The attempted suicides by 17 people including a nine-year-old child on the Attawapiskat First Nation has drawn attention to a crisis that is very real to those living in despair in that community. Politicians, columnists, and journalists have put forth reasons why social issues are rampant in First Nations communities. Some have offered solutions.
Former prime minister Jean Chretien recently said that First Nations people living in remote communities have to consider the lack of economic bases in their reserves, stating that “sometimes” people just have to move. I was pondering this because a majority of First Nations people live off reserve.
More than half – 55 per cent – of aboriginal people in Canada live in urban centers. Many leave their reserves to seek education and employment opportunities. The consensus is that there are more opportunities in the city and that is true, to a certain extent. Access to training and education programs, social services, and employment opportunities are easier in urban centers. However, we have to also consider the reality.
First Nations people in 2016 still have to deal with racism, prejudice, and ignorance. There is a false belief that First Nations are tax burdens, which dehumanizes even innocent First Nations children. Public comments regarding the situation in Attawapiskat is a case in point. There is a lack of compassion or empathy for their plight because many believe that there are enough tax dollars spent on “those people,” which allows people to overlook that nine-year-old child.
Is moving really a solution? I asked my mother, Tina, and she said, “Well, many who do move end up living in ghettos.” She reminded me that “without this reserve, we would have lost our culture, language, and identity” as Stoney Nakoda people. Assimilation would have been complete. In this context, First Nations reserves did the opposite of what the government intended and that is to preserve our cultural identities.
First Nations people who do move to urban centers face various challenges. Many landlords are typically unwilling to rent to First Nations tenants. Finding adequate housing is a challenge, as is finding employment. Employers, who have had a negative experience with a First Nations employee, are less likely to hire First Nations people in the future, forgetting that each person is different.
First Nations in Canada are in a process of deconstructing colonization. The social problems we face today are a direct result of assimilation policies that socialized innocent children to hold negative views of themselves. First Nations children were subjected to horrendous abuses in residential schools in a process that conditioned children to question indigenous epistemologies and one that destroyed the social fabric of our communities.
First Nations people are now in a process of rebuilding and fostering positive identities as native people. This process necessitates educating all Canadians about First Nations history, the treaty processes, and the effects of colonial policies such that people can understand why a nine-year-old child is driven to attempt suicide.
In 195,7 when my mother and a group of Stoney children were bused to Cochrane High School for the first time, she said white students lined up by the fence and chanted “Indians on the warpath” as they made their way into the school. Not much has changed. In 2016, my nieces are often referred to as “Pocahontas” in public schools. This is not a rare occurrence and highlights the reality that First Nations children face discrimination by non-First Nations people at an early age and more so than non-First Nations children because, seemingly, people have paid a tax to hold racist or intolerant views.
