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Originally Posted by lio45
Same here, interesting to hear from someone who's a lot more connected to this facet of life in Canada. I wonder what vid's armchair quarterback's ideas to improve the average aboriginal quality of life while still preserving traditions and culture would be?
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You integrate indigenous culture into the mainstream. Things like native art, native cuisine, native fashion. Respect the indigenous understanding of the natural environment. Legally recognize sacred indigenous lands. Support them when they suffer trauma, and come together around them when they need support.
These are all things that my city does. Native art? We've got a lot of it all over town, in the form of murals, sculptures, art on walls of almost every building. Literally etched into our courthouse on the exterior of the Aboriginal Settlement wing. Cuisine? Contrary to ssiguy's ignorance, there is native cuisine (it's basic, they were hunter gatherers after all). Almost every time I go to a potluck or get together, aside from the standards, there's food like bannock (a Scottish dish that was popular among indigenous people because of its simplicity), game (moose and deer especially, sometimes bear; local fish has always been part of our local culture). Indigenous food often combines meat and fruit, a regional favourite is beef and blueberry (I've always liked the less conventional raspberry and chicken). On a fairly regular basis, we have an aboriginal craft fair downtown with dozens of vendors (and one really big one during the Christmas season with around a hundred). The most popular items are handmade clothing from indigenous people. Not just mocassins and gloves; everything from hats to dresses to t-shirts with native cultural themes, and lots of white people buy them, wear them, enjoy them.
The mountain south of our city, Mount McKay, is increasingly being recognized as sacred and its original name, anemki wachieu, is being used more often. The Ojibwe name for this area, Wikwedong (Wikwed being "bay", and -ong and -ing are locative case markers in Ojibwe nouns), is used.
Another phenomenon that I think many Western Canadians are familiar with is walking as a tool to come together and heal after tragedy. These are quite common in my city, I participated in one a week ago, there is another next week. The biggest of the year is in September to honour lost indigenous women which draws several hundred, is attended by dignitaries and is culminated with a feast. Smudging is now the local form of christening major buildings (our courthouse was smudged on its first day, many important public city functions and meetings begin with a smudge). Smudging is the burning of dried herbs (typically sweet grass and sage) to drive out negative energy in a place to make it suitable for spiritual purposes, or whatever.
On remote First Nations, the tools indigenous people there are asking for in order to modernize without negatively impacting their culture are energy security (they currently rely on expensive diesel generators which are prone to malfunction and leak fuel; the fuel is flown in on airplanes periodically), food security, control over their education systems and funding to implement their curricula (First Nations aren't under provincial jurisdiction for education, but the federal government has no formal department of education, which leaves them at the mercy of meagre funding from INAC, resulting in the current funding discrepancy between First Nations and provincial schools). Better health care access, especially for mental health, are needed, and should be provided by people that understand indigenous people and their culture.
Diversions for youth like recreation centres are also an important part of helping young indigenous youth develop into better adults; I'm actively involved in this in Thunder Bay with an organization that has been held up by the city, province and United Way as a model for active programming that engages youth (we get about 50 participants per day, on average, entirely by choice as it's drop-in/drop-out, we're based in a small inner city neighbourhood park that is literally one of the top five busiest parks in the city now). The city actually includes this in its strategic plan, we put a lot of effort into encouraging other people and organizations to adopt as much of our techniques as they can since they've proven so effective. The biggest hurdle is access to funding.
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Originally Posted by lio45
Personally, I like the idea of a native province (forcibly carved out of Northern Saskatchewan, it's pretty central...) then elimination of the special status and reserves. Ironically, had this happened earlier, everyone would likely be better off today. Now, of course, it's unfathomable - so we're basically stuck with the status quo.
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Well that would be all well and good for the Cree of Northern Saskatchewan, but if you think indigenous people from all over Canada are going to move there and make it their home you're mistaken.
