And one of the reasons a lot of people, and this my fourth reason a lot of people get interested in the courses I teach here, is they want to uphold social justice. And, any quick scan of the aboriginal over-representation in rates of suicide, incarceration, the education gap moves them to want to see change. And it, it wouldn't it, it's not that it matters that it's aboriginal people there, but that is, that is the case here in Canada. So they, that is why they want to do this work. So it is just to help the ones who are left furthest behind. And so when you look at the at how where aboriginal people stand in Canada. If you took just the, the status Indian population, and you'd compare that population on the UN Global Index, we're talking about developing world kind of statistics and living conditions. And that certainly moves a lot of people. A lot of people kind of note that Canada's recognized internationally as a strong protector of human rights. And yet, their track record with aboriginal peoples within their borders is not so great. They're one, Canada's one of the last countries to sign the United Nations declaration. And the rights of indiginous people. So just this past fall 2012, the U.N. Committee on the rights of the child finished a ten year review of how Canada treats its children. And the committee repeatedly expressed concern that aboriginal children are dramatically over-represented in the criminal justice system. And this particular stat really shocks me every time. Aboriginal youth are more likely to be jailed than graduate from highschool. And for aboriginal people in Canada, life expectancy is lower. It's about 5 to 7 years lower for First Nations. Among the Inuit it's almost 15 years lower than the national average for Canadians. And suicide rates among First Nations people. Are five times higher than the general population. If you go to the far north, among the Inuit, suicide rates are 11 times higher. Housing is a, a critical issue in first nations communities. Homes on reserve have been found more often to be flimsy poorly constructed, leaky, overcrowded and that has really quite a lot of implications for the health of the people living there. In 2006 50% of the on reserved first nations population between the ages of 25 and 64. Did not complete high school. And that's compared with 15%, for Canadians. So there's an education gap. By the way 2006 is the year we have the most current statistics for right now. I just also want to point out that the median income for aboriginal people 2, in 2006 was 30% lower than for the rest of Canada. Speaking further about health conditions, you know, almost 40% of first nations water systems are at high risk of being unsafe. There's boil water advisories in over 116 First Nations communities. And, an important thing to remember about this particular stat is that's not even including all the communities where they don't even have running water or access to water service. So, sanitation of course effected by this. Want to talk about food security. In the far Norths, nearly 70% of Inuit preschoolers live in households rated as food insecure. And there's a study done in BC and they found 41% of households experience food insecurity. Think it was something like 7% of those were severe. Okay, and the rest were moderate. And a quarter of households with children are affected by it, food insecurity in BC. So, in a, in a, in a country as wealthy as Canada. How is it that people cannot get access to food, affordable food, and nutritious food? Coming back to the education gap. 34 % of the average population does not have a high school leaving certificate and when we look at you know, it has been increasing. Average normal people with post secondary degrees has been increasing over time. But still, less than 10% have a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to 22% of non-aboriginal Canadians. I think it's something like only 3% of aboriginal people have a, a master's degree. The auditor general's report in 2004 found that it would take 28 years for First Nations on reserves to reach educational parity with non-aboriginal Canadians. So there's a lot of work to be done if we are to increase the health and education standards for aboriginal people. And, and so these are all reasons why we have to understand aboriginal world views. Because if we're going to make the policy changes to health and education to bring parity to the experiences of first nations, we have to understand how to do it on their terms. We have to understand what works in communities. How to engage with the communities. How to include them in the development. Questions that matter to them. Okay? And so, to do that requires an understanding of the world views. So just to sum up. 4 reasons why aboriginal world views matter, now, is that Canada's future potential demands on aboriginal people. For all those demographic reasons. Our future survival on this planet matters. Indigenous knowledge matters to understanding how to address the, these issues. Education and policy development are incomplete without an understanding of indigenous knowledge, world views and issues. And to uphold social justice. Understanding the realities of our aboriginal people and their world views is necessary.
