GRSJ224/Democracy and Indigenous Implications

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a wiki project by Cecilia Pang

Democracy is a form of government regulation where rule is by the many.[1]As a democratic state, Canada runs its political processes at three levels: municipal, provincial, and federal, with representation at each level of government striving to reflect the will of the majority of the people. At the individual level, democracy is seen through voter participation. In order for political, economic, and social changes to be in accordance with the will of the people, citizens have a responsibility to vote for elected officials that they believe will best represent them within all three levels of government.

Because the course of Canadian history has greatly shaped the methods in which citizens interact with the state and contribute to the policies of the country, the implications of settler colonialism cannot be ignored in a democratic analysis. Consistently throughout this history, Indigenous communities in particular have seen their exclusion from democracy within Canada.[2] Beyond the discussion of treaties or the definitions surrounding citizenship, the implications of democracy for Indigenous people regarding their own conceptions of rights, freedoms, and well-being do not exist to the same extent as non-Indigenous Canadians within a Western economic framework of socio-economic living standards. Though some Indigenous people choose not to identify as Canadians or want part in the Canadian state, policies that are drafted within government affect Indigenous communities substantially, whether this is through economic development, social welfare programs, or security enforcements. In particular, socio-economic barriers such as extreme poverty pose the greatest threat to certain Indigenous communities for their self-sufficiency and paths to self-determination. [3]

"The question is not how we make sure that the average Indigenous person has the same opportunities and advantages as the average non-Indigenous person has. The question instead, is how we rebuild Indigenous nations that can provide their people with the opportunity to lead satisfying, productive lives without having to give up the land, the language, the culture, the kin relationships, that make them who they are." [3]

Terminology

Indigenous vs. First Nations

The term Indigenous is meant to encompass a range of Aboriginal groups within Canada while recognizing its limitations as it conflates very unique communities under a singular umbrella term. Due to the lack of a foundation of consistent data and research done on Indigenous communities or put forth by the Government of Canada, studies around Indigenous barriers are drawn at a general and over-encompassing conclusion[4].

The term First Nations is used in accordance to communities that identify as First Nations, which are those that are not ethnically Inuit or Métis.[5] This is also a term referenced by the Canadian government in statistical reports.

Poverty Gap and the Four Directions Model[6]
A visual graph of the Four Directions model of well-being.

Investigating the lack of essential services for Indigenous communities within Canada is a topic recognized not only by Canadian policy regulators but also Chiefs of First Nation communities such as the Sipekne'katik First Nation, Opitciwan Atikamekw First Nation, Eabametoong First Nation, Misipawistik Cree Nation, and Ti'it'q'et.[3] The systemic roots of inequality continue to prevail and it is addressed through Indigenous scholars such as Leanne Simpson that investigations of the poverty gap must be done in a method that is reflective of both the truth and the beauty of Indigenous communities.

She states that "communities are continually shamed in the mainstream media and by state governments and by Canadian society for being poor. Shaming the victim is part of that extractivist thinking. We need to understand why these communities are economically poor in the first place—and they are poor so that Canadians can enjoy the standard of living they do. I say “economically poor” because while these communities have less material wealth, they are rich in other ways—they have their homelands, their languages, their cultures, and relationships with each other that make their communities strong and resilient." [7]

It is with this acknowledgement, that it must be mentioned that the terms of poverty are discouraged and many Indigenous communities are uncomfortable with focusing on the "poor" aspects of their community. [3] This is due to an effort to de-stigmatize members of parts of the community and to draw away from targeting any individual. Furthermore the term "poverty" does not exist in Indigenous languages,[3] it is imperative to investigate the immense gap of essential services between Indigenous and non Indigenous people within Canada through the understandings used within Indigenous communities. Culturally, Indigenous communities do not often relay information to an economic standard[8] as the concept of a good life entails an emphasis on harmony and balance where efforts are focused on holistic and multi-dimensional aspects of community life rather than economic metrics.[9] For mainstream society, well-being and poverty is centralized around income or real income. Due to its materialistic nature and because the term poverty does not exist or is as heavily emphasized, conversations regarding the socio-economic barriers that Indigenous communities face are discussed with respect to the dimensions of well-being as illustrated through the Four Directions Model.[3]

  • Spiritual: culture and ceremonies
  • Physical: environment and economy
  • Emotional: social support and safety support
  • Mental: governance and education

The Four Directions Model is intersectional and multi-dimensional. It focuses on marrying individual actions with the larger community in the context of the well-being sectors. To support the well-being sectors in the Four Directions model and to understand the implications, some policy researchers and Indigenous scholars have done their best to bridge their varying cultural understandings of poverty. This framework model is capable of being substantiated through economic and statistical reports as well as providing a contextual base for Canadians and Indigenous peoples to work together on addressing the lack of essential resources in Indigenous communities.

