Trabajo De Investigacion De La Situacion De Los Aborigenes Canadienses

Aboriginal people = rich culture and spiritual traditios BUT they were taken away by European settlers (intriduction of new values, religion, dispossession of aboriginal lands, imposition of government) RESULT=social, physical and spiritual destruction EFFECTS= poverty poor health, substance abuse—« loss of identity and social solidarity
Strugle to recover traditions
Non aboriginal canadiansare becoming aware of this and support
The Cycle of Destruction
To break the circle of disadvantage – where family violence leads to educational failure, which leads to poverty, which leads to ill health and back to violence –
Poverty/Inequality
The roots of poverty DUE TO relocation of Aboriginal peoples onto Reserves. The destruction of traditional ways of living, combined with the poorlyorganized set-up of reserves resulted in people died due to lack of shelter, food, health care and money. To worsen the problem the Canadian government put tight restrictions on relief efforts to reserves,
When aboriginal people was allowed to leave the reserves, they moved to urban cities to improve their life, but instead they became poorer and faced discrimination.
A Statistical Profile (CCSD,2000), evidence from 1996 Census data showed that Aboriginal peoples in urban areas were more than twice as likely to live in poverty (as defined by the Low Income Cut-Off) as non-Aboriginal people.
* On average, 55.6% of Aboriginal people living in Canadian cities were poor in 1995.
* Shelter is a significant issue among First Nations communities, as only 56.9% of homes wereconsidered adequate in 1999­/00. Adequate shelter is defined as not needing minor or major repairs or replacement (INAC 2002).

Health Care
Despite the fact that the Canadian health care system has been praised as one of the best and most progressive in the world, quality health care is out of reach for many Aboriginal Canadians. Federal, provincial and jurisdictional disputes, cultural barriers andgeographic isolation have impeded Aboriginal peoples’ access to the health care system.
Employment Barriers
Many Aboriginal people had no hope of attaining any kind of employment, so long as beliefs that Aboriginal people were inferior prevailed in society. Add to this the problems of poverty and ill health, and one can see how the prospects for Aboriginal employment in Canada were dismal.
Ananalysis of 1996 Census data estimated that the unemployment rate for Aboriginal people is double that of the national average, and in some areas of the country the rate is five to six times higher than that recorded for non-Aboriginal people.
A 1995 survey found that 77 percent of employers faced challenges in hiring and retaining Aboriginal employees. They cited barriers in the following areas:communication, culture, skills and training, misconceptions. Similarly, low educational attainment affects the participation of Aboriginal and First Nation people in the Canadian labour market.
* Only 31 percent – about half the Canadian average– of the Aboriginal on-reserve population has a high school education.
* In 1969, only 800 Aboriginal peoples had a post-secondary education. By1991, the number was 150,000.
* In the mid-1960s, there were about 200 Status Indian students enrolled at Canadian colleges and universities.
Education
The colonizing view that many European settlers in North America took towards Aboriginal people devastated their cultures. As early as the late 1800’s Canadian government and church bodies began removing Aboriginal children from theirhomes and placing them in what were referred to as Industrial Schools. These would later become known as Residential Schools. Residential schools were the most effective tool for destroying Aboriginal culture and identity, and for promoting the assimilation of Aboriginal people into mainstream Canadian society.
Many of the schools employed curricula that were centred around religious teachings and...