COVIS-19 Daily News Digest – September 3, 2020
ANALYSIS-Indigenous land intrusions help drive higher virus death toll in the Amazon
The rate of deaths among indigenous residents of the Amazon, based on data collected through August 7, was 247% higher than in the general population, she said. The data, from the Coordination of the Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COAIB), shows 559 coronavirus deaths among indigenous people in Brazil’s Amazonian states since the start of the pandemic.
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COVID-19 leaves kids lonely, bored, hungry, at risk of abuse
That survey found that young people aged 12 to 17 often rate their own mental health less positively than their parents do, suggesting the mental health struggles experienced by children often go unnoticed both at home and by the system.
“Even prior to COVID-19 children had very long wait times, months and sometimes years, to access mental health support,” Austin said in a phone interview. “Those wait times have increased since COVID-19 because in many cases programs and services have had to shut down or demand has increased.”
https://saultonline.com/2020/09/covid-19-leaves-kids-lonely-bored-hungry-at-risk-of-abuse/
25 Squamish Nation members have now tested positive for COVID-19
The First Nation is notified of its cases through a connection with the Vancouver Coastal Health and the First Nations Health Authority developed specifically for use in First Nations communities.
The Nation announced Friday that all its offices, including Totem Hall, were temporarily closed due to multiple positive COVID-19 cases among its members.
GUEST OPINION: We need to liberate Indigenous entrepreneurs
Indigenous community members see needs and opportunities in their own surroundings and think of ideas and ways to meet them, all while thinking how this process can be monetized to make it sustainable.
A major study also discovered that Indigenous entrepreneurs think how their business opportunities can advance people in their communities.
Still no on-reserve COVID-19 cases
First Nations represented 11 per cent of tests done in Manitoba so far, with a total of 12,002 tests. Of those, 60 per cent of tests were completed for on-reserve First Nations people and 40 per cent for those who live in urban or rural areas, according to the co-ordination team.
https://www.brandonsun.com/local/still-no-on-reserve-cases-572291142.html
Help for Onion Lake Cree Nation to battle gangs delayed due to COVID-19, says feds
“Indigenous Services Canada remains fully committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of First Nations children, families and communities and will continue working with partners to improve the safety, security and well-being of the children and families of Onion Lake Cree Nation,” she added.
Chief said Onion Lake RCMP is stretched thin dealing with the gang and drug-related crime plaguing the three townships on OLCN that spans 188,000 acres.
Will millions for First Nations amid pandemic have an impact?
“However they divvy it up, they’re talking about 650 communities — over 600 First Nations and then Metis and Inuit communities,” he said. “Split that way, there’s a little over $100,000 each. That might buy you a councillor for one year, if you’re lucky.”
USask-led Indigenous health research finds a home in Saskatoon
The move to Station 20 West is wonderful for us,” said Dr. Caroline Tait, professor at USask and leader of NEIHR Saskatchewan network. “Because it makes us more accessible for our partners that come in from out of town, but as we come out of COVID we’ll be hiring community research facilitators. So, we’ll be hiring one in Saskatoon, one either in Prince Albert or north of Prince Albert – either La Ronge or La Loche. We’ll be hiring a northern community research facilitator as well as one in the south, which most likely will be out of Regina. And those individuals, their jobs- they’ll be First Nations and Métis people, and we’re hoping they’ll be people who have language skills in at least one Indigenous language. And those individuals will be going to different First Nations and Métis communities and working with the community health leaders to determine what their research priorities are.”
Death and distrust in Alberta
The slaying of the two hunters made only a brief impression outside of Alberta as the country grappled with the onset of COVID-19. But for Indigenous and Métis people on the rural Prairies, it has aggravated traumas from past killings—not least that of Colten Boushie, the 22-year-old Cree man shot to death on a Saskatchewan farm in 2016. For many, the deaths reinforced the sense that, in a region rife with racial tensions, their lives are valued less than those of their white neighbours.
Indigo donates thousands to Indigenous youth literacy
A Manitoba organization is promoting youth literacy thanks to a grant from Canada’s largest book retailer. The Winnipeg Aboriginal Sport and Recreation Association received a $25,000 donation from the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation. The fund was formed after schools were forced to close by the COVID-19 pandemic.
https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/indigo-donates-thousands-to-indigenous-youth-literacy/