COVID-19 Daily News Digest – May 7, 2020
StatsCan survey shows uneven impact of COVID-19 on Canadian businesses
Just over 71 per cent of businesses owned by women, Indigenous people, visible minorities, immigrants and persons with disabilities have reported a high drop in demand, reports a new survey — six per cent higher than the national average.
COVID-19 data pact excludes some Indigenous groups
“We don’t have it. I can’t think of any reason not to share it,” said Aboriginal Council of Winnipeg president Damon Johnston, who is part of an urban Indigenous coalition that pushed for a COVID-19 testing site to be opened at Circle of Life Thunderbird House.
Manitoba public health recording whether COVID-19 patients identify as Indigenous
Public health providers ask anyone who tests positive for the novel coronavirus if they self-identify as First Nations, Métis or Inuit to help monitor the introduction and spread of COVID-19 among Manitoba’s Indigenous population both on and off-reserve, said a May 6 press release from Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO).
U of S Indigenous health researcher joins national COVID-19 immunity task force
“I am very honoured to serve on this important task force that will provide an unprecedented mapping of SARS-CoV-2 immunity nationwide, including immunity levels among Indigenous populations,” Bourassa said. “I look forward to making sure that Indigenous voices are heard and represented.”
First Nations on Manitoulin propose joint COVID response committee to heal divisions
This week, an Island First Nation organization proposed a new COVID-19 response committee that would include input from “all voices,” without the province having to get involved.
The committee would be made up of eight people — four indigenous and four non-indigenous — and would have a rotating chairperson.
Being out on the land for Indigenous communities is being home
In December, the ONA put out a call on social media. They told people to document their time out on the land, calling it the #sqilxcawt challenge.
When COVID-19 struck, they updated the challenge, asking people to wash their hands and respect social distancing.
Documenting these ancestral ways of connecting with the land was all about keeping people connected.
Native Alaskan Villages, Once Devastated by Spanish Flu, Are Taking Action Against Covid-19
“Many of our villages have combined their knowledge and their stories to, in effect, shut down their villages and protect their residents,” Gusty said. “We’ve been helping with the coordination of some of these efforts so one village understands what another village is doing.”
UN working with Brazil, Ecuador to curb COVID-19 spread among indigenous peoples
The Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), the WHO’s regional office for the Americas, is supporting Brazil’s plan to curb the spread of the virus, including boosting surveillance of severe respiratory and flu syndromes, training health teams and conducting outreach in several languages, Dujarric said.
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-05/07/c_139036157.htm
Body Bags Instead of Requested Covid-19 Testing Kits for Native American Clinic Seen as Cruel Metaphor
A Seattle-area Native American health center in April received body bags instead of requested equipment to handle the coronavirus in what tribal officials described as a “metaphor” for how the Indigenous population is being treated by local, state, and federal governments around the country as the pandemic continues to rage.
“My question is: Are we going to keep getting body bags or are we going to get what we actually need?” Seattle Indian Health Board chief research officer Abigail Echo-Hawk told NBC News.
Ecuador indigenous community fears extinction from COVID-19
“We don’t want our people saying that there were 700 of us and now there are 100. What a scandal it would be for the Ecuadorian government to leave us with such a sad story in the 21st century,” he added.
Fearful of the coronavirus, dozens of children and elderly Siekopai fled in canoes to Lagartococha, one of Ecuador’s largest wetlands in the heart of the jungle, to avoid infection.
Navajo Nation Is Being Hit Hard By COVID-19. It’s My Job To Document It.
“It breaks my heart,” she says, “to write about my own people dying. But these kinds of stories needs to come from me.”
“[Navajo people] don’t often get the chance to tell their stories, so I never try to get off the phone with my sources,” she says. “Their voices need to be heard. I give them as much time as they want to talk, however long they need.”
National Cabinet ignores calls for prisoner release to stop COVID-19 spread
“Every day experts warn of the second wave of COVID-19. It is not good enough to wait for people to get sick, to suspend family visits while prison workers come and go.”
Kashechewan residents head to camps amid COVID-19
Residents of a First Nation in northern Ontario threatened by spring flooding are facing more complex and some fear-inducing options for escape this year, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The almost 2,000 residents of Kashechewan First Nation have had to flee their community every year since 2012 due to flooding, removed to larger centres such as Timmins and Thunder Bay.
Music, Prayer and Action: Klee Benally leads mutual aid projects to help Navajo Nation during pandemic
One form of social justice activism for Klee Benally has been music. From 1989 to 2008 he performed with his sister Jeneda and brother Clayson in the high-energy punk rock band Blackfire. They toured widely, including playing at the Festival in the Desert in Mali. Their first self-titled EP was produced in 1994 by C.J. Ramone of the famed godfathers of punk, the Ramones.
Regulations allowing delay of elections during pandemic prevent ‘governance gap’ for First Nations
“What Indigenous Services Canada has done is now give First Nations legitimate choices of whether to go ahead with an election or not or cancel or postpone it. And the decision making is with First Nations so they can decide what’s best for them,”
COVID-19 and the climate crisis are intertwined threats to Native Americans and the Earth: Chase Iron Eyes
In places like California, where strict social distancing measures were adopted statewide, the disease curve has been successfully flattened. In places where they weren’t, like South Dakota, things quickly got out of control.
It’s stunning to me that many of our leaders don’t see the connection.
They’re oblivious to both science and Indigenous wisdom, each of which teaches that we must find better ways to live in harmony with our planet before it’s too late.
https://www.ehn.org/coronavirus-native-americans-2645923635.html?rebelltitem=8#rebelltitem8
A road block cannot stop a virus
The creation of a standing committee to fight COVID-19 will, according to the UCCMM, ensure that the health and safety of First Nations communities are considered, as the MMA “lacks diversity in governance, as it does not include any Indigenous leadership.”
‘Not ready’ to reopen James Bay region says Cree leader as province loosens COVID-19 restrictions
“We don’t have the luxury of all the services down South. We don’t have the big hospitals and specialized care,” he said.
“Should COVID-19 spread, we don’t have the capacity or the resources to deal with it.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/cree-eijbrg-non-indgenous-deconfinement-checkpoints-1.5558565
Colombia’s former president says COVID-19 shows the importance of listening to indigenous peoples on how we treat the planet
These global threats can only be addressed only through global action. Yet most nations still cling to the illusion that they can survive in isolation, that their borders can somehow magically protect them while the rest of the planet burns.
I understand this impulse. But I am calling on my fellow national leaders to reject it. Instead, we must reimagine our relationship with nature, and follow the guidance of indigenous peoples.
These leaders transformed my vision of Earth and its resources. They reminded me that nationhood does not trump humanity, and that humanity cannot be separate from nature
Coronavirus: Woman creates educational videos in Dene to help La Loche amid outbreak
“If it can stop one person from becoming sick and experiencing these terrible symptoms, I feel like I’ve helped,” she said.
“Everybody’s important, I’m important, you’re important, and if you are the one person I help them I feel like ‘OK, this is a good thing’ even though it took hours to do, I feel like it’s worth it because everybody is worth it.”