Long suicide awareness campaign nears end

The journey of an Aboriginal youth group trying to raise awareness on the issue of youth suicide is finally coming to an end.

The Aboriginal Youth Suicide Prevention Walk's fourth and final annual cross-Canada trek, which started in Sydney, N. S., March 14, will end in Victoria, B.C., June 21, will complete a campaign that has touched many political leaders and communities, and helped the healing of those involved.
"It has gone extremely well, these past four years," said walker Edward Meldrum, 25, during a recent interview. "People have been really supportive everywhere we go and the politicians are finally starting to take notice, to listen."

The group has visited virtually all of the country's major cities and more than 50 reserves, speaking to provincial and national leaders, including Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine and former prime minister Paul Martin. (Group members are hoping to speak to new PM, Stephen Harper, before they're done).

Meldrum, like most of the other walkers, has been personally touched by the issue. His sister attempted suicide, as well as Meldrum himself, at a very young age.

"I tried to kill myself when I was seven or eight years old, and then again when I was 16," he said, and that the lack of compassion shown by some counsellors made him want to do the walk even more.

"One of the people who were supposed to be helping my sister told her to get over it. I couldn't believe it. Here was someone who was there to help, just telling her it was no big deal."

According to Health Canada, the national suicide rate among Aboriginal youth is five to seven times greater than in non-Aboriginal youth. In some Aboriginal communities, the problem is extreme, with Inuit rates being among the highest in the world ­ 11 times the national average.
"Considering Nunavut has one of the highest rates in the world, I thought it would be right for someone from there be in the walk," said Charlotte Qamanig, a Nunavut native who has been living in Ottawa for the past two years, and who just joined the walk this year.

"When I met these guys when they came through last year, I was really inspired, really proud of them, and I wanted to do my part and show there are people who care. Being able to listen to others and their stories, and being able to talk about it really helps; otherwise, if you just keep it outside, it'll blow up."

Speaking of blowing up, the group has been through three vans since leaving Sydney, according to adult chaperone and walk founder, Vincent Watts, who provided an update via cell phone May 9, with the group halfway through Manitoba.

"The first one's engine blew. The second one's transmission went and, now, this one is giving us troubles," he said in exasperation, also noting that they have lost one walker to fatigue.
The group walks in relay, with each of the six walkers doing 30 kilometres a day.

In the first three years, the walk started in B.C. and finished on the East Coast. But, since the founders and first walkers live in Nanaimo, they decided to reverse the 2006 trek and have it end where it all started.

Why four years?

Watts, explains: "I had a vision one day of the White Buffalo in the sky, and the four directions and the four colors of the nations, red, yellow, black and white. Each year, we have walked for the people of one of the colors."

The walkers were in Alberta at the end of May. They left Devon on May 25, sent on their way and encouraged by television and screen personality Dakota House.