Our topic today is not easy. It’s complicated and troubling, but incredibly important. We’re going to talk about mental health in the context of Northern Canadians, particularly Inuit communities who are burdened with suicide rates up to 25 times higher than the rest of Canada. Much of the reason for this comes from the enduring harms of colonization and a modern lack of resources which have devastating consequences on physical and mental well-being.

Mitch White grew up in Nunatsiavut, and has witnessed first hand the impacts of the mental health crisis. He worked as a radio producer with the OKâlaKatiget Society, as a communications officer for Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and as Senior Assistant for Indigenous Outreach for the Government of Canada. We dig into some of the systemic causes for the mental health crisis in Indigenous communities, and how the current reckoning on civil rights and police brutality plays into this conversation of physical and mental well-being.

This episode comes with a content warning about suicide, intergenerational trauma and police brutality. We talk about the ITK’s National Suicide Prevention Strategy: https://www.itk.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/ITK-National-Inuit-Suicide-Prevention-Strategy-2016.pdf (and I reference a prevention strategy on page 29).

Mitch mentions the Indigenous People’s Atlas of Canada as a free resource to learn more about the Indigenous experience and reconciliation: https://indigenouspeoplesatlasofcanada.ca/

And although we talk about the importance of creating Indigenous-centred mental health resources, Canada Crisis Services is a current cross-country resource if you need help right now: https://www.crisisservicescanada.ca/en/