Suicide in Nunavut

Suicide touches everyone This is the first of a special three-part series on suicide in Nunavut prepared by freelance journalist Jennifer Tilden.

By NUNATSIAQ NEWS

JENNIFER TILDEN
Special to Nunatsiaq News

Suicide is a horrific fact of life for the people of Nunavut. And it has been that way for many years.

“Every single person I know in Nunavut, including myself, has been affected by having a relative or close friend commit suicide,” says Baffin South MLA Goo Arlooktoo, who’s also the deputy premier of the Northwest Territories.

Statistics gathered by the GNWT Department of Health show that between 1984 and 1993, there were 219 suicides in the Northwest Territories.

Only thirty-eight percent of the NWT’s population lives in Nunavut ­ and yet 63 per cent of suicides occurred here.

Today the rate of suicide in the Baffin and Keewatin regions is estimated to be four times higher than the national average.

Over the past decade those numbers have been on the rise ­ and the actual numbers are thought to be even higher than that.

In Nunavut, as in the rest of Canada, young men kill themselves more often than do women. It is the teenage sons, the young husbands and fathers who are ending their own lives at an alarming rate. Self-inflicted gunshots and hangings are the usual methods.

When someone commits suicide, friends and family grieve. They cry and they ask those agonizing questions that can never be answered:

“Why have you left me?”

“Why didn’t you talk to me?”

“What could I have done?”

People don’t talk

But many people in Nunavut don’t talk about suicide to each other. It is painful to discuss the problems that lead to a loved one giving up hope and ending his or her life.

The issues connected to suicide include sexual abuse, alcohol and substance abuse, and criminal behaviour. There is often shame and secrecy surrounding these matters.

Some people don’t like to talk about controversial subjects. For others, it is simply too painful.

“People don’t like to talk about bad news,” says Nunatsiaq MP Jack Anawak.

“There is not enough openness out there. We have to start talking about subjects like physical, mental and sexual abuse.”

Anawak says Inuit must acknowledge their problems first, because only then can they begin to deal with them.

Some people think that if you talk about suicide, more people will want to do it. That fear is not unfounded.

According to the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention, suicides can occur in clusters within a local area. A copycat effect is possible for people who have been thinking of committing suicide, and are of the same age, sex and race as someone who has recently committed suicide.

Is suicide a sin?

Goo Arlooktoo thinks that part of the reason many Inuit are reluctant to talk about suicide is the influence of Christianity ­ and the idea that suicide is a sin.

He says some people may feel that talking about suicide won’t make any difference. And Arlooktoo believes that this has to change.

“We need to deal with the grieving and start talking to our young people about their problems,” Arlooktoo says.

But more people are now beginning to speak out about suicide The realization that this problem can no longer be ignored is beginning to sink in.

No one to talk to

Eight years have passed since Annie’s husband committed suicide. To this day, no one in her family has ever discussed with her how he died.

Annie ­ who has chosen not to use her real name ­ says the pain of her loss never leaves her and that she still harbours much anger. But she also believes the most important thing that Inuit can do to stop this problem is to face it and talk about it.

Annie knows what it is like to live with unanswered questions. Her husband was only 24 when he hanged himself in an RCMP holding cell in their community.

At the time Annie was pregnant with their child. She remembers that there was no one to talk to, and she says that for the people left behind, there is no help, “I don’t know how I got through it ­ it’s like part of you dies”.

People are afraid to talk about this subject and for those like Annie, this leads to a feeling of complete isolation.

Because Annie had no one to talk to about her feelings, she became increasingly depressed and began thinking about suicide herself. Those who have lost a loved one to suicide are eight times more likely to commit suicide themselves.

Secrets are dangerous

It is also dangerous for people to keep information to themselves about a person at risk.

Two years after her husband’s death, Annie was told by her husband’s mother that her son had shown signs of suicidal behaviour since he was 14. Some friends also said that Annie’s husband had talked about wanting to commit suicide, because he was tired of people, and because he felt alone and unloved.

People fool themselves when they say that a person who talks like that is only joking or in a bad mood. Annie says she will always wonder whether she might have been able to help her husband if only he or someone else had talked about what was going on.

Respect for the family?

Amittuq MLA Mark Evaloarjuk says that it’s true that Inuit feel uncomfortable discussing the death of a member of the community when that person has taken his or her own life.

He says this is out of respect for the family. When a loved one has committed suicide, the death is much harder to come to terms with than when someone has died of natural causes.

So most Inuit don’t want to talk about it with the families, because they believe it will cause them more pain.

Editor’s note: Jennifer Tilden’s special three-part series will continue in upcoming issues of Nunatsiaq News. Tilden conducted her interviews in Inuktitut and English and translated the articles herself from English to Inuktitut.

Share This Story

(0) Comments