COVID-19 Daily News Digest – June 1, 2020
Indigenous company to launch First Nations banking app
The digital banking solution will include a physical re-loadable VISA for in-person transactions and an Indigenous-only rewards program, which like a point-based system, will offer rewards and benefits on every transaction.
The app will also reduce the risk of status card expiry by moving Indigenous Services Canada’s status card renewal through a digital submission process, OneFeather noted.
Revitalizing a language, one video call at a time
“It is our responsibility to take care of the gift given us by the tmixÊ· 1/8all living things3/8,” Stelkia says. She explains that learning and having the ability to speak their language has brought strength and connection to students and staff at the OIB Language House
http://www.pentictonherald.ca/life/article_9215b9d6-a29d-11ea-8535-2fcbdaed61f7.html
Hatch delivers cleaning supplies to remote Indigenous communities
“Imagine having empty shelves and the only way to get to the next store is by airplane,” says Chelsie Klassen, Hatch’s global director of Indigenous engagement. “Everyone should have access to supplies needed to keep their families safe. We didn’t waste any time and shipped the supplies immediately.”
Feds earmark $1.5M to support recovery of B.C., Indigenous tourism
In a Sunday (May 31) announcement, the feds set aside $500,000 to help Indigenous Tourism BC, as well as $1 million for the Tourism Association of Vancouver Island. The money is part of $3.45 million set aside for funding tourism recovery in Western Canada. Other projects highlighted in Sunday’s announcement include $1.45 million for Travel Alberta and $500,000 for Saskatchewan’s Wanuskewin Heritage Park Authority
Meet some of the First Nations health care workers on the front lines during a pandemic
Wallace said it takes a lot of time and effort to create a partnership with patients so when she took the northern position she was firm that she would want to stay in the same community “so I get to know the history, the family’s dynamic, and also to be able to know them and to have a better continuum of care with them.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/first-nations-health-care-worker-1.5590863
What the Arctic Reveals About Coronavirus
Let us hope that the hundred-year-old biological residues of a deadly virus dug up from the Arctic’s frozen recesses can inform how we react to the pandemic unfurling today. And while coronavirus seems to be an imminent and pressing danger that makes the threat of climate change seem slow and even inconsequential in comparison, we should not forget that the long game of halting its tide and keeping permafrost frozen may also hold the keys to averting future viral catastrophes.
https://www.maritime-executive.com/editorials/what-the-arctic-reveals-about-coronavirus
Coronavirus Update: Four First Nations tout low-carbon path to postpandemic economic recovery
Four First Nations are devising what they view as a low-carbon path to a postpandemic economic recovery on their traditional territories, highlighting a starring role for liquefied natural gas
Tiny House Warriors call for campground to close
“This is our safe quarantine zone,” said Kanahus while another protestor blasted an air horn.
“This is Secwepemc title and rights, we have a right to our safe quarantine. Don’t put COVID campers next to our home.”
Loss of Canada elders to coronavirus threatens indigenous culture
“That textbook will leave if they leave this earth,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“This is very traumatic and detrimental to the community, since the knowledge and the corporate memory is greatly disrupted,” said John Cutfeet, a research fellow at the Yellowhead Institute.
This year’s Summer Solstice Indigenous Festival is going virtual
“For a lot of our urban Indigenous community, the festival is an important part of their lives,” said Trina Mather-Simard, executive director of Aboriginal Experiences and producer of the festival. “Now, when we’re all stuck at home, I think it becomes even more important to have that cultural connection and a sense of community so we started looking at all of our different programming and trying to figure out how we could bring it to life in a virtual sense.”
Permit applications to hunt big game in Yukon up 28 per cent this year
“People are sitting on their hands,” Schroff said. “There’s uncertainty around the fall time and they want to make sure they have something to do. They may choose to go on a hunting trip this year instead of going to Maui.”
Delays in 60s Scoop settlement compensation draws criticism from survivors
The decision, however, came before the full impacts of COVID-19 were recognized on claimants and the claims process. Doug Lennox of Klein Lawyers, one of the four law firms that helped negotiate the settlement, said the process of denying applications was put on hold as a result of the pandemic, as the information that the claims administrator needs to assess applications is stored in provincial archives, many of which are currently closed
Community groups filling gaps in translation of COVID-19 information
“It’s left up to community folks and ethno-cultural groups and language group media to do that work, but that doesn’t encompass everybody, and if the government can play a stronger role in translating that also ensures a level of credibility of information.”