Alaska Legislature: Documentary Screening: Talking to the Tundra - How a Yupik Village Heals Together, 4/15/26, 12pm

Wow, actually a microphone. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] So we are waiting for the Senate caucus to be done with. That should be like any moment. Senator Hoppin is going to be here. I had asked Senator Stevens and Steadman on behalf of Nellie.

Elvie Gray Jackson I think is going to be here as well. But what we have in front of you, and this is Nellie's hometown, so I want her to speak to it, but we have I would argue the most powerful 19 minutes you're going to experience maybe in a long time. And the message is beyond compelling. It's a message to us to take the issue of mental health and the very, very tragic sort of circumstances surrounding increasing rates of suicide in a lot of our communities. And you'll see personally up close through the eyes of some young Alaska Native men who were here on March 18th when you did the original screening.

And I thank those of you who were there for being here a second time. But we do have some legislation that, you know, unabashedly we are, you know, hoping to get forward. And so with that, we do have Senator Gray Jackson. I hope Senator Hoffman is not far behind you. They should be here shortly.

They're still in caucus, but I'm here. Oh, okay. Well, if we keep talking as two House members in the Senate Finance Committee, maybe they will feel compelled to come here, right? But Nellie, did you want to mention something? Do you want to say anything else?

[Speaker] Oyaanaadairogii. Thank you all for coming. This means so much to me to share this video with all of you. We're all impacted by suicide one way or another. Either we know somebody or we know somebody personally or it's just getting too common, this epidemic.

And I just want to thank everybody for trying to put their foot forward trying to defeat this illness. Thank you, Gray Jackson.

We're very honored, of course, to have the very august Senate Finance Room as our venue today. It's sort of a rare occasion. And again, the documentary itself is 19 minutes, but I'd like to take a second to thank Commissioner Cockrell for investing your time today and being here with us. And we do have more people streaming in, a number of very important Senate staffers, so they should be allowed full access into their offices. If we allow them, that is, right?

Thank you, Representative Hannan, for being here. And we are hoping to get going here very momentarily as soon as we get Senator Hoffman. I think once he comes through— he's in caucus.

I think their caucus— your caucus probably is going to be closing soon, right? That's the hope, yeah. It's never a good sign when a caucus can't come to an end. Trust me, I've been through lots of them. On the other hand, there are probably people in that caucus who want it desperately to come to an end too.

That's how it works too. If any of you misbehave at any time, That will be your penalty coming into caucus for a couple hours. You'll never misbehave again, ever.

I'm joking, of course. Mr. Did maybe— do you want to say just a couple of quick words? Or—. I can. Oh, yeah, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Hi all, my name is Brooke Ivey. You know me perhaps from my day job, but today I'm here in my capacity as board member of American— on the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Alaska chapter. And so I just want to thank you all for coming and those who stream in for being here on behalf of our board and our new executive director Annie Graff. The film you're about to watch, for those who haven't seen it, is a documentary that was Produced in partnership with Alaska Public Media after they heard about the Hope and Healing Week that takes place in Toksook Bay. And of course you have Representative Jimmy here who knows a lot more about it, but it's really focused on bringing the community together, elders, community members, and school students to focus on healing and processing the grief of loss through more community— excuse me, cultural meaningful ways.

So, sorry, I just got nervous. But activities that really support protective factors and suicide prevention as we're seeing those rates increase in our rural communities and throughout this, throughout the state, we've had those rates that we've been facing high rates for many years. In 2023, we were the highest in the nation. So we continue to do this work. Jimbila.

Runs the program, Hope and Healing Week, and is retiring from his spot on the board this year. So many of you know Jim, and he is a longtime advocate and board member and founder of our Alaska chapter, and so we appreciate his work. But one thing he wanted to flag too was that this, this program is impossible without the local high school students as well and the, the peer advocacy approaches that take place. They play a critical role in what you're about to see. And I just want to thank you all again too.

As the speaker mentioned, last month we had youth from Tuksook Bay and Knightmute here in the capital, and I was helping in the advocacy a little bit behind the scenes. We wanted you to really hear their voices directly, and you guys showed up for them. You really did. And you're showing up today, and you're going to hear their voices again. And I think they speak louder than any of us could here in this room.

So thank you.

And I guess we'll continue to chat. Do you have anything more you'd like to say? I would like to say—. Yes, Senator Gray Jackson. Thank you.

