Want a chance to win an iPod Touch and other great prizes?

The Honouring Life Network (HLN) is looking for those working with First Nations and/or Inuit youth to complete a survey for a new suicide prevention toolkit that is currently being developed as part of the National Aboriginal Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy.

Each participant who completes the survey - which will take less than a half hour to complete - will be entered into a draw for an iPod Touch and other great prizes from the HLN!

There are four toolkits in total:

-First Nations (English)
-First Nations (French)
-Inuit (English)
-Inuit (Inuktitut)

You are only asked to complete the survey that is relevant to the demographic of youth that you work with. In other words, you do not have to complete all four surveys. If you speak English and work with First Nations youth, you are only asked to complete that ONE survey.

Your feedback is invaluable to advancing the health and well being of First Nations and Inuit youth in the area of suicide prevention. Please demonstrate your support by completing this survey.

To complete the survey(s), simply click on the corresponding link(s) below.

Click here to take the First Nations - English survey>>


Click here to take the First Nations - French survey>>

Click here to take the Inuit - English survey>>

Inuit - Inuktitut (coming soon)

Thank you,
The Honouring Life Network Team

Backing the people

Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, November 25, 2009

RANKIN INLET/KIVALLIQ - The Kivalliq Inuit Association (KIA) is taking the lead in trying to convince the federal government not to cut funding to the Aboriginal People's Program.

The KIA has been holding summer and winter youth camps through the program, as well as media training and other various cultural programs such as the highly successful Somebody's Daughter.

Click here to read more>>

Aboriginal-Rights Champion Cindy Blackstock Awarded Atkinson Fellowship

TORONTO, Nov. 23 - Cindy Blackstock has been awarded the Atkinson Foundation's Economic Justice Fellowship. The three-year Fellowship will provide $100,000 annually for Ms. Blackstock's advocacy on behalf of First Nations children and communities.

"With every generation comes an opportunity to create a better world. But First Nations children are debilitated by funding inequalities in education and child welfare. We can correct past mistakes by giving this generation a real opportunity to understand their place in the world differently and to succeed," said Cindy Blackstock, Executive Director of the First Nations child and Family Service Caring Society of Canada.

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Health : Inuit Health System Must Move Past Suicide Prevention To “Unlock A Better Reality,” Conference Told

November 25, 2009

Inuit communities have been dysfunctional for the past 30 to 50 years, with suicide now touching “each and every one of us,” but this must not be accepted as normal, attendees at the National Aboriginal Health Association conference in Ottawa were told yesterday.

“We all have brothers, sisters and friends who have died by suicide,” Natan Obed, director of social and cultural development for Nunavut Tunngavit Inc., which represents beneficiaries of the Nunavut Land Claim Agreement, told the opening session at the three-day conference. “But I contend that our people [in the past] had a low death by suicide rate. It is not our fate in life to be at risk.”

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Video game to be aimed at aboriginal youth

Posted By AEDAN HELMER, SUN MEDIA
Posted 1 day ago


A Carleton University initiative is allowing First Nation youths to walk a virtual mile along the Path of the Elders.

Canadian Heritage has provided a $375,000 grant to the university and its partners to develop a website "that seeks to strengthen the identity and self-respect" of Native youths.

The goal is to develop a video game, with local software firm BlackCherry Digital Media, that engages and entertains youth while serving as an educational tool, providing a window into the rich history, culture and teachings that have been passed along for generations in the oral tradition.

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NAHO Congratulates Role Models for their success at the Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards

Ottawa, ON - The National Aboriginal Health Organization (NAHO) is thrilled to congratulate 2008 National Aboriginal Role Model, Inez for winning four awards at the Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards (APCMA). Inez took home awards for Best New Artist, Best Pop CD, Best Album Cover Design and Single of the Year for her track Breathe.

“Inez is a rising star who we look forward to following as her future endeavours unfold,” says Dr. Paulette C. Tremblay, CEO of NAHO. “She received the honour of being recognized as a NAHO National Aboriginal Role Model in 2008 for her outstanding contributions to her community.”

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Concerns 9yo boy's death was suicide

A Central Australian youth service says it has received a report about the death of a nine-year-old boy at a remote Aboriginal community.

Northern Territory Police will not release any information on the matter because they say the death is being investigated as a possible suicide.

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Loss of global languages threatens culture, history: Language expert

By Allison Cross, Canwest News Service
November 3, 2009

When the last native speaker of an endangered language dies, does that language die with them?

Not necessarily, say academics, although there's a risk of losing significant ties to cultures, communities and collective histories.

Click here to read more>>