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Social Determinants of Health <[log in to unmask]>
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Wed, 8 Aug 2007 12:10:15 -0400
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Social Determinants of Health <[log in to unmask]>
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D Bonnenfant <[log in to unmask]>
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Hello all
I had a great visit up north this summer.
The (aboriginal) info centre in Dawson, YukonTerritory  - had an amazing 
(profound, touching and thoughtful) 'display' re: residential schools. 
They're creating opportunities for healing.
The centre was beautiful, full of light, amazing images, individual 
stories, places to visit, places to understand, opportunities for healing.
I was touched....and barely start to understand the complex issue of 
recovery of culture, community, personhood.....
here's to very thoughtful work in this area.

thanks for your comment Jeff - - - I didn't realize schools were still 
operating in the 1980's.
ahhhhhh....

Dot



Jeff Denis wrote:
> Same in Canada... and what many people don't realize is that these boarding
> schools are not a thing of the distant past. Some were closed as late as the
> 1980s. People who attended these schools 30 years ago are now supposed to be
> leaders in their communities, but many are traumatized by the experience. This
> goes a long way to explaining the high rates of alcoholism, depression and
> suicide on many reserves. Nevertheless, Native peoples have shown remarkable
> resilience, and efforts to rebuild cultural identity and pride proceed -
> despite continued racism and limited economic resources.
>
> Jeff
>
>
>
> Quoting Dave Cundiff <[log in to unmask]>:
>
>   
>> Thanks for sharing this information, Mark.  I don't know details of
>> the proposed legislation, but I've seen the long-term effect of one
>> paternalistic "solution" to child welfare problems.
>>
>> Indigenous residents of the USA remember the "boarding schools" of
>> early 20th century, in which the "white" majority set about to prevent
>> the transmission of Native languages and culture, thus facilitating
>> Indian assimilation and "progress".  To achieve this goal, parents
>> were required to send their children away to assigned boarding
>> schools.  At these schools, children were forbidden to wear
>> traditional clothing, speak traditional languages, or engage in
>> traditional cultural/religious practices.
>>
>> The result appears now to have been almost entirely negative.  Loving
>> and capable families were disrupted.  Languages were extinguished.
>> Little or no economic progress was facilitated.  As they became
>> adults, the boarding-school children lacked a full understanding of
>> how to live in their native culture, but also lacked opportunities to
>> live successfully in European-American majority communities.
>>
>> About a century later, Native Americans are still dealing with family,
>> cultural, linguistic, and economic deprivations inherited from the
>> "boarding school" generation.  I've talked with some who think the
>> boarding schools were just as destructive to Native Americans as the
>> loss of their land.
>>
>> Paternalism is attractive to the powerful -- but, even when
>> paternalism is well-intentioned, the "side effects" are destructive.
>> Whatever the problems of Aboriginal peoples, I hope that Australian
>> authorities work humbly WITH Aborigines to devise culturally
>> appropriate priorities and solutions.
>>
>> Best wishes!
>>
>> Dave Cundiff, MD, MPH
>> Olympia, Washington, USA
>>
>> ***
>>
>> Quoting Mark Boyd <[log in to unmask]>:
>>
>>     
>>> Unfortunately, Australia is winding back the clock and enforcing
>>> genocidal policies on Aboriginal people. Here's yesterday's editorial by
>>> WHO social Determinants Commissioner Fran Baum:
>>>
>>>
>>> Apartheid to be enforced on Aborigines
>>> Fran Baum
>>> August 7, 2007
>>> http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/apartheid-to-be-enforced-on-aborig
>>> ines/2007/08/06/1186252625016.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
>>>
>>> THIS will be a week of shame for all non-indigenous Australians if the
>>> legislation planned by the Howard Government is passed by Parliament.
>>> This legislation, among other things, will make the welfare system an
>>> apartheid one with different rules for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal
>>> people and make payments depend on government-dictated behaviour. It
>>> will also take control away from Aboriginal people over who goes on
>>> their land.
>>>
>>> Ironically, this intervention is part of the Government's response to
>>> the Little Children are Sacred report by Pat Anderson and Rex Wild, QC.
>>> Anderson's and Wild's report is nuanced, wise and demonstrates deep
>>> understanding of the complexity of abuse in communities that have
>>> suffered long and hard from the processes of colonisation - processes
>>> such as
>>>
>>> land grabs, stolen children and fundamental lack of respect and racism
>>> from the dominant white culture.
>>>
>>> Their report called not for the declaration of war, with its echoes of
>>> domination and crisis, but for a thoughtful consultative process that
>>> stands some chance of achieving meaningful change.
>>>
>>> It recognised that there has to be change but that this was likely only
>>> if Aboriginal people are listened to and respected - the basis of any
>>> functional relationship. Instead, the Government is sending in the army,
>>> boots and all.
>>>
>>> I write this while attending the Garma Festival, which is organised by
>>> the Yothu Yindi Foundation and held at Gulkula on the Gove Peninsula, in
>>> East Arnhem Land. The festival is a celebration of the art, culture and
>>> ceremony of the Yolngu people who are the traditional owners of this
>>> land.
>>>
>>> We are in the heart of one of the oldest living cultures on earth, one
>>> that stretches back thousands of years and reverberates through the
>>> heart and spirit of this festival and the land on which it is held.
>>>
>>> It is such a privilege for me, a non-indigenous Australian, to
>>> experience this. The theme for discussion at this year's festival is
>>> "Indigenous health: real solutions for a chronic problem".
>>>
>>> The forum was designed a year ago to be a celebration of some of the
>>> positive processes in indigenous health: the success of Aboriginal
>>> Community Controlled Health services in Central Australia at increasing
>>> the birth weight of Aboriginal babies to the national average, for
>>> example; or the health services in Katherine that are as well thought
>>> out as any mainstream services in Australia.
>>>
>>> Yet instead of this anticipated celebration, the overwhelming feeling is
>>> now despair and anger. Despair that a report that bravely named and
>>> respectfully described the problem of child sexual abuse is being used
>>> by the Government for an assault on fragile Aboriginal communities.
>>> Anger at the damage the intervention and associated legislation are
>>> likely to do.
>>>
>>> One Aboriginal leader said the past month had been one "of the most
>>> destructive times in our history".
>>>
>>> People are speculating on why this is happening. Is it a bid for the
>>> swinging votes in the marginal seats? Is it an attempt to wedge Kevin
>>> Rudd as the federal election looms large? Is it a cover for long-held
>>> desires to force an assimilationist agenda?
>>>
>>> Is it a Trojan horse by which to undo hard-won land rights? Is it
>>> because Clare Martin's Northern Territory Government created a vacuum,
>>> offering no strong response to the Anderson and Wild report?
>>>
>>> It could be all or none of these, but one thing I'm sure about - based
>>> on my knowledge of public health - is that the intervention stands a
>>> very good chance of being detrimental to the health of Aboriginal people
>>> and their communities.
>>>
>>> For the past two years I have been serving on the Commission on the
>>> Social Determinants of Health, which was established by the World Health
>>> Organisation and has gathered evidence from around the world about the
>>> underlying causes of disease and illness.
>>>
>>> A consistent message from the evidence is that when you rob people of
>>> control over their lives, it is uniformly bad for their health, whether
>>> they be British civil servants or Indian women living in slums.
>>>
>>> The commission's interim statement, to be published soon, will stress
>>> the importance to health of people having control over their lives and
>>> meaningful participation in decision-making processes.
>>>
>>> I assume that John Howard and Mal Brough would justify their tactics as
>>> a means to the end of providing safety for children. But what evidence
>>> is there that these and the removal of control will make children safer?
>>>
>>> The Anderson and Wild report offered a gentler way with 97
>>> recommendations designed to invest in communities, build trust by
>>> involving people in the solutions and ensuring that the healing
>>> necessary in damaged communities could happen.
>>>
>>> Their recommendations should form the basis of some kind of accord
>>> across state and federal governments and with a bipartisan approach
>>> about long-term, sustainable action plans that are developed through
>>> real and meaningful partnerships that ensure control remains with
>>> Aboriginal people.
>>>
>>> Child abuse is wrong and abhorrent. On that we all agree. But the
>>> legislation that is going to be forced through our Federal Parliament
>>> this week is equally wrong. It robs Aboriginal people of their rights
>>> and respect. It will undermine trust that is so essential to good
>>> policymaking. It assumes
>>>
>>> that Aboriginal people are the problem rather than the solution. It
>>> ignores the evidence on the central importance of control to individual
>>> and community wellbeing.
>>>
>>> Fran Baum is professor of public health at Flinders University.
>>>
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>
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