Youths sign the life pact. Photo by Chelsea Laskowski.
On Friday, hundreds of northern youth were on their way home from a Saskatoon suicide prevention rally after ending the event by signing what’s called a “life pact.”
In signing the Life Pact, the youths named someone who they promise to contact in the event that they ever make a decision to hurt themselves. In return, their witness promises to be a support for them.
“How that came to be is there are a lot of suicide pacts out there,” explained organizer Treena Wynes.
“We have even seen suicide pacts on social media and really, how can you fight social media? Because it spreads like wildfire and people catch on and jump onto it and we had to do something. And we wanted this to be meaningful, and we wanted this to continue and it to catch on.”
They asked Metis activist and artist Zoey Roy to write a poem called the Life Pact, and filmed her performing it. Roy was unable to perform it live because she’s responding to an influx in suicide attempts in her community of Black Lake, Wynes said.
Cherokee Waditaka from Wahpeton was one of the youths who signed the Life Pact.
“I wanted to really sign up because I really want some help,” from Cherokee Waditaka from Wahpeton.
“It’s something I’m always going to think of.”
While suicide pacts are rarely discussed in the public realm, Wynes said the secrecy of the topic keeps people from healing from it.
Adrian Francois, a student from Prince Albert who signed the contract, agrees.
“It’s like a hushed thing but now that we’re getting open I think people will be more known to talk about it so they can express their feelings instead of holding back what they have inside them,” he said.
Francois knows how suicide impacts those left behind: he lost an aunt to suicide.
“It’s a bit hard for me because my auntie did this and she left three kids behind and we have two of them at our house,” he said.
Even though the two-day conference tackled some emotional topics, Francois said he was leaving feeling happy and supported.
The event was so well-attended that organizers say they may plan a follow-up event.