COVID-19 Daily News Digest – May 17, 2020
Health researcher hopes COVID-19 means new policies for Indigenous peoples
“I would like to think that what these … studies will do is change a lot of policies for Canadians and for Indigenous people.
“I hope that this will also raise the bar and help people to understand that equity has not been reached for Indigenous peoples in Canada.”
Experts say Saskatchewan could limit ceremonies but ‘is there reason?’
Ottawa, provinces and First Nations have a shared interest in public safety and protecting people. Turpel-Lafond said it’s important to recognize that for many First Nations communities, holding ceremonies brings protection and promotes health.
Peru to build hospital in the Amazon amid rise in Indigenous coronavirus patients
State social security body EsSalud said it expects the 100-bed hospital in Pucallpa, capital of the remote Ucayali region on the border with Brazil, to be operational within three weeks.
Oil revenues plunge for many Indigenous communities in Western Canada
Since drilling for oil and natural gas began in the 1970s, the community has been able to use resource revenues to build more than 200 homes on the reserve and offset tuition for hundreds of students who attend college and university.
Tataskweyak community members close highway into Manitoba Hydro’s Keeyask site to prevent COVID-19 spread
The community members are concerned about a scheduled shift change at the site on May 19. Hundreds of workers will be allowed to leave, and about 1,000 returning workers from across Canada and the United States will be coming in.
Week Eight: COVID-19 Bulletin for First Nations and Indigenous peoples
The simplest message is: “Stay at home. Stay in your backyard.” We are all in this together. Everyone must stay informed in order to stay safe. That is our central goal and commitment to this publication. Please click on the link below for this week’s presentation:
First Nations Asked for Help in Fighting COVID-19. They Were Ignored
Communities on the northern and central coast have long come together to protect their lands and peoples from resource extraction projects, but the life-and-death stakes of the pandemic mean that they are coordinating in a very different way.
“This is maybe the most where we’re actively working together in the ground, not just on the legal front right now,” Gaagwiis said, noting this coalition remind him of opposition posed to the Northern Gateway pipeline project.
https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/05/16/First-Nations-Asked-for-Help/
‘La Loche will survive this virus’: Seeds of hope in Saskatchewan’s COVID-19 epicentre
“Some people are reconnecting with nature, prayer. We are taking guidance from our knowledge keepers and elders,” Cameron said.
“We are still positive people. We will continue to keep our language and culture alive,” said Ruelling, who teaches Dene language at the Clearwater River School. He has dedicated the last 15 years of his life to transmitting the language to elementary school students.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/la-loche-survive-virus-1.5571389
Tataskweyak community members close highway into Manitoba Hydro’s Keeyask site to prevent COVID-19 spread
The group set up Friday afternoon on Provincial Road 280, and have since turned away a semi that was destined for the construction site.
Although a public health order prohibits non-essential travel from southern Manitoba into the north, Manitoba Hydro says it has been approved by provincial health officials to go ahead with the shift change and has outlined a plan to make sure everyone stays safe.
Indigenous tourism businesses feeling the bite from COVID-19
“It’s a place of medicine for us, being on the water as Indigenous peoples, especially as Coast Salish. I think the people that were cooped up for two months that are really avid outdoor enthusiasts would love to actually get out in a kayak.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/indigenous-tourism-business-coronavirus-1.5572259
In New York City, indigenous Mexicans battle coronavirus amid language barriers, bias
As the death toll still continues to rise in New York City, Quizet Rivero says they are all trying to take care of themselves as best as they can as “their greatest fear is to end up in a mass grave in New York City, far from home.”
Brazil: Coronavirus pandemic reaches dozens of Indigenous groups
“Countless tribal lands are being invaded, with the backing of a government which wants to completely destroy the country’s first peoples and makes no attempt to hide it,” said the group.
Coronavirus means traditional homelands may be safest for Indigenous people but it comes with unexpected lessons
Indigenous people have the right under international law to live in the location of their choice — but we need adequate health, social and cultural infrastructure that enables us to thrive wherever we choose to live. Australia cannot continue to deny that right.
Sixteen off-reserve First Nations people diagnosed with COVID-19
The individuals were all residing off-reserve according to figures released by the Manitoba First Nations COVID-19 Pandemic Response Coordination Team (PRCT). Fourteen of them lived within the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority with one person each living in the Interlake-Eastern Region and the Southern Health Region. Only two of those individuals remain active cases and none have died from the virus or are currently hospitalized
COVID-19 compounds mental health challenges in northern First Nations
Waterhen First Nation councillor Dustin Ross Fiddler said his community contemplated declaring a state of emergency on Wednesday after a 14-year-old girl died by suicide. He said he’s aware of 10 other recent suicide attempts, which he attributes to the intense pressure of the pandemic and the forced cancellation of the reserve’s mental health programming.
First Nations Asked for Help in Fighting COVID-19. They Were Ignored
It’s been six weeks since a coalition of First Nations and municipalities on B.C.’s coast wrote the provincial and federal governments asking for urgent action to keep COVID-19 from spreading in the region.
But they’ve heard nothing in response, despite their warnings of the serious risk COVID-19 poses for Elders and others in vulnerable communities
https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/05/16/First-Nations-Asked-for-Help/
Manitoba’s first official look at how COVID-19 is impacting First Nations people
“I am comforted by the fact that (COVID-19) is not in our First Nations communities, but also I am sympathetic for those First Nations people living in urban areas because they are exposed to all kinds of people, and they are more vulnerable,” MKO Grand Chief Garrison Settee told CTV News.