Attawapiskat

[DEFCON]

A group of people have been left to exist isolated from the rest of the world. Should the results we’re seeing come as a surprise to anyone?

 

Historically, these people ate things like moose & seal, not the prepared & processed foods they rely on today.

 

Survival once required ingenuity and teamwork on the part of Native communities. For instance, together they built and maintained contrivances such paddle powered watercraft. Men of a given settlement would leave home as hunting parties, carried by their boats to take on the environment in the search for prey. When they did take an animal, it was a close up, personal and often dangerous undertaking.

 

Today’s hunter, if any even bother, is able to complete the entire process alone in an afternoon. It just isn’t all that difficult, or dangerous to grab a high powered rifle, jump in an aluminum Honda powered motorboat, cruise at 30 mph for twenty minutes to the hunting grounds and when the quarry is spotted, even at a great distance, instead of stalking, the hunter can simply turn to his high quality optics to close the distance and whack the critter without further adieu.

 

While the efficiencies provided by the gadgetry of the modern world have largely removed risk and uncertainty from the daily lives of Natives and vastly improved their chances of survival, it’s all left them with ‘absolutely nothing to do’ in support of their self, or community.

 

The ongoing and unquestioned style of support our governments provide to these communities is slowly killing them off. With so many self described caring Canadians claiming to be advocates for Natives and their causes, why Isn’t a one of them willing to step back far enough to acknowledge the fact that Canada’s long standing strategy to ‘managing’ these populations as ‘distinct’ beings is a failed one in need of serious reconsideration? It’s only an opinion, but if we were to rethink our approach, the indigenous people might finally enjoy the kind of opportunity that is truly necessary to ensuring they at least have a chance of a viable future?