Letter to the editor: by Yuokhon Takylera, Inuit

Land Claims Agreement

During the colonial history a lot of land was robbed from the First Nations. In the last century the aboriginal people began to demand their land back. For about half of the area of Canada no assignment agreements have been concluded. So the "Royal Proclamation" from 1763 is still valid. It said that the land can´t be given to third parties as long as it was sold to the Canadian government. But against this contract the economical exploitation by foreign corporations had grown steady in the last years. Even a big Canadian company is searching for mineral resources in our territory at the moment! That isn`t assimilation!  Fortunately resistance of the First Nations has grown. The process of agreements took very long. The legal proceedings for the Inuit territory took very long. It began in 1976 and ended 1999, when they divided the Northwest Territories in two parts and created Nunavut. The Inuit got important rights granted like fishing and hunting, as well as rights for 10% of the minerals in Nunavut. How can any Inuit accept their conditions? I think it´s crazy to submit like this to the Canadian government.

In British Columbia with about 200 other First Nations the government started a “treaty process” for land agreements. Al lot of them rejected, because they were afraid of further land cessions. Other said that they don´t need to make a contract for their reserves, since it is already their land. In the last years the First Nations have been also compensated with money, in which the Inuit got 1,148 billion dollars. But the money can´t solve the problems our tribes have. The situation gets better, but in my opinion it´s far away from accepting and tolerating the ancient traditions.

Better healthcare for Native people

Interview with Florence Williams, Health Minister of the Canadian government

NP:We have heard that you want to improve the health of the First Nations.

Williams: Yes, last year we founded the health program “Better Life” to decrease the difference of health between aboriginal people and non-aboriginal Canadians.

NP: What are the main problems?

Williams: In my opinion the biggest problem is the shorter life expectancy of the aboriginal people.

NP: What are the reasons for the shorter life expectancy?

Williams: For example heart diseases are 1.5 times higher than in the general population, also type 2 diabetes is 3 to 5 times higher among the aboriginal people and rates are increasing among the Inuid. Furthermore, Tuberculosis infection rates are 8 to 10 times higher and death rate among children is 3 to 4 times higher than among non-aboriginal children.

NP: And how do you plan to realize your health program?

Williams: We have planed to increase the life expectancy until 2017.
At the moment the life expectancy is 76 years for females and 69 years for males, compared to 82 years for females and 77 years for males in the general population. We would like to rise life expectancy by two years. Also we would like to show aboriginal families how to prevent diseases.

NP: Thanks for the time to show us your project.

What has changed after Stephen Harper’s Apology?

A comment by Ayasha Berland, 35

At first, after Stephen Harpers Apology we all thought that                                                    finally there was going to change a lot.

But now, nearly seven years later there have actually only changed a few things. In his speech from 11^th June 2008, Stephen Harper apologized to all Native people, who were forced to go to residential schools. He said that the government finally had realized that this had been wrong and apologized over and over for their actions in the past. When I heard of the speech, I hoped that we, the native people of Canada, would get more rights and wouldn’t  be forced anymore to fit into Canadian society. But Harper’s words weren’t followed by actions: Yes, there aren’t any residential schools anymore, although there are still people missing. Also the government introduced the option for us to be registered as a , which helps us to receive free health treatment, annual payments, education and also in some cases tax exemption. Many of us, about half of all First Nations nowadays live in cities, but there are also some of us, like me, who still live on reserves, where we now have a certain amount of self-governance.

So the government is trying to make up for the past, but however there are still some problems we Aboriginal people have to face: for example crime and substance abuse. Also the life expectancy of Native people is 5-8 years lower than of the general Canadian population.

All in all, you can say that the Aboriginal people in Canada have definitely gained support from the government, but there are still some problems, which have to be solved in the future.