How It Began:
For the past two years I committed myself to travels among Indigenous People throughout Canada. Travels that took me from coast to coast to coast saw me speaking about Aboriginal Unification to audiences throughout the various Tribes and regions of Canada. During those travels, it became painfully apparent that serious problems existed among my people. Health, poverty and lack of hope for a future are common observations throughout those living in remote regions. Upon returning to south Ontario following last year’s speaking tour, I began telling audiences in mainstream southern Ontario populations about what I had experienced. When I described the lack of schools, teachers and textbooks to audiences of professional educators in the south, I began being given quantities of elementary level textbooks to be delivered during my next trips to the north.
How It Grew:
That process quickly filled my own garage and then the garages of my neighbors. I had quickly collected more textbooks than I could possibly move to the north on my own. The settlements to which the books are intended are primarily fly-in only sites all located well north of the fiftieth parallel and reaching into the sub Arctic.
Moreover, though I had a great deal of textbooks, I perhaps had enough to supply a few settlements and was left with the “hard choice” of having to select who would get books and who wouldn’t. I also began receiving small quantities of school supplies and art/craft supplies. At that point, I realized that I could not supply each child in each of over 50 small settlements UNLESS I had help. And I now ask you for that help.
That process quickly filled my own garage and then the garages of my neighbors. I had quickly collected more textbooks than I could possibly move to the north on my own. The settlements to which the books are intended are primarily fly-in only sites all located well north of the fiftieth parallel and reaching into the sub Arctic.
Moreover, though I had a great deal of textbooks, I perhaps had enough to supply a few settlements and was left with the “hard choice” of having to select who would get books and who wouldn’t. I also began receiving small quantities of school supplies and art/craft supplies. At that point, I realized that I could not supply each child in each of over 50 small settlements UNLESS I had help. And I now ask you for that help.
How Big is The Problem?
Very few, in southern parts of Canada have any knowledge about conditions for those in remote Indigenous Settlements across the Canadian North. There are a couple significant stories that I point to. They are from entirely credible sources and corroborate conclusions that I frequently make in my recent speeches to teachers’ groups, student assemblies and service groups. I strongly suggest that you visit the Canadian Medical Association’s Journal on line, October 23, 2007 "The North Like Darfur" (http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/177/9/1013) and Canadian Geographic's December 2010 edition and its feature story, "Still Waiting in Attawapiskat" (http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/magazine/dec10/attawapiskat.asp) I can add my own observations to those stories having witnessed such things as a “class” being instructed in Arithmetic by an elder clan mother for her class of 8 kids seated in a circle of folding chairs in a band office. A single dog-eared text was shared among the group.
It is little wonder that teen suicides are of epidemic proportions. Since the start of the New Year, there have been 15 such suicides in north Ontario alone. How many of those deaths are attributable to lack of hope? 60% of our (Aboriginal) youth do not complete High School and (unbelievably) almost 15% of those in Remote Settlements have less than elementary school education.
It is little wonder that teen suicides are of epidemic proportions. Since the start of the New Year, there have been 15 such suicides in north Ontario alone. How many of those deaths are attributable to lack of hope? 60% of our (Aboriginal) youth do not complete High School and (unbelievably) almost 15% of those in Remote Settlements have less than elementary school education.
