[C0LLETTE]

Inuit pop singer-songwriter Kelly Fraser, suicide at age 26

Inuit pop singer-songwriter Kelly Fraser, who garnered worldwide attention with her Inuktitut cover of Rihanna’s Diamonds, had been seeking help for post-traumatic stress disorder before dying by suicide last week, according to her family.

Ms. Fraser’s mother, Theresa Angoo, and six siblings issued a joint statement on Monday saying she had taken her own life on Christmas Eve at the age of 26.

“Kelly suffered from PTSD for many years as a result of childhood traumas, racism and persistent cyber-bullying,” the statement said. “She was actively seeking help and spoke openly about her personal challenges online and through her journey."

On social media, Ms. Fraser proudly showed off clothing and jewellery by Inuit designers, and promoted other Inuit musicians and artists. She posted excitedly about traditional foods: caribou, seal eyeballs, mattak (whale skin and blubber), oatmeal with aqpik berries. But amid the cheery posts were also signs that she felt the weight of criticism.

“I face a ton of lateral violence and criticism and hate,” she wrote in a Dec. 15 Facebook post. “I need a strong support system. ... Just because I am well known doesn’t mean I deserve it.”

Charlie Angus, NDP MP for Timmins-James Bay, said Ms. Fraser’s death underscores the need for a national suicide prevention strategy.

“We lose so many young people in my region to suicide and they are treated as tragedies,” Mr. Angus said in an interview on Monday. “A tragedy is when someone gets hit by a bus crossing the street. When you see patterns that are preventable, where steps can be taken, that’s not a tragedy, that’s systemic negligence – the failure to act on the indicators of suicide, the need to put resources in place.”

Ms. Fraser was born in Sanikiluaq, Nunavut, and was living in Winnipeg. She released her debut album, Isuma, in 2014; her 2017 sophomore effort, Sedna, was nominated for best Indigenous music album at the 2018 Juno Awards.

She sang and rapped in both English and Inuktitut and blended her cultural influences with those of contemporary pop. Most recently, she had been crowdfunding for her third album, Decolonize.

“Kelly was an incredibly kind person who gave so much of herself to help others. She was fiercely open with her fans in the hopes that sharing her struggles might help them know that they were not alone," her family said in Monday’s statement.

According to a biography posted on her website, Ms. Fraser experienced numerous personal struggles, including substance use and the loss of her father to suicide.

Inuit have among the highest suicide rates in the world; in 2017, the rate was 106 for every 100,000 people.