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From CBC News ...

Arctic survey looks at aboriginal well-being
Last Updated: Friday, March 23, 2007 - CBC News

Indigenous people across the Arctic feel their well-being is linked to balancing hunting and fishing with wage-earning jobs, as well as having more control over local decision-making, according to a circumpolar survey of more than 7,000 people.

The $9-million Survey of Living Conditions in the Arctic, produced by the Arctic Council, was a collaboration involving researchers, the Inuit of northern Canada and indigenous peoples in Greenland, Alaska and Chutkotka, Russia.

The results showed indigenous people across the Arctic share common experiences such as being sent to boarding schools and being prevented from using their native languages — experiences that have led to common social problems, project lead Birger Poppel of Greenland said Thursday.

"They define suicide, alcohol problems, drug problems, domestic violence as major problems," he said. "There's a general agreement across borders."

At the same time, survey respondents said that the more involved they feel in decisions affecting their communities, the more satisfied they are overall with life. In Canada, social ties with informal support among Inuit are generally very strong, the report found.

"Some of the striking findings though were a sense of local control was very strongly related to satisfaction with your life as a whole," said Jack Kruse, a researcher with the Institute of Social and Economic Research in Anchorage, Alaska.

"There were variations in that sense of local control across the north; in Alaska it was particularly higher, which was surprising."

Kruse also found people's well-being is strongly related to how they can balance subsistence activity such as hunting and fishing with wage-earning jobs.

"We found a strong relationship between levels of subsistence activity and overall satisfaction with life," he said. "You could imagine then that efforts to improve traditional education could pay off in the long run with satisfaction and less depression and less suicide."

The survey found that the Inupiat respondents on the north slope of Alaska had the highest sense of control over their affairs, using revenues from oil development to create jobs in the area.

By contrast, health, employment and other living conditions were much poorer in Chukotka, Russia, than in the rest of the Arctic. Respondents there reported very low satisfaction levels.

Kruse said the team hopes to complete the survey with the Saami peoples in parts of Scandinavia next year. In the meantime, the Arctic Council will use the current survey results to look at sustainable development in the North. Indigenous groups can also use the results to form policies.

• Click here for the Survey website
   
• Click here for a PDF of the Survey Overview

From the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples web site ...

The Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples has the honour to table its SIXTH REPORT

Your Committee, which was authorized by the Senate on Tuesday, May 9, 2006, to examine and report on the involvement of Aboriginal communities and businesses in economic development activities in Canada, now tables its final report entitled Sharing Canada’s Prosperity – A Hand Up, Not A Handout.

Click here for a PDF copy of the report

Respectfully submitted,

Original signed by

GERRY ST. GERMAIN, P.C.
Chair

From CBC News ...

Business key to aboriginal success: report
Last Updated: Thursday, March 22, 2007- CBC News

Aboriginal communities must establish successful economies if they ever hope to conquer poverty and social problems, according to new report by a Senate committee — but they'll need a lot of help to make that happen.

Members of the standing Senate committee on aboriginal peoples were in Winnipeg Thursday to promote the committee's new report, tabled Tuesday.

The report, entitled Sharing Canada's Prosperity — A Hand Up, Not a Hand Out, calls for changes to the Indian Act and increased government support for aboriginal business development.

The committee spent more than two years examining what helps First Nations achieve business success in Ontario, the Prairie provinces, British Columbia, northern Ontario, Nova Scotia and Quebec.

In dozens of communities, the committee found "involvement in economic development activities has done more to change the lives of aboriginal people in the last decade than any number of government programs," the report said.

Manitoba-born senator Gerry St. Germain said a huge roadblock for First Nations that want to go into business is the snail's pace at which governments are settling land claims.

"I've worked with … some various chiefs here in Manitoba, and I know if these treaty land entitlements, additions to reserves and specific claims are resolved, they will have economic generators in their community that would create tremendous opportunities for their people," he said.

Business a relatively new concept

Nick Sibbeston, the committee's deputy chair, said the committee acknowledged that building strong economies on First Nations can be difficult, especially on remote reserves,"where there's apathy, where people are simply not organized and in a position to do business."

"Business requires a higher level of commitment and organization. I would have to say that in some of the bigger centres, they are more apt to have had this training and business culture."

Canadians may not realize how new business is to First Nations, he said.

"I can speak mostly from the North, because we just come from a cultural background of hunting and trapping, the last 30, 40, 50 years, and that was a simpler way of making a living," said Sibbeston, an aboriginal senator from the Northwest Territories.

"When you enter the business world, it's more complicated and it's different. You really need to be organized, work at the speed of businesses and so forth. It takes some time to acquire that."

Governments need to create more educational and financial support for aboriginal businesses, the committee recommends.

The report also calls for a radical overhaul to the Indian Act, especially where land ownership is concerned, saying that because of the act, "market forces do not operate properly on Indian lands," deterring or raising the cost of doing business on reserves.