COVID-19 Daily News Digest – August 30, 2020
Aboriginal families locked out of their communities are quarantining in ‘Camp Beautiful’
With many Aboriginal people in South Australia displaced from their communities during the coronavirus pandemic – and unable to return while those places remain under lockdown – representatives from the Kokatha, Barngarla and Kuyani peoples knew they had to act. The camp, in Kuyani Country, 280 kilometres north of Adelaide, gives those isolating a remote and safe place to quarantine before returning home. It also reassures them they aren’t taking the virus back to their communities.
Case spike proves need to protect north
this week shows how a few cases become hundreds in days, especially in “communal living” communities. On Monday, Roussin said one-third of the province’s cases were in communities that live and work closely together (148 of 395 active cases at that time).
Still, this is precisely why Indigenous communities have been so adamant in maintaining protective measures despite when the province “opened” up in May, removing travel restrictions and lessening health and safety precautions in phases.
In Brazil’s Javari Valley, isolated communities fear Covid-19 ‘catastrophe’
“The situation in the Javari Valley is critical,” said Douglas Rodrigues, a physician who has worked with recently contacted indigenous groups over the past 40 years. “We are preparing for a catastrophe,” he told CNN.
Overall, some 800,000 indigenous people live in villages throughout Brazil. The largest concentration of isolated communities is based in the Javari Valley, a region the size of Austria, located in southwest Amazonas state, near the border with Peru.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/29/americas/brazil-javari-valley-indigenous-covid-19-intl/index.html
‘Education is a treaty obligation,’ Mamakwa
“There is no more time to waste on the jurisdictional game of ping-pong being played with First Nations education. The federal funding announcement fell far short of what First Nations in Ontario need to keep children at school safe. Education is a treaty obligation in Ontario and Doug Ford needs to stop this cruel game.”
https://kenoraonline.com/local/education-is-a-treaty-obligation-mamakwa
Belize’s indigenous communities suffering the most during the COVID-19 pandemiC
One of the major announcements which were made at this conference was that the Ministry of Education would be sourcing 8,000 devices that will be distributed to students to facilitate online learning. The minister was asked, however, about how difficult it might be for students in rural communities to access those online lessons due to limited electrification and internet access within those communities. Students, in some cases, have to travel to urban centers to attend school.