Superhero flying to the rescue of native youth (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Superhero flying to the rescue of native youth

Cree legend Wesakechak comes to life in an updated form for comic books
to be distributed to aboriginals

Miro Cernetig
Vancouver Sun
Monday, June 19, 2006
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=a97cf0e3-380e-4138-8fba-12236e9133ee&k=98554

Suicide is a scourge among young aboriginals. But a new superhero, with
eagle feathers in his hair and a red, white and blue suit that hugs his
chiselled body, is flying in to the rescue.

His name is Wesakechak, named after the mythical shape-shifter and
protector in Cree legends. But he's been updated for the 21st century
with a flying motorcycle, superhuman strength and put inside a comic
book now being distributed across the country for aboriginal youth.

"We wanted to find a way to get through to young people," said Sean
Muir, founder and executive director of the Healthy Aboriginal Network,
a non-profit society. "In the past, this sort of stuff has often been
done with lots of text and pamphlets. We thought a comic book might be
a better way of reaching out."

Apparently they were right. In fact, the comic Darkness Falls, which
received $45,000 in aid from the B.C.

Ministry of Health, is something of a best-seller: More than 33,000 of
the comics, which will be revealed June 21 at the World Urban Forum,
will be distributed to aboriginal teenagers, who are statistically five
times more likely than their non-native counterparts to take their
lives.

What makes the comic unique -- and an effective teaching tool when
discussing the silence-inducing subject of suicide, said Muir -- is
that it fuses together elements of aboriginal spirituality with
eye-popping action scenes and film noir fantasies one might find in an
X-Men film.

The comic's creator is Steve Sanderson, a 29-year-old animation artist
who has worked for some of Vancouver's biggest animation and video game
studios. Born to a Cree father and a non-native mother of Scottish
descent, Sanderson got the inspiration a few years ago when he received
a disturbing call from his cousin, who was ten years younger than him
and still lived in Saskatoon.

"He just called me out of the blue and said that he was going to kill
himself," said Sanderson. "He meant it. He was at the end of his rope."

Sanderson rushed to Saskatch-ewan to spend time with his troubled
cousin. While there, he realized that his experience was one shared by
thousands of aboriginals dealing with family members living in poverty
who contemplate, and too often commit, suicide. But his mixed heritage
and career in the entertainment world brought another perspective to
the problem.

"I thought it would be cool if I could mix the two -- my fascination
with pop-cult and comic books and video game culture with native
culture," he said. "I thought it would make something really different
and more relevant for kids."

What he decided to do was pit his superhero Wesakechak (pronounced
wee-sak-ee-chak) against a more fearful Cree phantom which he also
learned about while growing up: The Weetigo, the spirit who takes over
a person's body and mind, making them commit acts such as cannibalism.
Sanderson decided to make the Weetigo the evil force that drives native
children to suicide.

What Sanderson also did, mostly through his drawing and use of language,
was portray life on the reserve as dark and desperate, as it can be
sometimes. His opening panel is a depressing scene of a native high
school, somewhere on the vast, sun-baked prairie. The main character,
based on himself and his cousin, soon emerges as an overweight boy --
with a penchant for drawing -- who is bullied at school, told he's only
good at eating by his teacher and goes home to a family where he's told
he's too fat and "useless."

Further on, the teen sits in a dark grove of trees, tears streaming,
declaring, "I want to die. I want to die."

Such scenes were not put in without pause. Muir said his organization
screened the comic carefully over nine months.

"The last thing you want to do is put this out and actually give people
an idea about suicide," he said.

But the story, while sometimes sad, is ultimately a hopeful one. When
the evil Weetigo tries to force the boy to commit suicide, the powerful
Wesakechak in full superhero mode tries to do battle. But he's losing.
It's the young boy who hold the power to defeat this demon in front of
him by declaring four words: "I don't wanna die."

It's a simple story, said Sanderson. But it's left him fulfilled.

"If one kids reads this and it changes their mind, then I've done
something important with my life," he reflected.

In fact, he already has. Sanderson's once-suicidal cousin is now
graduating from film school, he said, "and has turned into a real
success story," just like in the comic that thousands of other
aboriginal children are now reading.

mcernetig at png.canwest.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2006