For The Sake of Their Children

Census gathering in Canada has informed Statistics Canada and any who care to know, that the aboriginal population -- despite all the societal inclemency inflicted upon First Nations in the guise of purported inferiority, and the fallout of tribal and familial dysfunction all too common among isolated First Nations communities living the patent absurdities of honouring ancestors and cultural traditions clinging to their ancestral land on native reserves -- far from diminishing is growing.

It is not the case that aboriginal women are naturally more fecund than their counterparts elsewhere in the country, but rather a matter of indifference in a sense whether or not another child is brought into the world. Alcohol and drug abuse are rampant in the First Nations communities, and their impact on the populations can be more dreadful than it is elsewhere. There is less access to social services that might be useful in aiding addicts to rescue themselves from addiction.

There are fewer opportunities for access to meaningful lessons in public-social health awareness and useful methods of birth control use, along with a more prevalent profligate attitude toward abstention and evasion of pregnancy. Children are there in abundance, and their needs neglected. Within Canada almost half of the children under the age of fourteen in foster care are of aboriginal origin.

First Nations, Metis and Inuit represents 4.3 percent of the Canadian population. Over one-quarter of the country's Aboriginal Peoples are age fourteen and under; one fifth 15 to 24. This is an extremely young population, 34% of whom live in one-parent, single mother families, a ratio twice that of non-aboriginal children.  Aboriginal children age four and under are less likely to be placed in foster care than older children, five to 14.

Children of any derivation removed from their families, despite inadequate care and physical neglect, and incidents of abuse, tend to fare more poorly in school than those who remain within their intact families. Children in care become more depressed, and are more likely to be involved in substance abuse, though aboriginal children in general are known to suffer disproportionately from such abusive tendencies.

Children anywhere, of any parentage, in any culture, within any traditional heritage or geography tend to pattern themselves after their parents. If parents tend toward neglect of personal responsibilities and the adoption of substance abuse, these are the values that children are exposed to, and will tend to emulate because they have no other yardstick of any meaning to them.

The shocking statistic is that fully four percent of aboriginal children are in care, representing a true social blight. In comparison, 0.3% of non-aboriginal children end up in foster care. As a result almost half of all children under 14 in foster care in the country are aboriginal. "It's tragic, because these numbers far outstrip even our projections", which was that 30 to 40% would represent aboriginal children in care, according to the executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada.

"What people need to know is that the factors driving these children into foster care are not abuse-related. That doesn't mean that sexual and physical abuse does not happen in our communities. It does, and we need to courageously deal with it", she explained. And we are left to parse a statement that is in complete contradiction of itself.

Until we come to the part of her explanation pointing out that poverty, poor housing and substance misuse represents the picture of neglect fuelling the over-representation of aboriginal children in care. "Those are all things that child welfare can do something about. What we have here is a very dire statistic for children who, just like their parents in many cases, are being removed from their families because of state neglect."

"The government is simply not giving these children the same opportunity to grow up with their families that all other Canadian children enjoy." Yet a spokesperson for Aboriginal Affairs clarifies that the issue of aboriginal children in care "is a responsibility shared between the federal government, the provinces and territories and aboriginal communities."

If aboriginal communities themselves continue to fail to persuade their members that it is their responsibility to care for the children they bear, to provide them with the emotional support, the physical necessities of life, the guidance they require to reach their potential, the best-intentioned government programs and ongoing and increasing funding of those programs will continue to fail.

Aboriginal communities must first recognize that for those who choose to live in geographical isolation from opportunities for employment, health services, civil infrastructure, and structured education systems, there is a limit that outside sources like government agencies can provide. Opting to live as their ancestors did, on the land, comes complete with the responsibility to provide for themselves as their ancestors did, and this is clearly impractical.

The world of today does not meet with the world of yesterday other than as a historical piece of time and place, as communities move forward to meet and take advantage of the present and all the opportunities current in a structured environment where services that all communities require to flourish, are available. Those services cannot simply be picked up and moved to wherever they are needed.

The demographic of young aboriginals stands out in contrast to the rest of Canadian society, where there are fewer children per household. When children are not exposed to overall social values and useful educational opportunities at an early age it will have a deleterious impact on their later lives. Self esteem suffers along with the realization that education and skills and opportunities have not materialized.

It's long past time for First Nations Peoples to understand that it is up to them fully as much as it is to the governments that are responsible for their welfare, to make decisions that will improve their lives and the futures of their children. Those decisions reflect a need to remove themselves to areas where employment is feasible, where municipal infrastructure ensures potable water, sewage, whole-food availability at decent cost, and where for the sake of their children at the very least, health services and educational opportunities are all present.