*When and if the phrasing of poverty is used, it will refer to the limited access of essential services that impacts the basic human sufficiency levels to survive.[8]

Indigenous Communities Today

There are many Indigenous communities that have been able to reconstruct an economic base to support their independence and self-determination efforts. However, there are communities that struggle due to the remnants of settler colonialism and the difficulties that confront remote and rapidly urbanized communities. [3]

For 80% of the Indigenous population within Canada that live on reserves, they tackle the challenges of living below the median poverty line.[10] Regardless of pure income, essential living requirements such as access to clean water is unpredictable. As a whole, 400 out of 614 First Nations communities faced water sanitation problems between 2004 through 2014.[11] Many of the issues involved come from bad sanitation, piping issues, or improper disinfection of water systems. For the Neskantaga First Nation in Ontario, residents have been boiling their water for 20 years.[11] Issues arise in various places within Canada. For BC, the disparity between the rich and the poor is quite wide with inequality. 33% of Indigenous children currently live in poverty within Vancouver compared to 52% for those who live on reserve.[12] There are also higher concentrations of at risk Indigenous people within the Downtown Eastside who lack access to secure housing and are more likely to have or are susceptible to drug and alcohol addiction.[13]

Without the economic capacity to defend their rights and the barriers to essential living conditions, many communities find it difficult to re-build a foundation on which they can strive for self-determination and self-sufficiency.[7] These communities are often forced to make a decision of agreeing to economic development on their land, which goes against their values, or facing tremendous risk of necessity insecurities such as food, water, or jobs.

“Indigenous communities, particularly in places where there is significant pressure to develop natural resources, face tremendous imposed economic poverty. Billions of dollars of natural resources have been extracted from their territories, without their permission and without compensation. That’s the reality. We have not had the right to say no to development, because ultimately those communities are not seen as people, they are seen as resources. There is a huge need to clearly articulate alternative visions of how to build healthy, sustainable, local indigenous economies that benefit indigenous communities and respect our fundamental philosophies and values. The hyper-exploitation of natural resources is not the only approach. The first step to that is to stop seeing indigenous peoples and our homelands as free resources to be used at will however colonial society sees fit. If Canada is not interested in dismantling the system that forces poverty onto indigenous peoples, then I’m not sure Canadians, who directly benefit from indigenous poverty, get to judge the decisions indigenous peoples make, particularly when very few alternatives are present. Indigenous peoples do not have control over our homelands. We do not have the ability to say no to development on our homelands,"[7]-Leanne Simpson is a renowned Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg scholar, writer and artist, who has been widely recognized as one of the most compelling Indigenous voices of her generation.

A chart of well-being scores compiled by the Government of Canada regarding First Nation, Inuit, and Non-Indigenous Communities from 1981 to 2011

In the context of the Four Directions Model, the Well-Being Index developed by Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada explores a broader measure of current socio-economic living circumstances for Indigenous communities. The Community Well-being Index incorporates dimensions of education, housing security, and the labour market that are aggregated to the community level. There has been improvement with a narrowing of the well-being gap between 1981 and 2011 (20 percentage points) however, the data demonstrates a constant and consistent gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities.[14]

Socio-economic Barriers

Identified by the Government of Canada as a vulnerable group, Indigenous people face numerous challenges relating to their socio-economic conditions that impact their ability to flourish within the Four Directions model.[4] As of recent demographic trends, Indigenous populations are rapidly growing due to higher fertility rates and at a growth rate of four times that of non Indigenous populations.[15] As the most poverty stricken and vulnerable group in Canada, the growth in population poses a risk to new mothers and babies growing up in non-optimal conditions. Nonetheless, large increases of population in recent years since 2004 can be accounted to more Indigenous people embracing their identities and coming to terms with formal recognition of their ethnicity and ancestry through reporting.[15]

