A call for more mental health supports from both the provincial and federal governments.
Three deaths over a 36-hour period on Wunnumin Lake First Nation (population 600) prompted Thursday’s event at the Valhalla Inn which featured Chief Sam Mamakwa and Deputy Chief Dean Cromarty alongside Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Derek Fox, and Deputy Grand Chiefs Anna Betty Achneepineskum, Victor Linklater, and Bobby Narcisse.
Wunnumin Lake First Nation is located about 360-kilometres northeast of Sioux Lookout, and is only accessible by air or seasonal winter roads.
The first was a 20-year-old man who fell from a communications tower. The incident is still under investigation.
A youth who witnessed the fall, a cousin of the deceased, later took his own life.
It is not known how many others saw the fall, but the communications tower is visible from the majority of the community.
The third death was an Elder, who passed away in a long-term care home outside of the community with the family not being notified until a day after the death.
“I traveled to Wunnumin with Grand Chief Fox and Deputy Grand Chief Anna Betty Achneepineskum, and witnessed the travesty of the ongoing lack of services, and lack of mental health supports in our First Nation communities especially in Wunnumin Lake and our remote communities,” says Deputy Grand Chief Narcisse. “We ask the provincial and federal governments what they’re going to do to assist Wunnumin Lake First Nation community”
Wunnumin leadership say they have already talked to dozens of people who witnessed the fall, noting this is a tight-knit community, so everyone who saw the incident has been heavily affected by it.
“When you take into account all these people that saw this event happen, just put yourself in their shoes and imagine watching someone you know fall off of a tower at 300 feet or so,” explains NAN Grand Chief Derek Fox, “The key here is that they don’t want to lose anymore lives.”
Wunnumin Lake First Nation is now asking for permanent solutions.
Leadership of Wunnumin Lake have laid out three specific supports they want from the provincial and federal governments:
• provide immediate mental health and intervention supports on an urgent basis;
• provide additional policing and security to support the community; and
• work with the community to establish dedicated mechanisms, with capacity-building and
resources, to empower the community to respond to similar emergencies in the future.
LISTEN: NAN Deputy Grand Chief Bobby Narcisse
