COVID-19 Daily News Digest – October 24, 2020
Sesame Street-style video teaching kids on the Blood Tribe to stay safe during COVID-19
“We were saying, ‘Let’s talk to the kids, how can we do this?’ And then we kind of remembered Sesame Street and then it just popped in our mind. The way the kids were empowered and teaching one another.”
Blood said she immediately thought of DerRic Starlight, an Indigenous puppeteer from the T’suu T’ina Nation, and then the idea really got off the ground.
Why this First Nation bought a shipping container during COVID-19
Because they make it possible to grow food in harsh climates, container farms are often touted as a solution for food insecurity in remote communities. However, research suggests that the technology does little to address the true causes of food insecurity or the inability to access nutritious and affordable food, which is rooted in the ongoing effects of colonialism and climate change, among other things. “All of these stories make it sound like [container farms] are the solution to food insecurity, and they absolutely aren’t,” says Thomas Graham, PhytoGro research chair in controlled-environment systems at the University of Guelph. “They’re a component of an integrated system, but on their own, they’re not going to solve the problem.”
https://www.tvo.org/article/why-this-first-nation-bought-a-shipping-container-during-covid-19
Pledge to end boil-water advisories on First Nations by 2021 delayed by COVID-19, Trudeau says
“This is a commitment that matters an awful lot to us as a government but matters even more to Indigenous communities across the country that have gone in many cases decades without safe drinking water,” Trudeau said.
“Government must commit and immediately move forward with examining the feasibility of continuing with repairing a flawed system versus the design and construction of a new water distribution system that meets the highest current standards,” the demands read.
Nearly a third of First Nations in Manitoba have reported COVID-19 cases, pandemic response team says
There have now been a total of 449 cases among First Nations people on- and off-reserve in Manitoba, Anderson said. Of those, 332 of those cases are considered active: 101 involving people who live on-reserve, and 231 cases in people who live off-reserve.
“We need to pull together. I know that there’s a lot of advocacy and there’s a lot of support,” AMC Grand Chief Arlen Dumas said at the news conference. “We need to continue being as vigilant and aware, and follow all of the measures to try and keep each other safe.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-first-nations-covid-19-1.5774599