Because absolute and relative poverty are key social determinants of health,[8] the bleak living conditions and constraints imposed to accessing essential services for some Indigenous communities, negatively impact mental, spiritual, emotional, and physical well-being. However, this is not to say that Indigenous communities that have lower economic activity or financial resources cannot live healthy and meaningful lives. Relatively speaking, many Indigenous communities engage in activities that are subsisted at a much lower cost than their non Indigenous counterparts.[8]

Mental | Education and Employment

In regards to mental well-being, the access to educational opportunities that align with Indigenous pedagogy are minimal. Furthermore, within the Canadian educational system, 47% of Indigenous peoples are without a high school diploma as compared to the 28% off reserve and 12% of non Indigenous peoples.[4] The reasonings behind this are complex and not always causally linked but the lack of a high school diploma poses a difficulty for Indigenous workers who seek employment for upward mobility. This is seen through the 25.2% unemployment rate of Indigenous peoples that live on the reserve, 17.8% that live of the reserve and 7.5% of non Indigenous peoples.[4] Whereas Non-Indigenous people on average earn twice the annual income than Indigenous people on reserve and 1.3 times than Indigenous people off reserves.[4]

Spiritual | Health: Physical and Mental Well-being

The affects of spiritual well-being for Indigenous peoples comes from the problematic issues of food insecurity. With the highest rates of food insecurity for Indigenous women who are three times more likely to be without access to nutritious food or food in general compared to their non-Indigenous counterparts. And for Indigenous men, who are two times more likely than non-Indigenous men.[4]

Emotional | Safety and Security

The emotional feelings of safety and emotional security come from many variables such as access to housing, shelter from violence, and belief in the justice system. For around half of First Nations living on the reserve, they lived in unacceptable housing conditions which meant that they were either unaffordable, not large enough to accommodate family side, or lacked adequate safety conditions. For a third of the households, they did not have the economic means to re-locate or to move into a more accommodating house space.[4]

In terms of violence and crime, as many as 30% of Indigenous people report that they themselves or their household were victims of crime as compared to 19% of non-Indigenous. Where for every thousand people, there were 160 Indigenous victims as opposed to only 74 non-Indigenous victims. An example can be drawn to the high concentrations of victimization and violence where in particular, the disappearance of many Indigenous women[16] is a testament to the perpetual remnants of colonialism.

From 1999 to 2014 there has been a decrease in total crime incidents reported by Canadians.

Furthermore the failings of the Canadian justice system for Indigenous peoples means that even younger children fear the police due to racialization. Whereas around 80% of Indigenous students are more likely to “disagree” or “strongly disagree” that their racial group are viewed positively by police compared to 15% of non-Indigenous students responding the same way.[17] Increasing restrictions on bail and a highly concentrated number of Indigenous prisoners in Canadian prisons[18] highlights a systematically rooted bias against Indigenous peoples within the justice system. As crime declined overall and the rates of incarceration for Canadians fell, Indigenous incarceration instead skyrocketed with an increase by 112% for women. While only making up 4% of the total Canadian population, 36% of Indigenous women and 25% of Indigenous men are currently sentenced to provincial and territorial custody.[17]

*Physical

The analysis of environmental and economic base factors are the foundation of which emotional, spiritual, and mental well-being is explored. In the context of settler colonialism, the effects of the environment that Indigenous peoples have had to deal with are a result of land dispossession, extractivism, stolen land, residential schools, intentional biological warfare, displacement, genocide, assimilation and more.

The cycle of health and well-being are tied to low income levels. Negative feedback look where mental health issues like depression and other risky behaviours such as smoking, drinking, and doing drugs are reinforced.

The implications of these statistics by Statistics Canada within the context of the Four Directions Model, concludes that there is a disconnect between having a base to upward mobility which would allow easier processes towards self-determination and self-sufficiency of Indigenous communities. Furthermore, the lack of these four categories of essential services prevents the ability of Indigenous peoples to be involved within the policy and the governance making of the Canadian state to the extent that they wish to do so.

Potential Take Aways

There is a general consensus of First Nations Chiefs and Canadian policy researchers on improving health and well-being of community members as opposed to just improving "economic means" through pure money.[3] Indigenous leaders and scholars recognize the poverty that exists and advocate for the prevalent bleak living conditions within their communities. [8] Some argue like Leanne Simpson argue for the collective understandings and acknowledgements by the mainstream society on how their qualities of life can continue to perpetuate the poverty cycle for Indigenous peoples. Where the consumeristic tendencies and need for linear economic growth can stifle natural ecosystems and force Indigenous communities out of negotiations regarding their natural resources or land.[7] In particular, Simpson demands for an understanding of Indigenous peoples as people as opposed to resources. Others argue, that shifting money towards social welfare programs would help alleviate systemic injustices that are rooted in settler colonialism.[3] Though not the only and most prominent factor to closing the gap but it would be a small and beneficial step. Social programs have the potential to benefit people's well-being by providing emotional and physical security.

