COVID-19 Daily News Digest – July 9, 2020
Funding allows Dechinta Centre to continue land-based learning, COVID-19 resiliency
“I was able to go back to the land where my forefathers and ancestors had frequented,” she says. “That wasn’t something that I had ever done before.”
The programming will involve COVID-19 resiliency education and create employment opportunities within the communities.
Ottawa, AFN pen agreement to map out funding for First Nations child welfare overhaul
Today’s agreement, signed by Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller and AFN National Chief Perry Bellegarde, establishes a “joint fiscal table” on First Nations child and family services — a forum where Ottawa and First Nations can negotiate funding agreements to support communities who want to assume the responsibility of caring for children.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/indigenous-child-welfare-c92-funding-1.5639885
A new COVID-19 course is so popular the B.C. university has a waitlist for it
The course will consider how COVID-19 has impacted families, media, work, health care and marginalized groups.
“We’re going to talk about, for example, systemic racism and the rise of hate crimes under COVID,” Lyon said.
Students will also consider how governments and public health officials have made a difference in community responses to the pandemic.
Agreement reached on Indigenous monitoring of Trans Mountain
“This agreement represents how we are fundamentally transforming the way the CER works to advance reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples,” said CER Acting-CEO Sandy Lapointe, in a news release. “Collaborating with the IAMC-TMX and Trans Mountain is helping us develop best practices in Indigenous monitoring and will inform how we approach and expand Indigenous inclusion in oversight for all future projects.”
Feds project $343B deficit: ‘The challenge of our lifetime’
Ottawa expected to add $81.3 billion to the deficit before the pandemic hit Canada in March. But four months of widespread lockdowns with a nearly non-functioning economy deepened that projection to $343.2 billion for the present fiscal year.
Morneau called it “the most comprehensive and substantial peacetime investment in Canada’s history” in his House of Commons speech Wednesday afternoon.
“It is a testament of the shock that COVID-19 had on our economy. Our government knew that the cost of inaction would have been far greater,” he said.
Brazil’s Bolsonaro vetoes plans to offer COVID-19 support to indigenous people
Bolsonaro vetoed 16 parts of the law on efforts to address the coronavirus threat to Brazil’s indigenous population, but still allowed for provisions on adequate testing, ambulance services and medical equipment.
Greenpeace delivers over 28 tonnes of emergency supplies to Indigenous communities in Brazil to fight COVID-19 with coalition efforts
“Through the Wings of Emergency project, developed together with partners, we were able to provide emergency supplies to Indigenous Peoples, such as the Munduruku and the Yanomami. Very limited access to healthcare and massive illegal invasions on Indigenous lands by miners and loggers are making Indigenous Peoples and traditional communities the most vulnerable during the pandemic and the threat of the extinction of Indigenous communities becomes a possibility.” continued Marçal.
Science and innovation dept to research traditional medicine for Covid-19 fight
“We are in the process of implementing multiple interventions including the use of African medicines as immune modulators and anti-coronavirus therapeutics.
“The programme has been working with the African Medicines Covid-19 Research Team in researching several South African herbs and formulations, with documented evidence for treatment of respiratory infections, signs and symptoms,” he said.
Coronavirus update: Mexico sees new record daily case increase, European countries reimpose travel restrictions
Travel restrictions are being reinstated in parts of Europe in response to a rising number of coronavirus infections, and Mexico is climbing up the list of countries with the highest death tolls.
Meanwhile, Serbians have rioted and stormed the parliament building in the capital of Belgrade, forcing the President to postpone the reintroduction of lockdown measures.
Coronavirus has killed more than 500,000 people. But some still don’t know the pandemic exists
In March, when the coronavirus first started spreading through Somalia and was declared a pandemic, 88 per cent of migrants IOM surveyed had not heard about the coronavirus.
At the end of June, awareness had grown, but still 49 per cent were unaware of the global outbreak.
“Close to half the population that we reach out [to] and surveyed still haven’t heard of COVID-19,” she said.
Editorial alleges government neglects indigenous people in COVID-19 pandemic
The editorial reported an estimated loss of $4.4 billion in revenues to native peoples, and $997 million in lost payroll. The losses allegedly accounted for a downturn in the ability of the tribes on tribal lands to provide adequate healthcare, schooling and safety.
The editorial alleged that the U.S. Government had not lived up to treaty agreements it signed with the tribes to protect them as sovereign entities and instead had consistently underfunded promised support through budget cuts, outright neglect and encroachment on the tribes’ sovereign authority.
Silence and Gendered Violence in the COVID-19 Pandemic
The New York Times cited a sharp uptick in domestic violence globally, but in Guatemala, gendered violence reports have decreased significantly. This is not because violence has actually reduced, but rather because women have been silenced. For indigenous and other women in Guatemala who have experienced violence – whether at home, work, in public, or their communities – there are fewer places to flee to.
While Guatemala is under curfew orders and stay at home decrees, the few shelters that existed been shut down. Complaints filed about violence against women fell by over 75 percent during the first two weeks of the quarantine.
Beware the ‘Hunger’ to Access Indigenous Peoples’ Land and Resources for Post-COVID-19 Recovery
“The fear is [that] the economic recovery is based on access to land and natural resources,” Lola García-Alix, senior advisor on Global Governance at the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA), told IPS.
“Indigenous people also live in areas with the most biological diversity. So of course they are the last frontier where the many governments meet in a situation of economic recovery. It’s an economic asset for them to have access there,” she said.
Coronavirus Is Attacking the Navajo ‘because We Have Built the Perfect Human for It to Invade’
It seems to me that COVID has revealed a lot of truths, everywhere in the world. If we were ignorant of the truth, it is now revealed; if we were ignoring the truth, it is now revealed. This truth is the disparity: of health, wellbeing and human value. And now that the truth has been revealed, what are we going to do about it?
Canada Is Ignoring the Gendered Impacts of COVID-19 on Indigenous Women
Every level of government and state agency in Canada has had a hand in creating and maintaining the worst socio-economic conditions for Indigenous peoples, especially Indigenous women and girls. Their continued failures to address ongoing genocide puts Indigenous women and girls at higher risk for infection and death from COVID-19. Indigenous women and girls in prisons and youth corrections are literally trapped in institutions well-known for overcrowding, unsanitary conditions and a critical lack of access to healthcare. Add to this the number of Indigenous girls over-represented in the foster care system living in group homes, travelling back and forth between youth corrections and foster homes or living on the streets, and we see a recipe for disaster.