Attawapiskat is a remote community of roughly 2000 people, mostly comprised of first nation folks, and led by the reserve’s band council. It is located in the Kenora District in northern Ontario, Canada, at the mouth of the Attawapiskat River on James Bay. Like other remote northern communities, it is connected to other towns along the shore of James Bay by the seasonal ice road/winter road constructed each December. Otherwise, people and supplies have to be flown into and out of the region.
We have just learned that Attawapiskat has suffered from an epidemic of suicide attempts, including eleven young residents last April 9th involving what is believed to have been the result of a suicide pact. Subsequently, the community’s dire situation was exposed by national media. The province of Ontario and the Federal Government admitted that they haven’t done enough in the past to help such communities. Housing is inadequate, the local elementary school is falling apart, substance abuse is high, young people have little to do on the reserve, mental health and other social services are totally lacking, and poverty and high unemployment is rampant. In this environment of hopelessness, it is understandable why the suicide rate for such communities is roughly eight times the national rate.
In Canada, Aboriginal kids drop out of school at a rate three times the national average. A larger number of Aboriginal children die in infancy than among the rest of our population’s newborns. Aboriginal children and Aboriginal women continue to be sexually assaulted and violently victimized at higher rates. Aboriginals are murdered at a rate almost seven times higher than the national average. In 2013, the Correctional Investigator reported that Canada’s prison population has grown by 2,100 inmates — a 16.5-per-cent increase — in the last 10 years. In that time, the overall Aboriginal population in the prisons grew by 46 percent, while the number of Aboriginal women increased by 80 percent and now accounts for one in three women under federal sentence. Something terrible has gone wrong.
These appalling statistics and numbers represent real people. Every once and awhile, tragic stories like those in Attawapiskat make the headlines. Governments are forced to react in the short-term until the headlines fade from our memories. Recognizing the complexities, cultural issues and history behind the problems, what we really need are long-term solutions in consultation with these communities. Just throwing more money at the problem may not be the answer. What is needed are on-going comprehensive and holistic approaches involving access to better education, social and health services, as well as innovative socioeconomic initiatives. We have to stop simply reacting from one crisis to another.
FROLITICKS 
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