With few who speak up, Indigenous male victims of domestic violence left out of the conversation

At dawn's first light, with fresh snow blanketing the ground, Dale Good is chopping firewood, each crack of his axe splitting the logs in half. Nearby, a group of totems silently watches over him and his community of Gitanyow, an Indigenous village in remote northern B.C.

It's in quiet moments like these that he thinks about his son, Zachary.

"I still write to him on [Facebook] Messenger on his birthdays, wherever I feel lost," Good said. "I tell him I love him, I miss him, and that I wish he were still here."

But Zachary Turner-Good will never answer. He was killed six years ago, at age 25, his former girlfriend convicted of manslaughter.

Turner-Good's death is not an isolated incident. A 16-month CBC News investigation into intimate-partner homicide found that among male victims, one in three were Indigenous — the highest number of victims across all ethnicities.

It also marks an overrepresentation, given that First Nations, Inuit and Métis people made up only six per cent of the Canadian population as of the 2016 Census.

Experts say that very few men — particularly in Indigenous communities — open up and talk about this kind of violence. And until they do, there will be few options created to stem it.

Dale Good remembers when he first held his baby boy in his hands; when he lifted him up and held him close, he could see Zachary's future. 

"It was like receiving a hug from him," Good recalled. "That's the kind of person he was throughout his life. Affectionate. He always hugged people."

Zachary was also helpful throughout his life, Good said. He'd always help family members with one thing or another. Even village elders, often cutting and stacking their firewood in the winters, refusing offers of payment. 

"That was him. That's just the way he was," he said.

Good doesn't recall when Zachary started seeing his girlfriend, Isabelle Johnny. But he remembers when he first brought her to a family gathering. "She seemed cold and distant. And there was nothing behind her eyes," he said.

After an incident between the couple saw Isabelle charged with domestic assault on Zachary, she was placed on probation, and Zachary moved into an apartment on his own.

Good helped him buy furniture and move into the space — something he'd come to regret.