John Thibault

Aboriginal, Profile, Youth Leave a comment

On my blog, I am choosing to write about Aboriginal youth! I am not writing about them in a bad way but in a “good way!” I have chosen to profile an Aboriginal youth at least once a month on my blog. I posted it on my FB but no responses. I had to reach out to an Aboriginal youth who I thought was making positive changes in his life.

This December I am featuring John Thibault. Click HERE for his FB page! I have known him for a long time. I know that the journey he has been on has been a long one for a person his age. I want him and other young people to know that people are watching youth and everything that youth do!

He replied to my request to let me feature him on my blog and he said this about himself:

He is doing REAL good! Off drugs and alcohol free! Finding himself spiritually. He has been working on training and working towards a win in UFC style fighting. He has told me has been asked to train with real UFC pro fighters and is working on moving out of his city of Sault Ste Marie. He has been smudging, going to sweats, and having pipe ceremonies. He asks for help and advice during his spiritual ceremonies. He wants to be a “warrior” like his ancestors once were and continues to push himself 100%.

I believe that he is doing a great job. I look up to him after he shared with me his story. I want to get back to my culture and definitely practice it more. I believe it will help me on my journey.

Just have to say: Great job John! I know it’s hard work but in the end it is all worth it!

Social Experiment

Aboriginal, help home first, Social Experiment Leave a comment

Today I creeped someone I knew on FB (yes, I creeped them); it felt very weird–I dont know how people can actually do that and enjoy it!

I found THIS on their FB page.

I was not impressed. Not with the person but with the “ultimate social experiement.” Please see previous post HERE to see why I am so upset. People are so eager to help third world countries when in reality third world country living exists here in one of the “developed” countries. WHY DO PEOPLE NOT WANT TO HELP HOME FIRST!

I do agree that we should help other places first. However, I agree even more that we should help home first. Please next time you agree to give money to help another country, please consider helping others in your homeland first: it will make a difference!

Great idea

Charity Leave a comment

Instead of paying fines with cash, you can pay with food or toy drive donations.

I love this idea. Read article HERE! However, does this mean more people are going to be following the rules less or more? I wish it was like this for every city in Canada and not just one. Just think of the differences it would make (unfortunately, maybe it might have the wrong effects for people who don’t necessarily follow the rules to begin with or just hate to follow rules all together no matter if it’s cash, food donations or toy drive payments). Who Knows!

Quiet Crisis

Quiet Crisis, Suicide Leave a comment

Just recently, a beautiful woman I once knew had passed. She committed suicide. The last time I saw her was not too long ago. I saw her in the hospital and both her and I were there for the same thing.

Attempted suicide. I waited about 12 hours to pass until I went into the hospital. I called tele-health Ontario first. The nurse told me to go to the hospital because I could damage my liver if I waited any longer. The sad part: I was told at the hospital “well, you’re fine now so you won’t be seen for a while.” Truth was, I wasn’t fine. I wanted to talk to someone. I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry. I wanted to get angry. I even went to a hospital emergency where I was told to go becuase it had a special on-call psychiatric care team. My question is this: how many people have been in my situation and could not get the help they needed? Here is an article link describing the “quiet crisis” and the instance where a suicidal man hangs himself while waiting to see a doctor.

I wonder if the woman I once knew had the same issue. From reading on my friends’ FB pages, it is apparent she felt the way she had for a long time and wanted to be in the end for a while. It scared me to read this because I have felt the same way for a long time. It is really scary to know that this woman died this way and that another did the same while waiting for a Doctor.

I know that I don’t really want to die. I know that I want to live. I know that death is permanent. I want to accomplish a lot in my life. It is also sad to me that it is knowing the fate of this woman that this is what is changing me. I wish it wasn’t the loss of this lovely person that is making me want to seek help and change but it is. I am seeking help and I am wanting to change.

I know that suicide is a personal, sensitive subject. If you or anyone around you knows someone who had talked about suicide or wanting to end their own life, please give them this number/information found on this page. Click here! It is a 24 hour crisis line and self referral mental health help, as well as a face-to-face intervention. Please don’t take the thought of suicide lightly.

State of Emergency

Aboriginal, Authority, Police, Violence Leave a comment

Here is a news article for you.

A community declares a state of emergency because of the amount of crime that has occurred and families fear their safety.

Obviously there is an issue with protection. Who provides? Where do you seek it? When is it available to them?

I don’t know or understand all the issues for this particular community. Committing an act violence is a difficult issue to understand. There are many circumstances surrounding an act of violence. Nobody wakes up on this planet earth and just declares one morning to “be violent.” There may be health issues, family issues, community issues, safety issues surrounding violence.

To say that this community may lack a police force (if it does) would be wrong. It is wrong because policing does not address the long term issues of violence. Besides, I believe that Aboriginals do not respond well to authority (based on my own experiences in my own life or from seeing experiences of others around me).

