COVID-19 Daily News Digest – July 31, 2020
Hockey Night returns to Treaty 6 Traditional Territory
“It’s very, very, very special because it gives us an opportunity to welcome hockey, welcome the world back to Edmonton, to also welcome them to our territory of Treaty 6,” Chief Wilton Littlechild said. “The elder prayed for continued good health and safety for all the players, fans, all the staff, media, all who are going to be participating.”
Six more COVID cases found on Haida Gwaii
“The additional cases do not represent a significant expansion of the outbreak, nor do they suggest wider spread of COVID-19 in Haida Gwaii communities,” Northern Health said. “While contact tracing work continues, it is believed the new cases are also epidemiologically linked to the original outbreak cases.”
Survival and sustenance: Muscowpetung FN brings back bison amid COVID-19
“Some of the options were cattle and bison,” Pratt said of the plan’s initial stages. “And the discussion was bringing back the bison to our territory and using them as a food source, and … possibly keeping it as a farm down the road.”
“We grew up learning and listening to stories about this animal that our ancestors survived on. So that’s where it (discussion) took off from: To bring them back to our care here, because they once roamed our beautiful Qu’Appelle Valley,”
https://leaderpost.com/news/local-news/0730-covid-muscowpetung-buffalo
Deadly land conflicts seen rising as threat from industry grows
“Insecure land tenure, irresponsible business practices and government policies that prioritise extractive economies at the cost of human rights are putting people, and their land, at risk,” said Rachel Cox, a campaigner at Global Witness.
“While rural communities, including indigenous peoples, grapple with the impact of COVID-19, they are constantly hounded by military operations that benefit mining corporations encroaching on their ancestral land,” she said.
New lookout on the way for First Nations heritage village in Cariboo
It is anticipated the project will cost approximately $25,000 and take a week to complete. The Cariboo Regional District provided $5,000 in funding, with the remainder coming from community development funding through SCIB.
Chief Sheri Sellars noted the national award-winning site is welcoming visitors this summer and is taking every precaution necessary to keep the health of everyone safe.
Indigenous communities receive COVID-19 support funding
According to the federal government, each First Nation receives a base amount of $50,000 per community with the amount varying depending on the total population, remoteness and community wellbeing. It’s for addressing food security, providing mental health support services, transportation, protective equipment, supporting elders and more
Northern B.C.’s Tahltan Nation asks visitors to stay away during pandemic
A remote First Nation in northern B.C. says it will be installing gates and video surveillance to deter hunters and other unwanted visitors during the COVID-19 pandemic.The First Nation says officials will be patrolling its traditional territory to advise visitors of any rules or recommendations or to “leave if they choose to ignore this travel advisory.”
The travel advisory says the First Nation is working with the province to get more support from RCMP and conservation officers.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/tahltan-nation-covid-travel-advisory-1.5669167
New building for the Aboriginal Family Centre in Happy Valley-Goose Bay will benefit Indigenous communities of Labrador and local residents
The new 2-storey facility will allow the Labrador Friendship Centre, the not-for profit organization running the centre, to continue offering key services and programs to Indigenous families and residents of Upper Lake Melville in a safer and more modern building. The new centre will pursue its mission to foster the spiritual, emotional, intellectual and physical growth of children and enrich the lives of the Indigenous people of Labrador.
10 Facts About the Racial Disparity in COVID-19
No one factor explains the racial disparity being observed in COVID-19. Rather, the trend is the result of numerous forms of racism conspiring to make Black, Latino, and Indigenous people more vulnerable to the virus and its symptoms. Mental Floss spoke with experts in bioethics and medicine to learn more about the ways COVID-19 is impacting people of color in America
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/626806/covid-19-and-racial-disparity
As COVID-19 threatens Brazil, its leader threatens the country’s Indigenous people
First, Mr. Bolsonaro views any support for Indigenous people as interfering with his agenda of capitalist development. Indigenous ways of life disrupt the President’s plan to exploit the Amazon to his benefit, and to solidify his support among agribusiness and mining interests. His environment minister, Ricardo Salles, reportedly said in a cabinet meeting on environmental deregulation: “We need to make an effort while we are in this calm moment in terms of press coverage, because they are only talking about COVID, and push through and change all the rules.”
