• Admin Login
    View Item 
    •   Open Polytechnic Repository Home
    • Open Polytechnic Research
    • Social Sciences
    • View Item
    •   Open Polytechnic Repository Home
    • Open Polytechnic Research
    • Social Sciences
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Indigenous suicide and colonization: The legacy of violence and the necessity for self determination.

    Thumbnail
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Author
    Lawson, K.
    Liu, J.
    Keyword
    Suicide
    Maori people
    New Zealand
    Indigenous peoples
    Description of form
    133
    Date
    2010
    Type
    Journal Article
    Language
    en
    Abstract
    Contemporary indigenous first nations psychologists have developed an alternative frame for viewing suicide that not only shifts the focus from individual-level to group-level explanations, but challenges discourses that position group-level influences as "risk factors" that can be easily subsumed within standard repertoires for suicide prevention. First nations psychologists show the violent legacy of colonization has left a dark shadow on the contemporary lives of young people, so that around the world, suicide rates for indigenous peoples are much higher than for non-indigenous peoples in the same country. These arguments, which rely on historical accounts, cannot be neatly demonstrated using empirical data, but form an important part of a self-determination movement among indigenous peoples, directly challenging unequal power relations in society as a means to seek redress for particular issues of inequity like rates of youth suicide. We present a theoretical case study and analysis of contemporary suicide among Maori youth in New Zealand. In a traditional Maori conceptualization, individual well-being is sourced and tied to the well-being of the collective cultural identity. Therefore, individual pain is inseparable from collective pain and the role of the collective becomes that of carrying individuals who are suffering. The state of kahupo or spiritual blindness (Kruger, Pitman, et al. 2004) is characterized by a loss of hope, meaning, and purpose and an enduring sense of despair. It bears the symptoms of chronic dissociation or separation of the physical from the spiritual and vice versa. We describe community empowerment practices and social policy environments that offer pathways forward from colonization towards tino rangatiratanga, or indigenous self-determination, noting significant obstacles along the way.
    Citation
    Lawson, K., & Liu, J. (2010). Indigenous suicide and colonization: The legacy of violence and the necessity for self determination. International Journal of Conflict and Violence, 4(1), 124-133.
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/11072/1101
    Collections
    • Social Sciences

    Browse

    All of Open Polytechnic RepositoryCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

    My Account

    Admin Login

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics

    DSpace software copyright © 2002-2022  DuraSpace
    Contact Us | Send Feedback
    DSpace Express is a service operated by 
    Atmire NV