I do believe that this community needs help to act NOW! Perhaps, some sort of protective forces could be sent in. Say, Canadian Soldiers. How about instead of sending Canadian Soldiers to fight for democracy in the Middle East, the Canadian Government should send in soldiers to help protect its own citizens from other citizens on homeland!

I hope that this community seeks the help it can, and help address not just the short term issues of violence but also the long term issues!

Helplessness

Aboriginal, Psychology, Suicide Leave a comment

The other day in my psychology lecture, I learned about something called “Learned Helplessness.” Learned helplessness is simply defined as a behavioural condition in which someone believes that no matter what they do they cannot change their environment they are in. It is mostly found in clinical depression or where people felt like the lost all control.

After writing my essay on suicide rates for Aboriginals and correlation to lost of cultural identity, I found that a few of my articles would highlight that Aboriginals had feelings of “helplessness.” I believe that this is the case for most Aboriginal communities. That throughout the years and generations of Aboriginal Families, and the conditions that they were either born or raised in, that certain communities believe that there is nothing they can do to change their environment. This can be true for isolated communities, and not just Aboriginal communities but also remote, northern communities.

I believe that we need to help these communities UNlearn this behaviour. We need to help them learn coping techniques/mechanisms, and goal setting and planning techniques, just to name a few. These two techniques I know are techniques that have helped me when I felt so helpless and thought that I could not control anything. It took me a long time to notice that but I did.

Once again, I was excited to finish my essay, now I just have to wait to receive my mark! Shall report later!

VOTERS

Aboriginal, Voting Leave a comment

A discussion I had today with another student reminded me of the Elijah Harper film.

In it I noted that the same year Aboriginals were allowed to vote, they were also allowed to buy alcohol.

It is alot easier for Aboriginals to buy alcohol on a reserve than it is for them to vote (especially the secluded/more isolated reserves).

I think this needs to change! Even for me, I found it hard. I have not voted since I was allowed to vote. At first, it was because I lived in the city and had to go to my reserve and couldnt find a ride. Now, I live in a completely different county and have to make travels home in sync with the elections. Or apparently, there is such a thing for mail-in votes. But do these mail-in votes exist for Aboriginals. That will be my next task to find out about the magical mail-in votes.

Leaders

Aboriginal, Leaders, Money Leave a comment

Today at school I noticed a newsletter featuring the proposed drinking water bill. Unfortunately, I did not read the entire article but on the face of it, it appears that Aboriginal Leaders want to have a say! I could not believe what I was reading. Aboriginal leaders want to have a say! I am ecstactic about reading this! Here is the article link for that story. This makes me really excited about Aboriginal leaders.

Unfortunately in the same breathe, I read another article (link here) that Aboriginal leaders earn more than PM! That is crazy! I do not know why or how this could happen. This is where Aboriginal leaders need to be held accountable for the decisions they make. If they are going to be in the forefront of decision making in their communities, that includes where money is distributed, then more leaders need to be held accountable for wrongful decision making. For example, there needs to be detailed reports of where the money coming in is going and where it is going. There also needs to be reports on who the money is going to (and not just listing a corporation). There needs to be specifics because the issue with money on First Nations for many is that it stays within the family. Many families can exist on First Nations but the reality of it all is that many of those members are related to one another in some form or another. If one of those members suddenly decides to start a corporation and repeatedly requests money from the leaders/councillors, a detailed report of how this money is going to be used needs to supplied and to whom the money is directly going to and who is making the distributions. I know this is easier said than done.

However, this is part of holding people in power accountable.

Aboriginal leaders need to be held accountable not only for the bad decisions they make but also the GOOD!

I hope that more and more communities begin to see that their problems do not lie within themselves but within their leaders. HOLD YOUR LEADERS ACCOUNTABLE!

Suicide

Aboriginal, Culture, Legislation, Suicide Leave a comment

Well, I am working on my second essay for my intro to sociology class.

This would be my second essay in five years! CRAZY!

This topic of this essay is: lack of cultural identity leads to increased suicide rates for Canadian Aboriginals.

It is a sensitive topic, but maybe more of a personal journey for me. I have attempted suicide many times. Ended up in ICU a couple of times, and in the hospital many times, and the longest stay I had was a month long stay in a psychiatric hospital for children.

Everything that lacked in receiving help: nobody listened to what I was saying; lack of cultural approaches/understanding.

I guess I kind of already know the answer to why the suicide rate is so much higher amongst Aboriginal youth (5-6x higher) than the rest of Canada from a personal level. The answer being: I was afraid to be Aboriginal and afraid to become a “True Aboriginal” when living off the reserve. Being an Aboriginal is having a culture. Having a culture is having a cultural identity. An Aboriginal Cultural Identity is something that has been oppressed for many years, especially since the Indian Act in Canada.

Also, I guess I am writing this essay as to wanting to know more about it and get a clearer understanding of why I did what I did.

Shall report later on the outcome of this essay! So excited to be writing this!