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More about the Communities
Conditions in Remote
First Nations Communities
The cumulative effect of oppression and despair have resulted in
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Desperate poverty: low
income and lack of employment |
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High costs of living:
Groceries cost 2-3 times those in southern Ontario. |
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Substandard housing:
Overcrowding. Needs for major repairs. Mould problems. |
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Deficient infrastructure:
Inadequate electricity facilities, 19 communities without
safe water, few recreation facilities (much needed in the
long winters) |
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Education needs: 3 communities
have no schools, general academic levels 3-4 grades below
provincial average |
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Lack of community services:
Few or no early childhood programs, children's treatment and
developmental services, childcare or parenting education and
support, food banks, women's shelters, health and dental care,
sports and recreation programs. |
Trail to Despair
For centuries, First Nations people in northwestern Ontario were
strong Nations sustained by their traditions and values. Until
the early 1900s, the First Nations in northwestern Ontario had
"unlimited access to resourses that provided [them] with
good health and strong families," said the writers of the
Webequie
First Nation Assessment.
Then European immigrants enforced destructive
changes. Among the measures that undermined community health were
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Loss of land and of
resources and sources of income because of the Treaties. |
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Canadians' failure to
keep their Treaty obligations and responsibilities |
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Assimilation policies
intended to strip Aboriginal people of their identity and
way of life |
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Life in residential
schools with their poor education, loss of language and culture,
forced separation from family home, and abuse. |
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Theft of children in
"sixties scoop" when non-Native Children's Aid Societies
took children from their families in the name of protecting
them. More children were lost than in the residential school
situation. |
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Inter-generational trauma,
loss of parenting skills, disintegration of families, loss
of self-respect. |
Information on the Northern
Partners
For information on individual communities, see the list below
and also see the INAC
site Welcome to First Nation Profiles.
More information will be available on the First Nation communities,
after the self assessments are completed.
Bearskin First Nation (See Contacts, Nishnawbe
Aski Nation)
Cat Lake First Nation (See Contacts, Nishnawbe
Aski Nation)
Deer
Lake First Nation
Eabametoong
First Nation
Fort
Severn First Nation
Kasabonika
Lake First Nation
Keewaytinook Okimakanak
Keewaywin
First Nation
Kingfisher
Lake First Nation
Kitchenuhmaykoosib
Inninuwug
Koocheching First Nation (See Contacts, Nishnawbe
Aski Nation)
Lac Seul
First Nation
MacDowell Lake First Nation (See Contacts, Nishnawbe
Aski Nation)
Marten Falls First Nation (See Contacts, Nishnawbe
Aski Nation)
Mishkeegogamang First Nation (See Contacts, Nishnawbe
Aski Nation)
Muskrat Dam First Nations (See Contacts, Nishnawbe
Aski Nation)
Neskantaga First Nation (See Contacts, Nishnawbe
Aski Nation)
North
Spirit Lake First Nation
Pikangikum
First Nation
Poplar
Hill First Nation
Sandy
Lake First Nation
Slate
Falls First Nation
Wapekeka First
Nation
Wawakapewin
First Nation
Weagamow First Nation (Also North Caribou First Nation. See Contacts,
Nishnawbe
Aski Nation)
Webequie First
Nation
Wunnumin Lake
First Nation
Tikinagan Child and Family Services is also a northern partner.
Info@tikinagan.org.
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