Stop ignoring plight of First Nations

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/03/2016 (3851 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Every once in a while, we receive letters or comments on social media or to Sound Off that reflect the darker nature of some members of our wider Westman community, regarding Manitoba’s First Nations population.

They usually go something like this: Why are there so many stories in the media about aboriginal people? Why don’t they work harder to get themselves off the reserve (and out of our pockets)?

This was especially the case when the Sun and the Winnipeg Free Press covered the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that was investigating the stories of residential school survivors.

We don’t publish these kinds of racist and bigoted epithets, but they do try the patience of the editor in charge. There are very good reasons to provide coverage about neighbouring First Nations communities in Westman, and our aboriginal and Métis neighbours living in the city of Brandon. While it’s certainly not true in all cases, speaking generally, aboriginal people have been victimized and marginalized in our society.

And it’s not difficult to see what the result has been — generations of abuse at the hands of the government, and general neglect by the rest of us. We only need to point to the ongoing push for a national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. An RCMP report released last year stated that aboriginal women continue to be over-represented among Canada’s missing and murdered women.

At the same time, a Statistics Canada report last November noted that Canada’s aboriginals were far more likely to die violently than other Canadians in 2014 — at a rate of six times higher than non-aboriginal people.

Why is this happening? Experts consistently point to the effects of residential schools, chronic poverty and an ongoing lack of support for those who suffer domestic abuse and substance abuse. Much of the problem for those living on reserves tends to be the fact that these communities are so often out of sight, far from large urban centres and easily ignored by those who control the federal purse strings.

Take for example the aboriginal community of Cross Lake. Just this week, this community declared a state of emergency after residents endured six suicides in the last two months and 140 attempted suicides in the last two weeks alone.

As The Canadian Press reported, the community of some 8,300 people has been traumatized and needs immediate help from the provincial and federal governments. A meeting with Manitoba Health Minister Sharon Blady last month resulted in the province sending a single mental-health worker to the community on an eight-hour shift — and the local nursing stations is only staffed by two nurses overnight.

This community, which is near a Manitoba Hydro generating station, has an 80 per cent unemployment rate, and the First Nation’s traditional lands are regularly turned into floodways. Aboriginal Affairs Minister Eric Robinson says the root causes of suicide — these being poverty, overcrowded housing and past abuse — need to be addressed before the situation on the community can improve.

While this community happens to be about 500 kilometres north of Winnipeg, not too long ago we had a similar situation in our own Westman back yard. In the late 1990s, the Dakota First Nation community of Birdtail Sioux, about 145 kilometres northwest of Brandon, had been plagued by a rash of suicides.

A front page Brandon Sun article dated July 23, 1998 reported that there had been seven suicides in the previous year, and that police had recorded another 20 attempts “since January.” Also, one man had been hit by a train two people died in a house fire and another person died in a fatal shooting. And alcohol had been identified as a factor in many of these incidents.

At the time, the community of then-400 people lacked any sort of constructive activity for its youth. There were no recreation facilities, a “nearly nonexistent chance for employment and a lack of understanding about their own culture.”

This kind of situation should not be happening in Canada. It is for this reason that the media must work to bring attention to our fellow aboriginal brothers and sisters. Compared to the rest of the world, we live in a society of vast wealth and opportunity.

That any of our citizens live in Third World conditions is disgraceful — and all the more so if we turn a blind eye to it.