Cultural continuity as a moderator of suicide risk among Canada’s First Nations (In: Healing traditions: The mental health of Aboriginal peoples in Canada edited by L. Kirmayer and G. Valaskakis).

Six years ago the Journal of Transcultural Psychiatry published the results of an epidemiological study (Chandler & Lalonde, 1998) in which the highly variable rates of youth suicide shown to characterize British ColumbiaÕs (BCÕs) First Nations were set in relation to a half dozen markers of Òcultural continuityÓÐÐcommunity level variables meant to document the extent to which each of BCÕs almost 200 Aboriginal ÒbandsÓ had taken steps to preserve their cultural past and secure future control of their own civic lives. Two key findings emerged from these earlier efforts.