Goldminers overrun Amazon indigenous lands as COVID-19 surges
As the miners wreak havoc on the environment and terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity, they also act as potential vectors for the coronavirus, which has already infected at least 14,647 indigenous people and caused 269 deaths on indigenous lands, according to a report by the Socioenvironmental Institute (ISA), a Brazilian NGO. Some indigenous people have even been pressured, or coerced via death threats, to provide labor to carry out this illegal activity, ISA says.
‘Our data is not counted’: COVID-19 hitting Native Americans hard
“Having that information, it’s not always just about money, it’s making sure if people are suffering from this condition, let’s get the resources where it’s needed,” she said. “If we don’t know, we cannot get the resources where they need to be.”
Youth anthem to keep communities safe from COVID-19
“I was motivated to be part of this project because I knew how important it was to amplify Indigenous voices and the message of keeping mob safe during the pandemic,” Darumbal, Murri and Tongan woman Mi-Kaisha said.
“I knew how greatly COVID-19 had impacted the wellbeing of Mob and wanted to create music with a message of encouragement.”
https://www.miragenews.com/youth-anthem-to-keep-communities-safe-from-covid-19/
COVID-19 cancels Wyoming hunt amid Native American criticism
While the hunt takes place on the high plains — prime territory for social distancing — and rural Wyoming so far has escaped the worst of the virus outbreaks, banquets associated with the event draw hundreds of people.
The hunt over the years has raised $17 million for everything for wildlife conservation to college scholarships, student internships with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and rebuilding a Lander community center that burned, Hutchinson said.
COVID racism stirs memories of Canada’s island leper colony
“The incidences that we see of racism and COVID-19 are not that far off from where we were in the late 19th century,” she said.
An Angus Reid Institute poll conducted in June showed that half of Chinese-Canadians who responded had experienced name-calling and insults due to their ethnicity since health officials across Canada started taking dramatic measures to battle COVID-19. Nearly one in 10 respondents said they experience physical attacks frequently.
Attawapiskat Calls on Ontario to Engage in Meaningful Consultation with COVID-19 Economic Recovery Act, 2020
The amendments to the EAA leave a wide range of decision-making to ministerial discretion. Political whims will determine what happens. This creates uncertainty for environmental protection and Indigenous peoples, as little is embedded into the Act that requires the government to impose an environmental assessment in set conditions. Since only those projects that the government lists in regulations, will undergo an EA, and since there are no criteria in the Act for what that list will contain, it is entirely possible that much will escape the EA regime.
Yukon First Nations general assemblies go online this year
The change means this weekend’s general assembly for Champagne and Aishihik will be mostly business, without the social and cultural aspects of past general assemblies.
Normally, citizens could partake in fishing derbies, horseshoe tournaments, and enjoy catered food after a long day of meetings.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/yukon-first-nation-general-assembly-covid-1.5669778
‘Gaps in the system’: Widders wants Indigenous coaches, not just players
“There are obviously some gaps in the system. I know when I was at the NRL that was one of the things I was working on, to try and bridge that gap so that opportunities would start to present for Indigenous coaches,” he said.
“There is a crop of players just out of the game like Matty Bowen, Justin Hodges, myself that are trying to get into that coaching space. There are obviously a few barriers to be broken down to create those opportunities.”
B.C. restricts travel to Haida Gwaii
Travel to Haida Gwaii will continue to be permitted, subject to the approval of the collective Haida Gwaii communities, for the delivery of essential goods and supplies, medical appointments, urgent or emergency family matters, and for the provision of essential services as defined by the unified command structure comprised of the Council of the Haida Nation, village councils and local governments.