COVID-19 Daily News Digest – June 25, 2020
60% of Indigenous people say mental health is worse due to COVID-19: survey
Given Indigenous culture and tradition, it makes sense that forced physical distancing would harm Indigenous mental health, said Roderick McCormick, an Indigenous health researcher at Thompson Rivers University.
“There’s a disconnection, and (for a lot of people), that’s going to be the main stressor,” McCormick said. “We prefer to communicate in person.”
Alaska athletes give social media challenge an Indigenous twist
“I think they’re really a beautiful reflection of our people and what it took to survive in a in a harsh climate,” Worl said. “That’s what I think about when I’m coaching, is I’m carrying on a tradition that goes back thousands of years, and it was so great to see it on this new platform on social media.”
https://www.ktva.com/story/42284110/alaska-athletes-give-social-media-challenge-an-indigenous-twist
Dialogue on decolonization: N.S. group offers web series on Indigenous rights
The Decolonization Learning Journey is a response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s call to action. It will cover such things as Indigenous rights, social challenges and incorporating reconciliation in everyday life. The first four sessions ran this month, with three more series scheduled for the fall.
“A key piece is the reflection part of this. We’re really encouraging people to make this learning personal so that in the fall, when we start to move people towards a conversation about action, that they’re actioning from a place of wisdom and empathy.”
When COVID-19 Quarantines Ancestral Andean Rituals
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the newly elected mayor of Cusco, Ricardo Valderrama Fernández, an anthropologist, reaffirmed the importance of celebrating the city’s Inca roots. “We are inheritors of a culture that has resisted and overcome difficulties and tragedies. We will not feel sorry about ourselves,” he said in a speechintroducing the virtual festivities on May 24th.
Canada’s work on First Nations policing law should have begun ‘long time ago:’ Bellegarde
The Liberals promised to take action on First Nations policing over six months ago, first in the mandate letter Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued to Blair in December and again in response to Indigenous protests against the Coastal GasLink project in northern B.C.
“We’re going to take advantage of this opportunity now to get it done and get it done properly and then we can start to look at community-based policing services from a First Nations perspective, and that’s what this opportunity is all about: First Nations police seen as an essential service with a legislative base.
Spinning a Lifeline in Zapotec lands
Khadi Oaxaca follows what is known as the Gandhian economic model in three ways: It focuses on producing gainful employment for many instead of big profits for a few; it strives to build local autonomy and resilience at the village level, building in a cash supplement that supports the traditional agrarian life; and it follows the Gandhian strategy of making clothing from scratch, with workers spinning their own thread from organically grown cotton. And now, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic causing jobs to dry up everywhere, this handspun thread has become a lifeline for the local economy.
OPH launches COVID-19 resource page for Indigenous people in Ottawa
“We heard from the community that the communications and services needed to be adapted,” explained Dr. Vera Etches, Ottawa’s medical officer of health, who added her agency did not yet have data breaking down infection rates by cultural background.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/indigenous-health-covid-resources-1.5625211
For too long, the truth of our history and Indigenous stories have been denied and whitewashed
The power of storytelling has always connected us to our kinship, community and country. In our experience, the authority of our storytelling has shaped the way we interpret the world, imagine our collective future and understand our past.
iPolitics AM: Trudeau to skip COVID-19 briefing for a second day to focus on ‘private meetings’
But while the prime minister may not be making what was, up until recently, his daily appearance outside Rideau Cottage, it’s a good bet that at least some of the “private meetings” on his itinerary for today will involve the recent upsurge in tensions in the ongoing standoff between Canada and China.
Millions of dollars in COVID-19 fines disproportionately hurting Black, Indigenous, marginalized groups: report
“From the stories people sent us, primarily from Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, the organizations we talked to, we know these are the communities that are both disproportionately impacted by this pandemic, and they’re also the communities that are disproportionately impacted by fines and policing,” Abby Deshman, the director of the Criminal Justice Program with the CCLA told CTV News Channel, adding that the vast majority of people are trying their best to comply with rules.
Online initiative urges Canadians to think ‘Destination Indigenous’ with travel plans
“This is an opportunity for Manitobans and Canadians to come up to Churchill and check [us] out,” Daley said and added that 80 per cent of his usual customers visit from the United States.
The Canadian border with the U.S. is closed until at least July 21 when the closure agreement will be reviewed.
“I’m anticipating that our Fall season will basically be gone and we’re just going to have to work at staycations with the Canadians here…to help us get through until tourism can return somewhat.”
B.C. to allow ‘careful’ travel within province as it eases more COVID-19 restrictions under Phase 3
Horgan said it is critical British Columbians continue with foundational health guidelines, which have helped with the province’s success in flattening its curve since March: physical distancing, wearing a mask when distancing is not possible, washing hands and staying home if sick. Gatherings with more than 50 people are still banned.
“This is not the summer to do the big family gathering at the cottage,” the premier said.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/covid-19-bc-phase-three-john-horgan-1.5625598
Dozens march in Watson Lake, Whitehorse, to condemn violence against Indigenous women
“I did this walk today to show them … how important (it is) to protect and respect our women, and I want to help them grow up in a healthy environment with no fear of being abused,” Tizya said. “And I hope and pray we reach out to those that are suffering in silence and break the trauma and to surround all the individuals who are suffering, to support them on their healing journey.”
What do we know about asymptomatic COVID-19 cases?
“Maybe someone was infected before and still has some of the virus left, even though they’re no longer infectious. It could be someone who didn’t recognize their symptoms. It could be someone who is incubating the illness and is about to become sick, that’s the person that we really want to get at. That’s the kind of person who might be spreading it to others.”
“It’s a tough question to answer. But I’m so glad that we’re not dealing with a large number of very sick people.”
https://drydennow.com/local/what-do-we-know-about-asymptomatic-covid-19-cases
Amazon indigenous groups face choice: fight virus or flee
“The virus is killing chiefs, elders and traditional healers,” it said.
“The pandemic could cause irreparable damage to our communities’ knowledge of our culture, oral history and natural medicine.”
COVID-19 from food safety and biosecurity perspective
an. From previous experience with outbreaks of viral infections similar to COVID-19 (MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV) it is known that transmission through food is unlikely. Precautions are, nevertheless, necessary to avoid exposure to agents that can be the source of harboring the viral agents. Bats, for example, are recognized as natural reservoir hosts of Coronavirus.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-06/bsp-cff062420.php
B.C.’s COVID-19 re-opening plans continue to put Indigenous people at risk
Since the pandemic began, Indigenous leaders have exhorted government officials in vain to give us more information and resources to protect our communities. To date, our requests have been ignored.
So when provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry asks us to philosophically accept that “absolutely we are going to have more cases” as part of B.C.‘s “fine balance” in reopening, understand that it is Indigenous nations that are being asked to bear the brunt of that risk, because to date, we are still waiting for basic safety measures. We do not have an information-sharing agreement to ensure early reporting of suspected and confirmed cases in nearby regions to Indigenous governments; we do not have screening methods to ensure travellers seeking to enter Indigenous territory are not symptomatic or infected with the virus; there are no rapid-testing mechanisms available that can prioritize Indigenous and remote communities, and right now, there are only two rapid-testing kits for all Indigenous communities in B.C. And culturally safe contact tracing that can increase the likelihood of effective tracing in the event of an outbreak, and reduce the risk of racist interactions with a health care system of the sort the government has decried, is yet to be funded.