Kelvin Redvers's work to create a forum for speaking out about suicide among aboriginal youth started last summer when he visited the hamlet of Fort Resolution, in the Northwest Territories, where his mother grew up on the shores of Great Slave Lake.
Called the We Matter campaign, the video series is designed to use the power of social media to reach into the small native communities and lonely rooms scattered across the country where so many young aboriginals are struggling with feelings of desperation.
Mr. Redvers publicly launched the national project this week. A day later, the news was full of stories about the latest suicide shock. A 10-year-old girl from Deschambault Lake in northern Saskatchewan killed herself, after three other girls in the province, aged 12 to 14, took their own lives over a four-day period earlier this month.
Native leaders called it a crisis, but Mr. Redvers said it isn't a new one.
"It hasn't just surged lately. It's been going on for decades," he said of the wave of suicides in native communities.
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In the We Matter videos, ordinary people and prominent aboriginals, such as the best-selling author Joseph Boyden, look directly into the camera and tell stories of hope, often underscored by their own harrowing experience with suicide attempts.
"I want to speak to you from the heart, from a place that isn't always easy to speak from 'cause you are very vulnerable," said Mr. Boyden, whose work includes The Orenda, Three Day Road and Through Black Spruce.
"When I was about 15 years old, I knew that something was really wrong with me but I put up a really, really good pretend face," he said. "I held it in until it was almost too late. On my 16th birthday, I attempted to kill myself."
Mr. Boyden goes on to urge young people to talk about their fears and their pain, saying that if they can break the barrier of self-imposed silence they can get past their crisis.
"I was lucky because what I tried to do didn't work," he said of his suicide attempt. "Here I am, 34 years almost to the day later … telling you what you've got to do is allow yourself to be vulnerable, to speak from the heart if you are hurting."
Mr. Redvers, who grew up in Hay River, NWT., said he was moved to action by the flood of aboriginal suicide stories in the media, and by his return visit to Fort Resolution, where he heard first-hand how the epidemic had hit one small town.
"In my mom's home community, you could talk to the people about the issue of suicide and, just in the past several years, they can count on their fingers, okay this person died and this person and this person. And it's a town of only 400 people. So it's even a bigger problem than what hits the news," said Mr. Redvers.
Powerful messages
The suicide rate for aboriginal men aged 15 to 24 is 126 per 100,000. For non-aboriginals it is 24. The suicide rate for women in the same age bracket is 35 per 100,000. For non-aboriginals it is five.
Filmmaker Kelvin Redvers is trying to address the suicide crisis in native communities by launching the We Matter campaign. His idea is to deliver short, powerful videos that send the message: “No matter how hopeless things feel, there is always a way forward.”
Here’s what some participants said:
Jack Linklater Jr., an Attawapiskat youth whose heroism was honoured last year for saving two nieces from a house fire: “I’m Cree and proud to be. … My message to you, if you are having a hard time, look to the trees as it shows you to stand tall and proud. Look to the rock as it shows you the strength you need. Look to the river as it shows you to keep moving forward in life.”
Tyra Hookimaw, Attawapiskat youth and hip-hop fan: “Even though you are feeling like you can’t do it, you can’t get through it. You can. … There are many, many, many ways you can help yourself. For me I had to start thinking positive. I had to appreciate what I had. … I’d sometimes write what I was feeling in a journal.”
Andre Morriseau, director of awards for the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business: “I am proud of being as out as life could ever be. … I really want to reach out and speak directly to our young, two-spirited people on reserves … wherever you are. There is still a stigma about being two spirited, about being gay, and that is killing our youth across this country. … What I want to say to you is don’t hide, don’t despair. … Being two spirited is being yourself.”
Don Burnstick, comedian: “I remember when I first heard of a suicide on my res. … We were 12 and a woman shot herself with a shotgun. And me and my friends were sitting there and we were just trying to figure out how could somebody do that? Cause nobody did that when we were younger. Nobody just killed themselves.”
Violet Beaulieu, elder: “At age of four, I was an orphan and placed in a residential school. … We were abused and we went through hard times. … We all grow up the same way. We go through a lot of hardships, but we can overcome that. Just think positive, like I did.”
Michele General, mother who lost her son to suicide: “I’m here to tell you a few things. One, you are beautiful. Two, you are loved. And three, we need you here with us. Those are a few things I never got to tell my son.”
–Mark Hume
He had an idea that if people started talking openly about the problem, and if they shared messages of hope, it might avert more suicides.
"I hope that the numbers go down because of this campaign," Mr. Redvers said of the shocking suicide rate, which is five times higher for aboriginal youth in Canada than for non-aboriginals. "I hope that we can create a movement so that all indigenous youth across Canada feel like there are others out there who care for them and who support them, and that this can start a dialogue in these communities, so people can start to talk about these things."
Mr. Redvers, whose sister Tunchai is also working on the project, shot his first two videos in Fort Resolution, one featuring an elder who went to residential school with his grandmother. And he quickly moved on to add messages from across the country, including some from highly successful native people.
Most of them tell emotional stories about times when they were so desperate suicide seemed like the only solution. The site is set up so people can upload their own messages, which Mr. Redvers will edit to fit the format.
He hopes the project will lead him soon to the Prime Minister's Office in Ottawa, where he wants to shoot a short, impactful video featuring Justin Trudeau and an aboriginal MP.
"We want both high-profile people and ordinary youth to post their stories," he said. "We would love some youth in northern Saskatchewan who are seeing the issues going on in their communities, to upload messages. But also we would hope that the Prime Minister would get involved … and together they can show support for this cause."
British Columbia MLA Melanie Mark, the first indigenous woman elected to the B.C. legislature, is among those who face the camera and talk about why it is important to hang on.
Ms. Mark fights to control her emotions as she speaks: "You are not alone in whatever you are feeling right now. I've been there. I've been a teenager who went to school and got bullied."
She said she struggled with depression and at age 19 decided she'd had enough.
"I took a lot of pills and I thought my fight with what I was experiencing was over," Ms. Mark said. "That wasn't the case. The Creator had another plan for me."
She said that "when you feel your life is worthless and that you really should be dead," it is hard to believe there might be better days ahead.
But she urged young people not to give up, because the dark period she was lucky enough to survive gave way to a bright future.
"I'm 40 years old and I'm an MLA and I'm a mother of two daughters and my mom is 10 years clean and sober and life is so much brighter than I'd ever imagined," she said.
In another video in the series, the three members of A Tribe Called Red, an electronic music group, urged young people to never doubt themselves and to know that they are valued.
"It's really important you guys understand how important you are, to us specifically," said Ian Campeau, whose professional name is DJ NDN. "We make this music for indigenous youth and we try to strive to represent indigenous youth and we need you around and we love you very much."
Mr. Redvers hopes indigenous youth will visit the website at www.wemattercampaign.org or the Facebook site at https://www.facebook.com/WeMatterCampaign and that they will share it with others.
"A lot of times people see these articles in the news about suicides and suicide pacts and hundreds of attempts in places like Attawapiskat, and they sort of feel disconnected. You want to help but don't know how," he said. "This seemed like a venue we could create where everybody in Canada could have a hand in it basically, that people could feel connected to the cause."
