The Return of the Sun: Suicide and Reclamation Among Inuit of Arctic Canada

Inuit have among the highest suicide rates in the world - ten times the national average. Inuit narratives of suicide provide clues as to what can and in some cases has been done to combat the problem, but until recently they have not circulated far beyond Inuit communities themselves. At the same time, academic researchers have studied suicide among Indigenous peoples, but have stopped short of analyzing narrative accounts for their themes of cultural survival. Based on two decades of participatory action and ethnographic research, The Return of the Sun is a historical and anthropological examination of suicide among Inuit youth in Arctic Canada. Conceptualizing suicide among Inuit as a response to colonial disruption of family and interpersonal relationships and examining how the community has addressed the issue, Kral draws on research from psychology, anthropology, Indigenous studies, and social justice to understand and address this population. Central to the book are narrative accounts by Inuit of their experiences and perceptions of suicide, and the lives of youth and their community action for change. As these Indigenous community success stories have not previously been widely retold, The Return of the Sun gives voice to a historically ignored community. Kral also locates this community action within the larger Inuit movement toward self-determination and self-governance. This important volume will be of interest to a broad range of social scientists, as well as researchers and practitioners in the mental health fields.

About the Author

Michael Kral , PhD, is a clinical/community/cultural psychologist and medical anthropologist working as an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work, Wayne State University. He has also taught at the universities of Manitoba, Windsor, Yale, and Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has been conducting community-based participatory action research with Inuit in Nunavut, Canada for over 20 years. His research has looked at suicide, kinship, culture change, and youth resilience.