Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jun 29/98) - Percy Pikuyak of Hall Beach doesn't want to have to tell any more family members that someone they love has committed suicide.

That's why he hopes to generate more community involvement in the prevention of suicide after getting home from a three-day coroners' training conference in Iqaluit.

Joined by 60 other coroners hailing mostly from Nunavut, Pikuyak listened to a 1998 report that presents some dismal statistics about the vast increases in the number of Nunavummiut who are killing themselves. But like the others in the group, Pikuyak wants to turn the despair into a deterrent and work harder.

"My biggest concern is in the area of suicides and I would like to see more preventative work," said Pikuyak through interpreter Jacob Peter.

Since joining the staff of the coroner's office two years ago, he says the hardest part of his job has been briefing people about the suicides.

"When you hear it, you immediately feel pain and you notice it right away in the community too," he says.

David Kooneeliusie of Pangnirtung says the answer lies in each community banding together and fighting the social problem collectively.

"Individual people have tried but the whole community has to get involved. What we learned here is all we can do is talk to the whole community and the organizations," says Kooneeliusie, who has worked as a coroner in Pangnirtung since 1989.

Taloyoak's Roger Mannilaq says a group in Cambridge Bay is working on suicide prevention in the Kitikmeot.

"The rash of suicides we've had over the last four years, seeing such young lives being wasted ... at the first case, I was unable to sleep," says Mannilaq.

The community of Sanikiluaq may be the place where other Nunavut settlements turn for the answers.

Veteran coroner John Jamieson says his community has a very low rate of suicide -- just two since 1982.

"It's very family-oriented, the community is very attached to the land and the culture is very strong. That has something to do with it," says Jamieson.

Chief coroner Percy Kinney says the annual conferences and the unique role the coroner takes in the community allows them to get a better handle on the circumstances of suicide, leaving them better prepared to combat the problem.

"The main focus of the coroner is to ascertain the details surrounding the death and make recommendations to prevent further deaths in the future ... in the end, they can make a difference."