Homelessness Of Indigenous People

Essay Outline The human race that inhabited the lands earlier than anyone else, Aboriginals in Canada had conquered many obstacles which got them to what they are today. In the past, Canadian Aboriginals have dealt with many gruesome issues that primarily involved the Canadians opposing them or treating them like ‘‘wards.’’ The Indian Act is a written law which controls the Indian’s lives and it is often amended several times to make Indian lives either peaceful or cruel but especially, cruel. Aboriginals found the Indian Act a massive problem in their lives due to it completely controlling them and how they lived on their reserve.

Canada is known for its amazing healthcare and it is considered one of the best in the world. In Canada, healthcare is ‘universal’ to its citizens under the Heath Care Act. However, not everyone has equal access to healthcare, Aboriginals being some of them. Aboriginals have trouble getting the access they need because of socio-economic status, geography, lack of infrastructure and staff, language or cultural barriers an more.

Aboriginal Poverty within Canada Introduction Aboriginal people are a name for the original people of North America and their descendants (“Aboriginal Peoples and Communities”, 2015). The different types of groups of aboriginal peoples are First Nations, Métis and Inuit (“Aboriginal Peoples and Communities”, 2015). In Canada over 1.4 million people identify themselves as an Aboriginal person (“Aboriginal Peoples and Communities”, 2015).

The problem appears to become evident right from birth with aboriginal woman twice as likely as non-indigenous woman to have a stillborn baby and twice as likely to give birth to an underweight baby (ed. Healey 2000, p.4). During the period between 1991 and 1996, life expectancy for indigenous people was around 20 years than that of their non-indigenous counterparts. The lives of indigenous people are affected by many other health factors, one of most concern is alcohol related problems that impact on their well-being, family structure, and even aboriginal traditional life because they tend to drink more haphazardly. Some of the health risks to which indigenous people are exposed can be attributed the differences between the health of indigenous and non-indigenous people.

Indigenous people are incarcerated at much higher rates than non-Indigenous in Canada and are incarcerated for longer periods of time (Cook & Roesh, 2012, p.222). Canadians have put Indigenous communities through much heartache and pain. With the colonization of Indigenous people to residential schools, Canadians continue to stigmatize and treat Indigenous people poorly. Indigenous people are more likely to suffer from drug abuse using needles because of the intergenerational trauma suffered through their parents attending residential schools in Canada (Bombay, Matheson, & Anisman, 2014, p. 327). This puts them at a higher criminal risk than others because of what they have been subjected to.

The colonization of Indigenous peoples has dramatically affected their health, and health-seeking behaviours, in a myriad of ways. The Indian Act of 1876 was, in essence, created to control the Indigenous population. The Indian Act laid out laws and regulations that tightly regulated the lives of natives economically, ideologically, and politically. This included a wealth of ways in which their identities were stripped away, and in which they were taken advantage of by the Government of Canada. This has resulted in a reduced quality of life for Canada 's indigenous population, as well as adverse health problems, and prejudicial perceptions that we still see the impact of today.

How different would life be if your nation was discriminated and seen as unequal to the rest of the people in your country? Unfortunately, this is a major problem in the Indigenous community of Canada today. Discrimination against the Indigenous dates back to early European settlement, and although efforts have been made in recent generations to make the country a mosaic of peoples and cultures, a recent poll suggests that more than one-third of respondents believe racism against Indigenous people is increasing in Canada. Although the Indigenous are considered the “First Peoples of Canada,” they are continuously being discriminated because of their ethnicity / race, they are being unreasonably searched, and they are not receiving the basic

Since Europeans first set foot onto the Western Hemisphere, the Indigenous people of the United States have been subjected to incredibly poor standards of living, right in the heart of what is supposed to be the best country in the world to live in. Despite thousands of years of living in this very nation, The Native people of this land have been forced to take a backseat to pave the way for an industrialized world, all leading up to present day United States, in which Native Americans are hardly better off. Because of this, many Native American Reservations all over the United States have some of the highest poverty rates in the nation, while at the same time being one of the least talked about issues our nation faces. The source of which

Indigenous peoples of Canada have been considered inferior to all other citizens, and have been abused and neglected through European history, and can be seen as a form of genocide. In Canadian residential schools, children were removed from the home, sexually assaulted, beaten, deprived of basic human necessities, and over 3 500 women and girls were sterilized, and this went on well into the 1980 's (Nicoll 2015). The dehumanization of Indigenous peoples over the generations has left a significant impact on society today; the generational trauma has left many Indigenous peoples heavily dependent of drugs and alcohol, and the vulnerability of Indigenous women has led to extremely high rates of violent crime towards these women. A report that

Aboriginal people have a long history of traditions, but many of these traditions were altered or

Additionally under the Indian act, first nations people do not own their own land. They don’t enjoy the same property rights as most Canadians do. First nations live on land that is “a tract of land, the legal title which is vested in Her Majesty.” Absence of property rights is a disaster for first nations communities because it’s hard to do business when people can’t earn equity on a house or use it as collateral to borrow money. It’s hard to create a thriving community when people can’t hand down wealth to their children.

Over the past century, assimilation has been the predominant solution to the challenges posed by the existence of Indigenous people. Historically, Canadian sovereignty depended on maintaining the relationship between Canada’s Indigenous people and the Crown through treaties of peace and friendship (Macklem 122). It was not until 1973 when the Calder case formally recognized pre-existing Aboriginal titles to land that the Canadian government committed to settling all pending land claims (Légaré 344). The legitimacy of self-determination was further entrenched when the Constitution Act in 1982 recognized all existing treaty rights as well as the inherent Indigenous right of self-government (Macklem 2001, 101). Indigenous peoples have always wanted control over their own affairs which lead to the constant pressure on the Federal Government to grant them wider powers in the government which they had before the coming of the Europeans.

From the start of colonisation, Indigenous Australian populations were demolished due to the introduced diseases, the loss of land and livelihood. Nothing was done to provide health services despite loss of life and widespread disease. The crises currently occurring in Indigenous health is due to generations of mistreatment, failure to provide adequate resources and lack of understanding. Up until 1967 Indigenous Australians has no right to healthcare services and had little power to change this due to the policy decisions set in place that restricted them from making their own decisions. (REFFERENCE)

So, as you have read, the exploration and colonization of the America’s had many effects on the Native American’s that had already been living there. Whether it was a change to something of their culture, such as religion or the number of their population, the consequences of the Europeans actions has lingered over time, and much of it is still noticeable

y all across Canada there has been a big issue on Aboriginal homelessness, in this paper I will be talking about a program that has been created and planned of to what the program has to offer. Homelessness in Aboriginal population is in need of programs and services to make a change in the lives of those affected. The number has been estimated for homelessness in Canada is between 15,000 to 300,000 individuals experience homelessness in Canada (Segaert, 2012).