COVID-19 Daily News Digest – November 14, 2020
Mayor-elect Georgina Jolibois looks to strengthen Indigenous voices in La Loche, Sask.
Jolibois said the community seems to be better prepared if another outbreak happens. La Loche is in the Far North West region, which had 72 active cases on Thursday.
“This time around, I am finding that we are beginning to organize. We are beginning to come together,” she said.
Schools closed in Manawan, Que., as COVID-19 spreads in rural community
Manawan went from two confirmed cases on Sunday to 10 by Thursday evening. One patient was taken to hospital in Joliette as a preventive measure.
Manawan went from two confirmed cases on Sunday to 10 by Thursday evening. One patient was taken to hospital in Joliette as a preventive measure.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/atikamekw-manawan-quebec-covid-19-1.5800582
Indigenous Torontonians don’t want equity, we want self-determination
We often equate self-determination with sovereignty, but there are substantial differences. We rightly associate sovereignty with First Nations bands with a land-base and a legal relationship with the Crown. But with more Indigenous people flocking to cities — Toronto has upwards of 70,000 Indigenous residents, according to some estimates — Indigenous support service agencies have become instrumental to our ability to self-determine. Indigenous people congregate around these organizations, and in part reconstruct an “urban reserve.” In difficult times, these organizations are even more critical to providing essential services, culture and community connections.
Indigenous wisdom and COVID-19 pandemic prevention
A team of Indigenous scientists from the Yukon have published a letter in the prestigious academic journal Science, “arguing that Indigenous principles and knowledge should inform a global strategy for recovering from the pandemic,” per coverage by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. “This is a big breakthrough, I would say, for the two world views and two knowledge systems to begin to acknowledge each other,” said Joe Copper Jack, a Ta’an Kwach’an Council elder and lead author on the letter. The letter addresses the One Health approach, which links human health with the health of animals and the environment, in recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors say that “scientists and policymakers often ignore the fact that Indigenous people have used this interconnected approach for thousands of years,” wrote the CBC.
Brazil sees record number of bids to mine illegally on Indigenous lands
Even the economic slowdown prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t stemmed the tide of mining requests. More than 38,000 Indigenous people have been infected since the start of the health emergency, with 867 dead, according to the Articulation of Brazilian Indigenous Peoples (APIB). Yet throughout 2020, 145 mining applications have been recorded — the highest number in 24 years.
The lands of the Kayapó people in the state of Pará are the most affected, targeted by more than a third of applications this year.
BC’s Saik’uz First Nation to ban drug dealers from territory
Saik’uz First Nation issued a stern warning on Nov. 5 to any community member supporting illegal drug activity from their on-reserve home and said any evidence of such involvement will result in them being banned from 10 different locations.
“This behavior will not be tolerated any longer and as a community, we choose to stand in a unified front against dealers,” the notice read.
More than 450 people live within the Dakelh community that is not alone in facing such problems and the resulting consequences substance abuse brings.