Canadian Aboriginals

You are a chronicler on a weekly radio show. You must present a chronicle to defend the rights of an indigenous people. Your talk must last 3 minutes.

“First Nations, Native Americans, Aboriginals.... these are the different ways, among the most rewarding, used to designate a certain percentage of the Canadian population. But what kind of reality do these words cover? … Hello, I'm Richard Edward and in this week's chronicle we are going to put spotlight on a subject that's close to my heart: how are indigenous people treated in our nation?

Canada is facing a crisis with regard to the situation of indigenous peoples who are still suffering bad consequences from the removal of their rights in the past centuries.There are three groups of aboriginal peoples in Canada : the First Nations, the Metis and the Inuit. More and more modern Canadians agree to say that the country owes them its cultural background, its resilience, and its sense of hospitality.

The facts show us an other aspect though. I was horrified to realise how deep and extended social disparities are in our country. They are not obvious at first sight but they cry aloud when you look deeper to the statistics:

Aboriginal's medium income is between $14 and $17,000, whereas the medium income for non-aboriginal's is $30,000.

The indigenous population is one of the fastest growing in Canada.

1 in 4 First Nations families are living under the poverty rate

Aboriginals who reported being hungry due to lack of money for food is 17.8%

Rate ofAboriginal youth suicides compared to Non-Aboriginal youth in Canada: 3-7 times higher

Rate of over crowding among First Nations households compared to those in the rest of Canada: 2x (twice)

60% of students living on Reserves do not graduate high school

Aboriginal women were almost three times more likely than non-Aboriginal women to report that they had been a victim of physical violence in the past five years

And so on...

I'm sorry to get you bored with all of these figures but it crushes my heart to realise that poverty, poor health, educational failure, family disfunction, violence and substance abuse reinforce the gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal population in our country. Did you know that countless North American Indigenous words, inventions and games have become an everyday part of Canadian language and use? The canoe, snowshoes, the toboggan, lacrosse, tug of war, maple syrup and tobacco are just a few of the products, inventions and games. Some of the words include the barbecue,caribou, chipmunk, woodchuck, hammock, skunk, and moose. We all have benefited from the Native inhabitants of our country, and never paid back! Of course, Canadian governments have indeed acted during the last few years to improve the living conditions of aboriginal people, but it proves insufficient.

The issues Aboriginals face on a daily basis are fueled by the separation of cultures and the lack of cultural sensitivity within our society. As a country, we must understand that Aboriginal's have faced discrimination since

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