Kitkatla Youth

More follow ups keep coming in from the conference. Lyle Angus, the Health Director at Kitkatla sent me this picture of one of the community’s youths standing in front of the sunset Sunday night, after they returned to the community from Prince Rupert. Kitkatla is about 65 kilometres from Rupert.

Lyle told me on the phone today that the community is planning a big celebration for the youth, to thank them for being such good ambassadors at the Inter Nation Forum and for showing the way to the policy makers and leaders, that the issue of youth suicide must transcend politics and shaming and focus on the constructive, inclusive and desirable futures that everyone wants for these communities.

I should mention too that the youth of Kitkatla are getting excited by one of the best outcomes of the Forum: another Inter Nation youth gathering hosted by the Haida youth on Haida Gwaii, the Queen Charlotte Islands. This event got ringing endorsement at the Forum and the subsequent Policy Roundtable and will happen in July. Another gathering, hosted by Nisga’a youth will happen in the Nisga’a territory after that.

I’ll keep updated on these events.

Update from 2025, twenty years later. The event in Haiad Gwaii was a huge success. The Haida Gaia observer reported on what the Haida youth did to invite others and how the gathering went.