Suicide is an increasingly pressing issue in Aboriginal communities in Canada. Along with self-harm, they a are the leading causes of death for Aboriginal people up to 44 years of age (Source, 9999). From 1999 to 2003, the suicide rate in Inuit regions across Canada averaged 135/100,000, over 10 times the national rate (Government of Canada, 2006). According to a 2008-2010 survey, 22% of First Nations adults report suicide ideation at some point in their lifetime compared to 9% of adults in the general population (First Nations Information Governance Centre, 2010). On the other hand, colonialism has had an important impact on the history of Aboriginal people in Canada by influencing their access to land, their cultural practices and their social
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In this framework, the population’s health is considered as an emergent property of the complex system’s parts and their nonlinear relationships (Rioux, 2016). To explore the feedback loops between factors it is essential to investigate multiple elements on different scales as well as their functioning to create a comprehensive model. Social and environmental contributions can be studied through population and individual outcomes, such as historical trauma and its psychological consequences. Economic, political and cultural abuses are exerted in policies affecting Aboriginal communities. Furthermore, these abuses have participated in the development of suicide risk factors such as internalized negative stereotypes and a loss of communal and individual identity. I will examine colonialism’s role in Aboriginal distress by focusing on power relations through the application of Critical/Anti-Racist theory and Michel Foucault’s notion of discourse. Critical/Anti-Racist theory was developed as a reaction to the abuse of power taking place in the application of the law and the systemic discrimination based on white privilege and stereotypes of racialized groups (Berry, 2016). Also, Foucault developed the concept of discourses as “ways of constituting knowledge, together with social practices, forms of subjectivity and power relations [which reflect the nature of] the body, mind and life of the subjects they seek to govern” (Weedon, 1987, p.108). Each of these theories will inform how colonialism abuse caused bla and
In this framework, the population’s health is considered as an emergent property of the complex system’s parts and their nonlinear relationships (Rioux, 2016). To explore the feedback loops between factors it is essential to investigate multiple elements on different scales as well as their functioning to create a comprehensive model. Social and environmental contributions can be studied through population and individual outcomes, such as historical trauma and its psychological consequences. Economic, political and cultural abuses are exerted in policies affecting Aboriginal communities. Furthermore, these abuses have participated in the development of suicide risk factors such as internalized negative stereotypes and a loss of communal and individual identity. I will examine colonialism’s role in Aboriginal distress by focusing on power relations through the application of Critical/Anti-Racist theory and Michel Foucault’s notion of discourse. Critical/Anti-Racist theory was developed as a reaction to the abuse of power taking place in the application of the law and the systemic discrimination based on white privilege and stereotypes of racialized groups (Berry, 2016). Also, Foucault developed the concept of discourses as “ways of constituting knowledge, together with social practices, forms of subjectivity and power relations [which reflect the nature of] the body, mind and life of the subjects they seek to govern” (Weedon, 1987, p.108). Each of these theories will inform how colonialism abuse caused bla and