Moving Beyond Economic Survival

If you are like me, you probably keep somewhat up to date with news reports, research etc. Specifically, I am going to talk about Indigenous socio-economic status.

In many ways, our peoples are standing at the brink, pushed for hundreds of years to very edge of the cliff. Aside from some pockets of success, we have so many of our communities struggling with everyday life: lack of access to clean water, shoddy housing, mould & mildew, encroaching corporations draining the land's resources and leaving behind toxic waste, Federal Government policies that do not respect the treaties nor the right to be consulted, completely inadequate and unequal funding for virtually every social program that general Canadians enjoy and take for granted, etc.

Even in urban centres, our people are facing a persistent income gap as this report clearly demonstrates.

Despite all of these challenges, our people are growing in number and we survive yet. I have posted the report in a previous blog that calculated over th next 10 years 1 in every 3 new entrant to the Manitoba labour force will be Aboriginal. I have also shared that there will be a net gain of a half trillion dollars in GDP and social program savings if Aboriginal people were to reach a higher education and employment level.

The possibilities and the hope is there. At least abstractly. On the ground, in the communities, how do we move from survival to success? From success to significance?

To echo our national chief, we need education. That's one part of it. We need to gain experience and knowledge from those who have skills we need. We need to build greater connections and partnerships.

We must also not lose our connection to the community - both in the figural sense and in the literal sense. In the past we would leave the community to hunt, then return with provisions for the community. Today, we must do the same thing, but the game we hunt now is education, experience, connections with sincere and willing partners (for projects, business, etc.).

This is a short post today, but it echos what I have been really feeling in my heart. Somehow, we need to begin diverting resources back to the communities, be they financial, knowledge, or skills.