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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

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@...