CALGARY – Hobbema community justice leader Luci Johnson doesn’t like to use the word, “suicide.”
She prefers the Cree term her community came up with in their struggle to deal with teen suicide: Mamowoketeyowitan, which means, “let’s grow old together.”
“Even the word, giving power to that word suicide, makes a big impact,” said Johnson.
“We wanted to change that.”
Johnson is among more than 70 aboriginal elders, parents and youth in Calgary this week for a two-day Aboriginal Youth and Communities Empowerment Strategy forum addressing teen suicide.
The aboriginal youth strategy was launched in 2005 to promote suicide prevention in Alberta’s aboriginal communities.
“It was quite clear a number of aboriginal communities were having a lot of deaths by suicide. There was a question of what to do about it,” said Dr. Michael Trew, senior medical director for Alberta Health Services addiction and mental health.
Efforts are directed at helping boys and girls develop a positive identity and a sense of hope, he said.
Sixteen-year-old Kristen Montour has seen the pain of suicide at her Hobbema home.
“I had a couple of friends I used to go to school with died of suicide,” the teenager said. The experience left her, “Angry, frustrated. They didn’t have to die like that. They could have been still here with me.”
The teenager decided to move on from the grief, she said.
She joined the Maskawacis Justice Society, a community group developed in Hobbema to reach out to youth. Today, she’s one of the program’s oldest Girl Guides and is leading a positive life she hopes will inspire her five younger sisters.
“I think of it as a new beginning for me,” said Montour, who plans to get her social work degree once she graduates from high school.
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