Aboriginal solutions and the Attawapiskat Crisis By Alex Andres
by Alex Andres|For Walling's BlogSpot|Posted May 9th, 2019|2:00 pm
Shortly after
1:45 am, on April 10th, 2016, the hospital in the Attawapiskat
community was flooded by almost a dozen patients. They ranged from 9 to 14
years of age, and the question of why, an outbreak of youth suicide attempts was occurring, shocked the news outlets. The
community itself however, wasn’t shocked
at all. Attawapiskat was a dying community for months. In fact, almost all
resources on the reserve were exhausted, and the health care system in place
was only capable of meeting ¼ of the
populations needs. The people were
depressed, and needed help, but when they had tried to reach out, the Canadian
government met them with resistance. The outbreak was less a shock, than a
foreseeable event waiting to happen, because of the lack of healthy living conditions in the community.
Many people view this as another example of an aboriginal community too underfunded by its government to deal with its problems. Even more people believe the youth suicides could have easily been prevented, had the community gotten the funding and resources it needed. All but one child survived the suicide outbreak, but one was one too many. The death marked a sign that the issues were serious. The Canadian governments ignorance was no longer tolerable, and was leading to deaths. To handle their problems, the community had to go bigger. They declared a state of emergency at a national level, and the united nations came to answer their call for help. They sent much needed doctors, psychiatrists, and resources, doing Canada's job for them. There was a third world community living in Canada, and it took the united nations to recognize and handle it.
Why was Canada, a country so adamant about world peace and health, so hypercritical in saving its own people? It was because there was clearly a mismanagement of priority funding to the aboriginal populations in Canada. Our country needs to realize the path to reconciliation isn’t through stepping out of the picture, it is through building trust and recognizing pasts, in the Canadian-Aboriginal relations.
The country needs to prioritize aboriginal communities like Attawapiskat, to ensure proper living, health, and education conditions are provided to every Canadian. They need to understand that to rebuild Canada's wretched past, you start by providing equity to every Canadian, so that we as a nation can come together.. Canada can do this by prioritizing health care, and aboriginal needs, in their funding , by making reserve health care, and aboriginal issues, provincially regulated, rather than controlled by the federal domain. Who better to understand the needs of a community, or population, better than the people closest? By provincializing aboriginal affairs, including aboriginal education, and health care, Canada will be better structured to quickly meet the demands of communities in need. Canada can write its wrongs. By recognizing and solving our problems, we will push our country, and our people , one step closer to a path of reconciliation.
McMahon, Tamsin. “Why Fixing First Nations Education Remains so Far out of Reach.”
National Post, 15 Dec. 2015, nationalpost.com/news/canada/residential-schools-to-blame-for-problems-plaguing-aboriginals-truth-and-reconciliation-commission. Postmedia News. “Residential Schools to Blame for Problems
 |
Sheridan Hookimaw, 13, The one fatality from the youth suicides in Attawapiskat, Thestar.com |
Many people view this as another example of an aboriginal community too underfunded by its government to deal with its problems. Even more people believe the youth suicides could have easily been prevented, had the community gotten the funding and resources it needed. All but one child survived the suicide outbreak, but one was one too many. The death marked a sign that the issues were serious. The Canadian governments ignorance was no longer tolerable, and was leading to deaths. To handle their problems, the community had to go bigger. They declared a state of emergency at a national level, and the united nations came to answer their call for help. They sent much needed doctors, psychiatrists, and resources, doing Canada's job for them. There was a third world community living in Canada, and it took the united nations to recognize and handle it.
Why was Canada, a country so adamant about world peace and health, so hypercritical in saving its own people? It was because there was clearly a mismanagement of priority funding to the aboriginal populations in Canada. Our country needs to realize the path to reconciliation isn’t through stepping out of the picture, it is through building trust and recognizing pasts, in the Canadian-Aboriginal relations.
The country needs to prioritize aboriginal communities like Attawapiskat, to ensure proper living, health, and education conditions are provided to every Canadian. They need to understand that to rebuild Canada's wretched past, you start by providing equity to every Canadian, so that we as a nation can come together.. Canada can do this by prioritizing health care, and aboriginal needs, in their funding , by making reserve health care, and aboriginal issues, provincially regulated, rather than controlled by the federal domain. Who better to understand the needs of a community, or population, better than the people closest? By provincializing aboriginal affairs, including aboriginal education, and health care, Canada will be better structured to quickly meet the demands of communities in need. Canada can write its wrongs. By recognizing and solving our problems, we will push our country, and our people , one step closer to a path of reconciliation.
work cited:
Macleans.ca, 22 Aug. 2014, www.macleans.ca/news/canada/why-fixing-first-nations-education-remains-so-far-out-of-reach/.
McMahon, Tamsin. “Why Fixing First Nations Education Remains so Far out of Reach.”
National Post, 15 Dec. 2015, nationalpost.com/news/canada/residential-schools-to-blame-for-problems-plaguing-aboriginals-truth-and-reconciliation-commission. Postmedia News. “Residential Schools to Blame for Problems
Plaguing Aboriginals: Truth and
Reconciliation Commission.” Spurr, Ben. “How the Attawapiskat Suicide
Crisis Unfolded.” Thestar.com, 18 Apr. 2016, www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/04/18/how-the-attawapiskat-suicide-crisis-unfolded.html.
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