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Indigenous Health & Well-Being

This guide is to assist you in researching topics related to Indigenous health. Here you will find links to books, ebooks, journals, databases, websites, and more.

Suicide

It has been theorized that suicide behaviours amongst Indigenous peoples may be an outcome of mass trauma experienced as a result of colonization. In Canada, qualitative evidence has suggested that the Indian Residential School System set in motion a cycle of trauma, with some survivors reporting subsequent abuse, suicide, and other related behaviours. It has been further postulated that the effects of trauma can also be passed inter-generationally. Today, there are four generations of Canadian First Nations residential school survivors who may have transmitted the trauma they experienced to their own children and grandchildren. The experiences of Indigenous peoples has been ongoing, and always present, making historical trauma a part of a common experience, subtly shaping the lives and futures of individuals, families, and communities.  

(Trauma and Suicide Behaviour Histories Among a Canadian Indigenous Population: An Empirical Exploration of the Potential Role of Canada's Residential School System by Brenda Elias)

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