Hello, everyone. I'm glad to see so many of you here. And I had the privilege of seeing this film a couple weeks ago with several other legislators, and it's touching. And it just makes me think and realize, and I hope others do too, how important Senate Bill 41 is to make it to the finish line finally, once and for all. It almost made it to the finish line a few years ago, actually twice, and I remain hopeful that it will make it to the finish line because this film is an indication of why mental health education K-12 in the early stages is so, so important.

With that said, bring out the tissues.

There are tissues over here.

While we're waiting, I'll just say a quick prayer in Yup'ik for those who passed away.

Well, we should probably begin. I hope Senator Hoffman can join us here momentarily, but let's respect her time.

I'll take this one and throw it like that. I think, no, we'll throw them up. We'll be very careful. You'll see, you'll see how we do it. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] It's a party.

It's just we're celebrating their accomplishments in school.

So throw party, I called it throw party because there's no seal blubber to give.

They're grateful, they're so happy, it's a celebration, so it's a throw party. And then the community gets the gifts. And that's how it works best for a rural community, being together. Even though we have our individual lives, we know we need each other at the same time to survive.

We got to go up and get the rest of the stuff.

It was, uh, last year, uh, yeah, last year we caught a bearded seal, ring seal, and probably walrus if we're lucky. If we're really lucky, beluga.

So Tupsuk Bay is located on an island we call Qalluyaq.

In English, it's called Nelson Island, and it's located in the southwestern coast of Alaska.

The village.

All I could say, it has a very beautiful view, really beautiful view, especially when the sunset hits. You could like see all the colors on top of the sky with the clouds. You look at the hill and all the green grasses. Ooh, in a calm day, especially coming back from out hunting or fishing, especially We're happiest when they catch something because we know that's something to put in the freezer for the next winter. That first catch, we have to share it with the community and especially to the elders who need it.

Elders, they give blessings to us. The more they're grateful, the more blessed we are.

I'd say that it's a good place where you see kids playing outside and going walking or playing ball at the ballpark. Just go with it and do my work. But I still think I'm 18 years old. I'm a senior, and tomorrow I'm going to be graduating. Kiká Gloria, Ká Rosemary, Kikésa.

Kikésa. Yeah. Our students, they came up here Yukon language first, so the English language was a challenge. But everybody learned. We all learned eventually.

Today it seems like it's the students, even though their first language at home is Yukhtun, when they come together, their first language seems to be English.

So how do you feel about heights? Kinda nervous and scared for my future because there's a lot of things that I want to try to become, but like, I don't really know what I want to do. I was thinking about trying to become a Yupik teacher or a social worker to help kids feel better.

The suicide rate here is really high.

I lost 5 friends, actually, one year after the other.

I was pretty close. I even played ball with them in high school.

I even lost my uncle through suicide too this year.

My 4 cousins died from suicide.

Most are tired of being strong. Most are tired of carrying everything that happened in the past.

The suicide rates have gone up for those that finally graduated out of high school and that have no longer support.

I've been working with the school district for 19 years. I travel to 7 different villages. With the villages I have, I have a little over 658 students. That's a heavy caseload for me. I deal with a lot of depression, mental health issues, thoughts of suicide.

I work with kindergarten through 12th grade. The graduates are able to give me a call, or when I'm in the village, they can come in and stop in and see me. But most of them after that, they lose the support from the school and they start their own path, so they're not too sure about talking about their feelings anymore. Life is just hard sometimes. Can be.

As I was, you know, losing all 5 of my friends, I lost what I loved to do. My grieving was really bad. My mom and my dad noticed how my mood was changing. I almost took my life, but somebody brought me back. I was dead for 5 minutes.

I didn't want to die, but I wanted to at the same time. I couldn't handle all that pain.

But I got help. I woke up in the hospital. The staff members were really nice, helpful, caring people. They kept me company throughout the whole 12 days. You know how therapists are, like daily they would check up on you and ask you the same questions.

Yeah, that's what we need to cry out for out here, professional therapy. That's daily. Before my attempt even happened, I still had PTSD.

I'm still coping with my trauma too. I even go out to my friends' or one of my family members' house and I'll talk to them and I'll cry. There are extreme situations where they feel what happened to them is too harsh, too hard to get over. And here in Tuxpeh, besides the elders and ourselves, they don't find what they need. They need, like, they need somebody else, like a professional.

