Citation

Anderson B. Anthropology in Action 2021; 28(3): 22-34.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021)

DOI

10.3167/aia.2021.280303

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Indigenous peoples in Canada suffer from very high suicide rates of which there are various state-created programmes and efforts to combat. However, the variety of these programmes may be limited in their conceptions of Indigenous suicide. I predicted that by analysing existing suicide prevention policies and frameworks, I would find that they system-atically place Indigenous peoples in vulnerable positions through the enforcement of Western ideals of health and suicide, thus providing inadequate support towards preventing suicide. This would constitute structural violence. I used a content analysis to analyse and code themes in suicide prevention policies in Canada. I found that suicide prevention policies perpetuate structural violence as these policies overwhelmingly conceive suicide as an outcome of poor mental health, based on colonial knowledge, which is economically self-serving to the state. © The Author(s).

Language: en

Keywords

Canada; Suicide; Indigenous; State; Structural violence; Suicide prevention policy