’t the end to their struggles either, because with so many Inuit moved to these camps, the lack of housing emerged, alongside the growing problem of unemployment that came with so many people in so little space. It was about in the mid 1980s when suicide among the Inuit began to appear, “The children of those who went to the residential and day schools began to kill themselves, and the suicide rate continues to increase”. (Kral, 2016). That spine had broken, it didn’t feel like anything was going to get better, and under this foreign uncaring governance, it would get far worse before it could get better. The Inuit have some of the lowest life expectancy to be seen in Canada, and since the end of the 20th century Nunavut and the Indigenous people living all through Canada have had to face years of discrimination and lack of representation.

The question remains for everyone reading, what can be done? In all reality the impact our individual lives could play into this cultural struggle is minimal. But, this doesn’t mean that our awareness and understanding is in vain, because while we might not be able to fix the situation, taking time to study and learn about the culture and lives of these people is providing them with just another person who will listen and isn’t trying to shape or shift them into what they want them to be. There is a great resource called Tunngasugit if you wanted to learn the Inuktitut language, and APTN News is a great insight into the news of North American Native people that doesn’t make it to the mainstream outlets.

1. Chachamovich, E., Kirmayer, L. J., Haggarty, J. M., Cargo, M., McCormick, R., & Turecki, G. (2015, Jun nd). Suicide Among Inuit: Results From a Large, Epidemiologically Representative Follow-Back Study in Nunavut. PMC. Retrieved Jan 22, 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4501584/#:~:text=Inuit%20suicide%20rates%20are%20among,than%20the%20general%20Canadian%20rates.&text=Although%20suicide%20was%20not%20unknown,severalfold%20during%20the%20last%20decades
2. Kral, M. J. (2016, Nov nd). Suicide and Suicide Prevention among Inuit in Canada. PMC. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5066555/
3. Stober, E. (2019, Jun 30). First Nations suicide rate 3 times higher than for non-Indigenous people: StatsCan. Global News. https://globalnews.ca/news/5448390/first-nations-suicide-rate-statscan/#:~:text=For%20those%20who%20self%2Didentify,100%2C000%20person%2Dyears%20at%20risk.&text=For%20Inuit%2C%20the%20rate%20was,100%2C000%20person%2Dyears%20at%20risk
4. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. (2020, April 29). Suicide Mortality by State. CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/suicide-mortality/suicide.htm