They need that person, or they need that group, or they need that team. They need the constant everyday therapy that we don't have out here.

For those who don't understand southwestern Alaska or even Alaska itself, even though it's the largest state and everybody thinks we have all the money with the oil and fish industries, that's not the case. We are not in southwestern. We are off the road system. It's primarily air.

Recently, some of the villages just got plumbing, indoor plumbing. Prior to that, they were packing their water from the watershed, delivering it to the homes. The honey buckets are still being used in most of the houses.

They do a lot of subsistence, muskox hunting, moose hunting, halibut fishing. 'Cause you can't just always rely on groceries 'cause it costs money. All you can do is just go out there and just keep on fishing, catch as much as you could to store up in your fridge so you could feed your family. It's what they do. And I admire that myself too.

I like to do that too for my family. Our elderly men would tell us how to cope with our sadness is going out doing subsistence. It's sort of like our peace of mind. Gives us peace. We take our sadness out of that.

Our anger. When my grandpa passed away, me and my dad stopped going fish camp. Because I don't even know what to do when I get there. My grandpa used to tell me what to do and what not to do. Since he passed, I don't like going there no more.

Out here, a home itself is hard to get, so we still have adults, young adults, still with parents under their roof. But for me and my kids, we're happy in that situation. It's okay because we're helping each other at the same time to get through this.

Johnny, he was the last one in our family. He committed suicide 5 years ago. We didn't see it coming. It was a shock. At first, I asked God to do yesterday again, but then I realized it was a silly prayer.

I turned to God right away. I knew I wasn't the only one with this big loss, so be strong. I had to be strong for my husband. I had to be strong for my kids.

I had to be strong for his family, his cousins, his friends, his grandparents, everybody. At the same time, I know my friends felt the pain for me.

5 Years kind of seems like, like it's over, but it's not. Not here when it keeps It's happening every year. The healing process is taking longer because the memory keeps coming back.

Because before a year passes, somebody does it, and I see the parents, and I feel the pain again. I feel the loss again.

It's hard to deal with all the suicides. I'm a volunteer with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. We call it Hope and Healing Week. [SINGING IN NATIVE LANGUAGE] It started off 10 years ago, and I had some young students who assisted with me to try to make it more traditional and cultural.

You know, they use that smoke to heal us, to brush off all the bad things that we carry. And everybody would just start drumming, singing for the ones we lost. [Speaker:WOMAN] I hear it. So we had some good elders talk, that came in and talked, and then we talked about a candlelight ceremony. We're going to have a potluck and then we're going to have a Celebration of Life dance to end it with a positive note.

Yesterday we did the community walk. [SPEAKING O'ODIN] I cried with everybody. I cried for everybody.

[Speaker:JAMES] I started getting emotional too, but I remembered who I was walking for. I feel better since there was a lot of people walking with me, because that reminded me that I'm not alone. I still have a lot of energy from that walk, so later on I was going to call and ask my friends if they can go walk with me again. [Speaker:JAMES] My hope in healing is is basically to start the conversation. Because there's always a chance to live a full life.

A lot of parents did not know how to talk to their kids about death, about how they're hurting inside. That's the main reason why people kill themselves. They don't talk. I struggled to myself. My uncle told me that if I'm going through some stuff, when I can't talk to nobody, I can always go out in the tundra and start talking to the tundra or the rocks or anything there.

When I say to the kids when they're grieving is, "It's okay to cry. Tell me a story. Tell me a good time that you had with the person who died.

Let's talk about it, and if we cry, we're gonna cry." And that's okay. Your story's worth it. Your life is worth it. You don't need a magic wand or anything. Just talk.

Talking saves lives.

I was panicking. I was nervous, scared, but I was happy to get my diploma. I don't know what I'm going to do now, but I'm going to take tiny steps just to see where I'm going.

I'm still learning how to be alone, just trying to enjoy my own time. I actually am still working on myself. Focus on my niece and nephew all the time.

We still are a community of Yup'ik who still survive from nature, and I don't think that's going to end because we're way out here in the coast. So our young men eventually realize that they are our resource. Our young women eventually realize that they are our resource for survival through the winter. Earlier I brought in my grandson with me. I look at him and I want him to have a bright future.

If parents hold their kids to when they're able to be dependable. That's love. That gives me hope.

Thank you, everyone. Very much appreciate your moment. I hope we'll have the opportunity to carry some of this solution with us. That's our greatest message. Thank you.

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