I've proposed in numerous venues, the establishment of the Assembly of First Nations as an elected (by First Nations people) legislative body operating under the jurisdiction of a reformed and renamed Indian Act, to create laws and policies associated with First Nations governments in general, while turning regional tribal councils into similar elected legislative bodies to oversee regional issues, and then finally sub-regional or local First Nations governments to oversee local issues. Give these levels of indigenous government taxation rights, the ability to have input on land use, and access to the royalties of natural resources within a certain distance of communities within their jurisdiction (for example, the Victor Diamond Mine would be within Attawapiskat/Nishnawbe Aski Nation jurisdiction due to proximity to Attawapiskat, and within Ontario jurisdiction as it is in Ontario, and Ontario and Attawapiskat/NAN would share its royalties instead of all of them going to Ontario; the ability of First Nations like Attawapiskat to make "back room" deals for large sums would be removed as it is unaccountable and not currently a right municipalities in Canada have).
Ultimately (I append this to the end of this idea every time I share it), what this system would look like, if indigenous people even choose something like it, would have to be the work of indigenous people in partnership with the provincial and federal governments and the courts to ensure a fair situation for both sides and ensure it is constitutional.
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Originally Posted by ssiguy
In the 2011 federal Election {which for Natives is even more relevant due to much of Native funding is strictly federal than for most Canadians} their voter turnout is lousy. The national turnout was 58.5% with the lowest level being the area with the highest level of Native population..........Nunavut with turnout of just 39.4%. Seconf lowest was the area with the second highest population of Natives...............the NWT with 47.4%.
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It was higher in 2015. Communities literally ran out of ballots and had to vote on pieces of paper with the signature of the returning officer on them because the logistics of getting ballots to remote places on short notice were too difficult.
Generally, native people are apathetic about the federal government because it often screws them over. I mean how many times have we heard the government will fix their water crises? It never does. It's education problems? Ignored no matter who is in office. They have little faith in government for the same reason old, right wing white people generally don't vote (at least in Ontario): there is a strong sense that the government has not only failed them, but has no intention of making up for it. Government after government has promised change and improvements, but none have delivered in a substantial way outside of crises where it is necessary to act to save face.
But when someone reaches out to indigenous people, or when something drives them to work together to avoid an undesirable situation (such as the rally against Harper's conservatives in 2015), they will become more politically active and vote in elections.
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Originally Posted by Pinion
The reserves themselves look pretty rundown though. It's weird that the supposed environmentalist caretakers of the land do things like let cars rust in their front yard.
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It has a lot to do with how reserves are legally set up (private property is illegal there), as well as the high levels of poverty. I live in a neighbourhood where most of the people are poor, and let me tell you,
white people let cars rust in their yards, too.
It's a symptom of poverty. Poverty causes and/or exacerbates mental health issues, and one of the biggest mental health issues afflicting people in poverty situations are disorders that cause anxiety, depression and hoarding.
And don't forget that many aboriginal people over the age of 50 went to residential schools where their culture was suppressed and their traditions were referred to as satanic or wrong, but who when released from those schools (if they survived them) were still not accepted in white society without significant issues. That also causes problems, and the affects of those problems get passed down to their kids. Parents with mental health issues who regularly self-medicate with drugs and alcohol are not going to raise their children very well. As a result, their children will have traumatic childhoods and go on to abuse
their children. It creates a cycle of trauma and poverty, and that's what we're seeing when we see a state of societal breakdown on reserves. That's why support for mental health and education are so important, and why it's vital to preserve their culture, because embracing one's traditional culture does help a lot of people (not just indigenous people) cope with trauma and stress. (Important note: this phenomenon is not actually specific to any ethnicity though is it more common among groups of people who have recently been overtaken and oppressed by another group of people; even white people in Canada experience this if they happen to descend from a long line of poor people who've had little success or significant trauma during their lives.)
And you can't say "oh, they're not environmentalists because they let cars rot in their front yard!" while lauding Trudeau's government's environmental policies as they build more pipelines. "Global warming is a serious threat but let's not get too carried away in acting on a solution to it!" Just because a few people in a group are engaging in problematic behaviour doesn't mean that the entire group has abandoned one of its founding principles or that that principle was a lie in the first place.
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