Hi everyone!
This is me and my son Franklen (my apologies if the picture doesn't load up properly):
Here's my story:
My name is Christina and I am a Coast Salish Aboriginal working as a writer. I am writing a series of books called “On the Margins” which is about the child sex trade and mental illness in the downtown eastside of Vancouver, aka the DTES. There are so many stories and movies out there about inner city struggles and such, and I found that they are always about the male youth experience in the inner cities, which is very different from the female’s experience. Little girls of the DTES, especially Aboriginal girls, are much more vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. I show how young girls (and boys too) as young as 9 get forced into the sex trade, and how they get stuck in the DTES as kids, and then how it makes them stuck as adults.
Mental illness is epidemic in the DTES which is another factor that plays in this complicated web. The story is situated in the Aboriginal community of the DTES, a.k.a. “The native ghetto” (I hate that condescending term). The DTES is filled with residential school survivors leaving severely traumatized people to raise kids, who in turn cause more trauma to their kids, and then their kids create trauma, creating a vicious cycle known as ‘Residential school syndrome’. Many other mentally ill people from different backgrounds end up in the DTES too, as well as other social rejects. All of this combined, along with all the very complicated obstacles that poverty poses, creates a very troubled community.
I was compelled to write these stories as a woman who grew up as a little girl in a dangerous home where I was severely neglected, abused, and exploited until I ran away at the age of 15 with nowhere safe to go. As you can imagine, a young girl alone in the DTES at 15 years old falls victim to many of the dangerous predators out there, thus experiencing even more trauma. My story is not unique; Many girls of the DTES have the same story. I am extremely lucky and blessed to have come out of it all in one piece, and I found a way to actually leave the DTES despite all the factors that were working against me. I don’t say that in an arrogant way like “if I can do it, so can they” because it is not that simple, as you will see if you read my book. There are only so many tickets out, and not everyone will get that ticket, regardless of how intelligent and capable they may be, or how hard they work for it.
Since then, I have obtained a double major degree in Health Sciences and Liberal arts, most of which was surrounding the topics of mental health and Aboriginal issues. The reason for my interest in Aboriginal issues is obvious, my interests in studying mental health arose from my own struggles with mental illness and trying to understand myself, as well as the people around me. I believe people need to start talking about mental illness more. Although I don’t always feel comfortable talking about my own mental health struggles, I want to at least start the conversation. I think that is a good step towards eliminating the stigma of being a mentally ill person. I want to feel understood, and other people with mental illness to feel understood. I want more people with mental illness to speak out about their experiences, so others can see that we are also intelligent kind people. We are not what most people think we are. Social media is terrible for portraying us as being dangerous, stupid, etc. There is so much to say about the topic, I wouldn’t even know where to start. I believe that Steemit is an excellent medium to start this conversation, and I am very happy that I have the opportunity to do that now.