WARNING: This story incorporates references to suicide.
All the time smiling, at all times joking, at all times asking curious questions.
That is how Jenayah Skunk’s household described her at her funeral earlier this month in Mishkeegogamang First Nation.
Jenayah died by suicide late final month, in keeping with her household and neighborhood. She was 10 years outdated.
The Ojibway neighborhood in northwestern Ontario has by no means skilled a suicide of somebody so younger, mentioned Mishkeegogamang Chief Merle Loon, who is said to Jenayah.
“We’re nonetheless in shock,” he mentioned.
Jenayah’s mom, Jamie Skunk, advised Loon she does not need another little one to expertise this, which is why she consented to him talking with Ontario Chronicle about her daughter’s dying.
“‘We should not be dropping our youngsters this fashion,'” Loon mentioned, quoting Skunk.
Loon spent greater than 20 years with the Nishnawbe Aski Police Service (NAPS), the biggest First Nations police power in Canada. When he began at NAPS, he did not see a lot suicide within the area’s First Nations, however the numbers maintain rising.
Merle Loon of Mishkeegogamang First Nation was elected as chief in 2023, and has a background in policing with the Nishnawbe Aski Police Service (NAPS). (Sarah Regulation/CBC)
The Sioux Lookout First Nations Well being Authority (SLFNHA) serves 33 First Nations throughout northwestern Ontario, together with Mishkeegogamang.
The group has tracked 624 suicides in its communities for the reason that mid-Nineteen Eighties, mentioned Janet Gordon, SLFNHA’s vice-president of neighborhood well being.
“The excessive share of these are youth,” Gordon mentioned.
The unnatural dying fee for SLFNHA communities is greater than triple the provincial common. In the meantime, folks aged 15 to 19 made up practically 40 per cent of hospitalizations for psychological well being and substance use in these communities between 2011 and 2021, in keeping with its newest Psychological Well being and Substance Use Report.
We now have to handle the sort of traumatic expertise head on.- Chief Merle Loon, Mishkeegogamang First Nation
Since Jenayah’s dying, Loon mentioned, a number of companions have been offering disaster companies locally.
“We now have to handle the sort of traumatic expertise head on,” Loon mentioned. “To heal is to handle it, and acknowledge it and take care of it in a means that is hopefully wholesome for us transferring ahead as a neighborhood.”
‘Alarming’ rise in cyberbullying
Jenayah’s household mentioned she was experiencing bullying at college and on-line, Loon mentioned.
Final week, NAPS issued a public security advisory a couple of rise in cyberbullying incidents throughout lots of the 34 First Nations it serves.
“That is extremely alarming, particularly due to the recognized hyperlinks between cyberbullying and youth suicide,” the service mentioned in its assertion.
Kiiwetinoong MPP Sol Mamakwa holds a funeral program on the service for Jenayah in Mishkeegogamang First Nation. Mamakwa says her household overtly mentioned suicide and bullying through the service. (Sol Mamakwa)
“Suicide charges are an estimated six instances greater for First Nations youth in comparison with non-Indigenous youth in Canada. In distant and much north communities, these charges are believed to be 11 instances greater.”
NAPS encourages mother and father, lecturers and guardians to talk with youngsters about cyberbullying and its influence on well-being.
Throughout a debriefing on the college with disaster help employees, Loon mentioned, different youngsters began opening up about their experiences with bullying and commenced to speak about it with their households.
“It was like a launch,” he mentioned. “It made me understand that these youngsters, they’re holding this in for no matter cause, and this sort of sparked that, ‘I gotta say one thing.'”
Addressing systemic points
About 1,100 folks reside in Mishkeegogamang, which is about 500 kilometres north of Thunder Bay and is a signatory of Treaty 9. Freeway 599 runs via the center of the First Nation.
The neighborhood has psychological well being and addictions counsellors who come on a rotational foundation, mentioned Loon.
Nevertheless, it may be exhausting to encourage folks to hunt these companies, he mentioned. Neighborhood members are coping with numerous different stressors, specifically overcrowded housing, which suggests they don’t seem to be at all times prioritizing their psychological well being.
Kiiwetinoong MPP Sol Mamakwa, who’s from Kingfisher Lake First Nation, attended Jenayah’s funeral. The day Ontario Chronicle interviewed Mamakwa, he mentioned he’d heard about one other suicide in his driving.
He recalled the state of emergency declared in Wapekeka First Nation in 2017 after three 12-year-old women died after forming a suicide “pact.”
Jenayah is seen posing with a Halloween-themed artwork venture. Her household says she skilled bullying at college and on-line. (Submitted by Chief Merle Loon)
He mentioned it is problematic when First Nations should ship folks outdoors the neighborhood for care.
“It is like we’re pulling them out of the river … dry them off, speak to them for a bit, after which once we ship them again to the neighborhood — the identical setting — we throw them again into the river,” Mamakwa mentioned.
He is inspired by the variety of companies Mishkeegogamang provides, however mentioned extra should be executed to handle the systemic points confronted by First Nations within the area.
“That is why we want to have the ability to tackle the upstream stuff, to be sure that there’s correct housing, to be sure that there’s clear water, to be sure that there may be correct programming.”
Requires land-based programming
At SLFNHA, Gordon mentioned, there are a variety of limitations to delivering companies in First Nations, from the recruitment and retention of pros to making sure they’ve correct lodging.
“Communities wish to see extra community-based programming, so that they actually have felt that the land-based programming that they do actually makes a distinction,” she mentioned. “We’d like extra of that on the neighborhood stage, however additionally they want infrastructure.”
Janet Gordon, vice-president of neighborhood well being for Sioux Lookout First Nations Well being Authority (SLFNHA), says it is essential to help community-based programming and companies, nevertheless it’s a problem to recruit and retain workers. (Submitted by SLFNA)
Loon is negotiating with the provincial and federal governments for a brand new well being and remedy centre, one thing he mentioned is lengthy overdue. A key a part of the proposal is incorporating extra land-based initiatives.
“You heal from inside, which means that you just gotta return to your methods of doing issues, again to the land,” mentioned Loon. “That is the place therapeutic occurs.”
Ontario Chronicle acquired an emailed assertion from Jennifer Kozelj, press secretary for federal Minister of Indigenous Companies Patty Hajdu. When requested concerning the centre, she mentioned work is underway to ascertain a funders desk, which might decide contributions from the First Nation and provincial and federal companions, “to help the neighborhood in reaching their imaginative and prescient for neighborhood well-being.”
Ontario Chronicle additionally reached out to Ontario’s Ministry of Well being and acquired an emailed assertion from spokesperson W.D. Lighthall, referring to the federal government’s Roadmap to Wellness for the province’s psychological well being and addictions system. Lighthall didn’t particularly reference companies inside Mishkeegogamang or its proposal for a brand new well being and remedy centre.
‘We’re resilient folks’
Kozelj expressed condolences for Jenayah’s dying to Mishkeegogamang on behalf of Hajdu.
“We’re in touch with Chief Loon to see if any extra helps are wanted to help neighborhood members throughout this troublesome time. This consists of on-the-ground helps and extra wellness companies as wanted.”
She additionally pointed to the Nishnawbe Aski Nation Select Life program, which is obtainable locally and goals to help youth prone to suicide.
“There’s extra work to do, however we shall be there to help communities to make sure youth have a protected place and protected folks to show to,” mentioned Kozelj.
Regardless of the hardships, Loon mentioned, his persons are holding their heads up excessive.
“There’s at all times hope, and we’re a resilient nation — we’re resilient folks,” Loon mentioned. “Our core values are there. Our teachings are there. Our methods of doing issues are nonetheless there.”
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