Laurie-Anne Roberts and her husband, Jason, are walking from Prince Albert to Stanley Mission. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

fourth annual

Suicide awareness walkers will reach Stanley Mission Friday

Aug 27, 2020 | 5:22 PM

A 320-kilometre walk to raise awareness about suicide comes to an end tomorrow in Stanley Mission.

Laurie-Anne Roberts and her husband, Jason, along with a handful of supporters, left Prince Albert on Aug. 21 and reached La Ronge around 5 p.m. on Aug. 26. After a short stop at Kitaski Hall, the walkers made their way to the urban reserve downtown where they made speeches and spoke to the media.

“It’s like a healing journey for us,” Roberts, who lost her daughter to suicide in October 2016, said. “We actually had quite a bit of supporters. There were a lot of people honking their horns and waving. Some people stopped by to drop off donations in support of our walking.”

Roberts has been organizing the walk since 2017 and she said she has no reason to stop in the coming years. She noted the walk was a bit of a challenge this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, but several people from Montreal Lake, Prince Albert and Timber Bay joined them for portions.

With Tristen Durocher currently fasting in Regina and dozens of cyclists riding between Meadow Lake and Beauval early this month to bring attention to suicide, Roberts said she’s glad to see others spreading awareness as well.

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“I can feel their pain and grief of what they are going through,” Roberts said. “A lot of my friends have lost their children to suicide as well.”

Elder Tom Roberts was one of several people to make a speech yesterday and he spoke about how many Indigenous people have lost their culture, identity and language. He said there was a time when everybody knew one another and looked out for each other, but that kind of respect has been lost in the communities.

“By raising awareness of not only suicide, but drugs and alcohol, hopefully one of these days we can overcome that and be who we are once again as First Nations people,” Tom Roberts said.

He also said there is help available with prevention and recovery services in La Ronge and Stanley Mission. Tom Roberts explained there are mental health workers ready to assist the public and they will help individuals come up with a plan to deal with their depression.

“All of our people deal with depression by getting high on drugs or alcohol,” he said. “That, my friends, is not the way to go. There is an alternative.”

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derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno