“Up to 8 times higher” than in metropolitan France, according to the study (carried out between 2007 and 2018) published by Santé publique France.

And among the Teko and Wayampi communities, in the commune of Camopi and the remote village of Trois Sauts, the suicide rate even reaches “137 cases per 100,000 inhabitants per year”.

A phenomenon linked to the difficult living conditions of the Amerindians. For several years now, they have been surviving in general indifference. The natives are the great forgotten people of the French Republic and have the misfortune of living on a territory coveted for its mineral resources. They are victims of illegal gold panning, which creates a climate of violence and insecurity.

Also, by becoming French in 1969, the Amerindians lost their traditional way of life and their knowledge. They then faced a double culture that they had not chosen. Today, they are losing their bearings. Alcohol and drugs eat away at bodies and minds, hence the suicide rate is higher than the national average.

And this deep-seated malaise also affects the youngest children from the very first day they start school. In French Guyana, learning is not adapted to Amerindian children, who have to follow the letter of the National Education curriculum. And often, due to the lack of secondary school, children must also leave their villages at the age of 11 to go to school on the coast: a brutal change. On the spot, the lack of adapted structures, discrimination and loneliness are also at the root of school failure.

It is to remedy this that exceptional initiatives have been put in place. The visual artist and storyteller, Ti’iwan Couchili, the first woman Teko woodcarver, has committed herself to young people by working in schools. Through the plastic art workshops she organises, children and teenagers reconnect with their culture and Amerindian identity and regain self-confidence.

“Through drawing, I invite children to discover Amerindian symbols such as small circles representing the foot of the jaguar. Our culture is not lost but it must be found”, explains Ti’iwan Couchili.

Furthermore, in March 2021, La voix des femmes autochtones will travel to French Guyana to lead a series of workshops with the children of the Camopi secondary school. A history suitcase will thus be made with the 6th grade pupils. This heritage suitcase will contain objects, sounds, drawings and texts collected or written in class on Amerindian culture and will travel from class to class. As for the 9th grade students, they will produce a podcast of identities. After learning the basics of radio, the teenagers will be invited to collect testimonies and produce reports on the theme of culture and interculturality.

Credit: Patrick Bard