The Indigenous Mental Health Crisis
Christy Lorenz
I was first introduced to the issue of indigenous mental health in 2016, when I was cast in a student-written play called, “Empty Regalia”. The playwright and director, Ziigwen Mixemong, was a 17 year-old Pottawatomi-M'ikmaq student who wanted to use her position of privilege to educate the public about indigenous issues. In my role, I portrayed a ten-year old indigenous girl who drowned herself in a bathtub because of the prejudiced environment that surrounded her. It was a narrative largely based on real life. In fact, indigenous mental health has frequently been called an international crisis. Across the world, indigenous populations endure poverty, cultural persecution, land loss, exploitation, violence, and marginalization. Consequently, Indigenous people face a reality which causes Aboriginal depression, anxiety, suicide, and other disorder rates to augment beyond global averages.
When I conducted the research for this paper, I became really angry: Angry at the fact that these problems exist in the first place, and angry that almost nothing was being done to rectify them. I hope that my ISU does justice to this topic, and the people that it's written for - and maybe inspire a little anger in others, too.
When I conducted the research for this paper, I became really angry: Angry at the fact that these problems exist in the first place, and angry that almost nothing was being done to rectify them. I hope that my ISU does justice to this topic, and the people that it's written for - and maybe inspire a little anger in others, too.