Darien Thira, PhD NAHO 2009 National Conference

1. AND I LIVE IT:
Traditional Values, Activism and
Resilience in the Face of Suicide
Darien Thira, PhD
darien@thira.ca * www.thira.ca

2. King Fisher by Tobias Watts
(Nuu-chah-nulth Nation)

3. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Research Question
What is the experience of Aboriginal men and
women who have been suicidal and have
transitioned from their crisis to a pro-social
active role in their community?

4. PROCEDURE
Five steps:
(a) arranged invitation into the community and
participated in community-based health
organization’s ethical review
(1 year process),
(b) focus group,
(c) participant recruitment,
(d) research interview,
(e) follow-up interview to discuss
results.

5. PARTICIPANTS
Four criteria:
(a) previous suicidality,
(b) current social activism/
community contribution,
(c) membership in one of
two specific Vancouver
Island British Columbia
First Nations, and
(d) be over the age of 21.

6. PARTICIPANTS

7. ANALYSIS
Grounded Theory

8. FINDINGS
(a) Within their integrated self/community life-world
(b) mutually reflexive self/community engagements
facilitated
(c) the healing journey of Aboriginal activists within a
colonized context.

9. SELF/COMMUNITY LIFE WORLD
Resolving the Individual-Collective Identity Dichotomy

10. SELF/COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENTS

11. SELF/COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENTS
Foundational Categories of Engagement
(a) connection (i.e., harmonious interconnection within
the self/community life-world),
(b) empowerment (i.e., capacity to act within and upon
the self/community life-world),
(c) identity (i.e., the existential internalization of the
self/community life-world), and
(d) vision (i.e., the experiential internalization of the
self/community life world).

12. SELF/COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENTS
ACTIVATING ENGAGEMENTS
Activating Engagements:
propel the participants into action within their self/community
life-world. They include:
(a) care (i.e., the desire for the happiness, health, and safety
of the self/community life-world with which they are
connected),
(b) respect (i.e, the recognition that individuals in the
self/community life-world are distinct, capable of and
responsible for making their own empowered choices,
and worthy of value in themselves),
(c) responsibility (i.e., a sense of duty toward the
self/community life-world with which they identify), and
(d) culture (i.e., the traditions, protocols, and teachings
associated with the community’s unique history and vision).

13. SELF/COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENTS
HEALING ENGAGEMENTS
Healing Engagements:
specifically contribute to the paths of transition from pain
rooted in past wounds to a healthy present and a hopeful
future. They include:
(a) integration (i.e., intra-psychic or cultural re-connection),
(b) cleansing (i.e., psychological release or spiritual purging
resulting in empowerment in the face of past trauma),
(c) transformation (i.e., personal or spiritual change in
identity), and
(d) transcendence (i.e., contextualization of experience or
spiritual visioning ).

14. SELF/COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Resilience and Reflexivity
Reflexivity of Engagement:
is the simultaneous mutual enhancement of resilience in
both the activist and their community life-world resulting
from either the provision or reception of self/community
engagement experiences and activities (e.g., Schwartz,
1992; Pepper, 1942/1970).

15. ACTIVISM

16. HEALING JOURNEY OF ACTIVISM
Enhancing the Community’s Resilience
Through the activism of its members, the community itself
has the opportunity to transition to:
- a connected and empowered collective
- with a self-generated identity (rather than one imposed by
the colonizer) and
- a culturally rooted contemporary and hopeful vision of its
future.

17. HEALING JOURNEY OF ACTIVISM
Resilience and Contribution
Wellness:
physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual balance (e.g.,
Weaver, 2002).
Living in a good way:
living in a manner that promotes harmony across the
self/community life-world (e.g., Favel-King, 1993).

18. HEALING JOURNEY OF ACTIVISM
Resolving the Healing-Activism Dichotomy
Three solutions to avoiding assimilation through “healing”:
(a) resistance was promoted by the sanctioned service
providers who served as healers and radicalizers,
(b) all of the activists used the techniques they received
for their own healing to serve as healers and helpers for
others in their community, and
(c) all of the participants pursued deeper solutions for their
bio-psycho-socio-historical-cultural-ecological-spiritual
state of disharmony than was offered by sanctioned services:
- psychosocially contextualization
- pursued local Cultural-spiritual solutions

19. COMMUNITY RESOURCE MAP

20. IMPLICATIONS
(a) Self/community Life-world Model: integration and/or
development of many lines of enquiry into Aboriginal
health.
(b) Reflexive Self/community Engagements: opportunity for
policy makers/clinicians to approach Aboriginal suicide in
a manner that enhances resilience through resource
development related to the categories of engagement.
(c) Conflating Healing with Activism: reconsideration of the
definition of and modes of healing in the Aboriginal
community that reduces the risk of assimilation through
“adjustment” focussed treatment.

21. THANK-YOU!
Hay-ceep q’a siem
Gilakasla