Indigenous representation in the media

Prioritizing actions to increase well-being of Indigenous peoples through providing access to essential services and helping self-sufficiency efforts, are about closing the gap between Indigenous and non Indigenous peoples in Canada. However, it is also about addressing the mainstream focus on the negative aspects of Indigenous communities. This wiki has been focused on addressing the lack of essential services and poverty within Indigenous communities but there is an acknowledgement to the reader to contextualize these understandings within the broader realms of varying Indigenous cultures, languages, arts, and histories. Due to the scope of the wiki and it's narrow focus, it can be difficult to showcase Indigenous communities in a completely nuanced and more broadened perspective but it must be addressed that poverty is not the norm and is not the defining factor of these communities. Indigenous communities are a lot more than statistics that are drawn up through a report. The overemphasis of negative representation of Indigenous communities is problematic as it can normalize understandings that are dangerous; in particular, stereotypical and racist beliefs towards Indigenous people.[7] It is important to understand where opportunities fall short for Indigenous well-being through the combined use of statistics, economic standards, and Indigenous conceptions of well-being. But policies that would better reflect the needs and desires of Indigenous communities, would need to be shaped by bringing in interdisciplinary approaches to research and understandings. Furthermore, power must be given to marginalized voices because the domination of economic and statistical terms must not and cannot be definitive; they are only one side to a very multi-dimensional story.

Notes

  1. Malcolmson, Patrick; Myers, Richard (2016). The Canadian Regime 6th Ed. University of Toronto Press.
  2. Brooks, Stephen (2015). Canadian Democracy 8th Ed. Oxford University Press.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 Poverty Action Research Project, Pursuing Well-being: Lessons from the First Nation Poverty Action Research Project, Halifax: Dalhousie University, 2018
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 A Background on Poverty in Canada (October 2016) Publi Centre (Government of Canada). of Canada, Government. A Backgrounder on Poverty in Canada. ISBN: 9780660063874. Ottawa, ON, CA.
  5. "Terminology". Indigenous Foundations. 2009. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
  6. "Theory of Four Directions Model". First Nations Pedagogy. 2013. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Klein, Naomi (5 March 2013). "Dancing the World into Being: A Conversation with Idle No More's Leanne Simpson". Yes Magazine. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 Wien, F. (2017). Tackling Poverty in Indigenous Communities in Canada. Prince George, BC: National Collaborating Centre for Aboriginal Health.
  9. "Indigenous Worldviews". Indigenous Corporate Training Inc. 26 January 2016. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
  10. Press, Jordan (10 October 2017). "Over 80% of reserves have median income below poverty line, census data shows". Global News. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
  11. 11.0 11.1 Levasseur, Joanne; Jacques Marcoux (14 October 2015). "Bad water: 'Third World' conditions on First Nations in Canada". CBC News. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
  12. Klein, Seth; Ivanova, Iglika; Leyland, Andrew (Winter 2017). "Long Overdue: Why BC Needs a Poverty Reduction Plan" (PDF). Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. 1: 44 – via JSTOR.
  13. Lupick, Travis (1 May 2018). "Vancouver's Indigenous People are Again Heavily Overrepresented Among the City's Homeless". Straight. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
  14. Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada. (2015). The Community Well-Being Index: Well-Being in First Nations Communities, 1981-2011. Ottawa: Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, represented by the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development.
  15. 15.0 15.1 Kirkup, Kristy (25 October 2017). "Canada's Growing Indigenous Population". Global News. Retrieved 26 November 2018.
  16. McDiarmid, Margo (20 December 2017). "Still no way to tell how many Indigenous women and girls go missing in Canada each year". Retrieved 25 November 2018.
  17. 17.0 17.1 MacDonald, Nancy (18 February 2018). "Canada's prisons are the 'new residential schools'". Macleans. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
  18. Perreault, Samuel (2014). "Criminal victimization in Canada, 2014". Retrieved 26 November 2018.