Members of Parliament, observers, and colleagues, it's an honour to appear before your committee on the unceded territory of the Algonquin peoples. I would like to commend the dedication of the members of this committee and thank you for the important work you're doing on behalf of all my relations. Niá : wen.
My name is Dr. Rod McCormick. I'm a member of the Mohawk Nation, Kanienkehaka. I work as a full professor and B.C. government-endowed research chair in aboriginal health at Thompson Rivers University.
Before moving back to my partner's home on the Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc Indian reserve, I was a psychologist and counselling psychology professor at the University of British Columbia for 18 years. I've also been a psychotherapist and clinical consultant supervisor for the last 27 years.
Because of the limited time available, I'll confine my comments to two of the objectives of your study.
I'll start with the factors contributing to an elevated risk of suicide. I would like to focus on one method of assimilation and colonization used by Canada that was intended to separate indigenous peoples from primary sources of meaning and strength. I believe that this disconnection is one of the greatest factors contributing to the elevated risk.
A theoretical explanation can be found in logotherapy developed by Viktor Frankl, a Jewish psychiatrist who survived the extermination camps of Nazi Germany. Frankl found that individuals and cultures can survive if they have a strong reason for living. This can be found in sources of meaning such as spirituality, work, significant relationships, contributing to one's culture, and so on.
Through colonization, our experience has been one of disconnection from those sources of meaning. Disconnection from family was experienced as 120 years of residential schools that separated aboriginal children from their parents. For example, my children's Kye7e, or grandma, attended the Kamloops Indian Residential School from the age of 5 to 18.
There was a disconnection from communities. Communities were relocated to reserves and often relocated once again when the government chose to do so. Communities have also been split by various means such as forced replacement of traditional community leadership, with elections imposed by the former department of Indian affairs, and so on.
Disconnection from culture meant that cultural practices such as the potlatch and the sun dance ceremony were often banned or prohibited, and speaking one's language in residential school was punished.
There was a disconnection from spirituality. Every effort was made to replace traditional spirituality with Christianity.
Disconnection from the land resulted from the government's policy to relocate aboriginal peoples to urban settings when possible, to speed up assimilation.
I'll just mention a couple of other contributing factors. One that this panel has already heard about is that suicide has been normalized. The predominant community gathering for most communities has become the funeral. As one colleague said, we're becoming a culture of death. We've also become disempowered to the point where we are no longer “response-able,” i.e., able to respond to crises.
Another point I'll mention is that the government still doesn't understand an indigenous world view. The government uses a mechanistic world view in dealing with indigenous peoples. The idea is that one can create change using drivers, levers, determinants, and so on.
Now, I'll talk about protective factors that help to reduce the vulnerability.
My research with indigenous peoples reveals that one of the paths to healing is reconnecting to those sources of meaning we've been disconnected from; reconnecting with family, community, culture, nature, the land, and spirituality. In addition to reconnection, a meta-analysis of my 25 years of research and practice regarding healing with indigenous peoples indicates that healing leads to one or more of the following: empowerment, cleansing, balance, discipline or responsibility, and of course connection and belonging.
Going back to that mechanistic world view example, I thought I should explain. One of our newspapers, the national indigenous newspaper Windspeaker wrote up a presentation I gave a few years ago in which I told Health Canada to stop pushing. We are pulled towards healing, not pushed. Causes push, reasons pull.
Another article titled, “Get out of the way, and let Aboriginal people get on with health,” states:
McCormick was highly critical of Health Canada’s approach for strategic planning for Aboriginal long-term health planning and the department’s use of “mechanistic” language. Health Canada has been in the business of pushing. . . . We are instinctively pulled towards reason for living a good and healthy life and it’s not instinctive to be pushed. And I think when we’re pushed we tend to be resistant and that resistance can sometimes end up in self-destructive behavior. He believes that Health Canada has “to remove the barriers,” which he noted included such factors as lack of access, lack of culturally-appropriate programming, and short-term funding, and allow Aboriginal people to seek healing through traditional and cultural means.
I'll give you one example of my research and it was published in the Routledge International Handbook of Clinical Suicide Research, and that is a chapter in their own words, “a retrospective exploratory study of how to facilitate healing for suicidal indigenous youth”.
By means of interviewing 25 first nations participants who recovered from being suicidal, they provided examples of their own experiences in healing by describing what was done and what action was taken to facilitate healing for them. If we look at the categories that facilitate healing and recovery for suicidal first nations youth, in descending order of significance, I'll just read the top 10, as follows: self-esteem, self acceptance; obtaining help from others; changing thinking; connection with culture, tradition; responsibility to others; expressing emotions, and cleansing; future goals, and hope; spiritual connection; learning from others, role models; and connection to nature.
The study indicates that there is an abundance of potential healing resources that exist for indigenous youth who are suicidal. It also has the potential to reorient the way indigenous communities and practitioners view the nature and source of mental health services provided to them. In recognizing that the natural healing resources of youth themselves can be effective sources of healing, indigenous community leaders may feel empowered to start examining ways to utilize these methods of healing in addressing youth suicide in their communities.
Given that 13 of the 22 categories involve cultural and spiritual practices, the results of the study suggest that it is necessary to understand the belief systems and world views of indigenous cultures before applying theories and techniques of healing.
Among the other factors—just to finish up here—is the idea that we need to ask the real experts, as I did with this study. I believe communities must find out what works to prevent suicide by asking those who have recovered from being suicidal, because it's important to acknowledge the coping and healing resources that exist within the individual, the community, and the culture.
Obviously we could develop training programs to cover off those 22 categories that deal with positive self-esteem, self awareness, emotional literacy, cultural identity, communication skills; and life skills such as problem-solving, decision-making, values clarification, relationship skills, and stress management. I think another witness said that we have to ensure that our youth have the necessary skills to succeed.
I'd just like to touch on unresolved grief and trauma. We need programs such as those formerly offered by the Aboriginal Healing Foundation that can provide healing resources and programs to deal with unresolved grief and trauma.
As well, I don't believe the video conferencing capabilities, at least in B.C., are being utilized for mental health. There are some logistical safety issues regarding therapy but until they are worked out the facilities could be used to provide support, supervision, training, and consultation to community workers. A 24-hour consultation line, for instance, could be developed for workers such as community health nurses, who could consult and debrief with a senior mental health professional.
Concerning the use of ceremony, many indigenous communities have historically held community events and ceremonies that assist youth in reinforcing their personal and cultural identity and their connection to the community and culture, such as the naming ceremony.
The slow transformation in indigenous health research—wearing my other hat—is a good metaphor to use with regard to indigenous healing. In the beginning research was done on us—we were the guinea pigs—and then for us as we hired researchers for things like land claims, etc., and then with us as research ethnical guidelines required meaningful partnership.
Eventually research will be done by us. This transformation will require an investment in capacity-building.
The last thing I will just mention is that I am developing a centre called All My Relations.
It will be a new research and training centre to help indigenous communities to identify and, in many ways, reclaim traditional healing resources, such as the naming ceremony I mentioned. It is hoped that there will be a lateral exchange of these healing approaches between indigenous communities and training in the use of such approaches, if requested.
I'll stop at that.
Niá : wen.
Thank you.
