North-South Partnership for Children

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Mamow Sha-way-gi-kay-win/ The North-South Partnership for Children is building a network of caring relationships to improve life for children, youth and families in remote First Nation communities.

More about the Communities

Journey to Strength and Healing
In spite of the oppression they have faced, many First Nations people remain resilient. Today they are reclaiming their inherent rights and finding ways to regain their strength. Agreeing to form the Partnership has been one step on the healing journey.

In early 2007, the two communities, Webequie First Nation and Mishkeegogamang Ojibway Nation, worked with Partnership assessment teams to identify urgent needs and ways to address them.

The results are in Webequie First Nation Assessment (10.3 MB) and Mishkeegogamang Ojibway Nation Assessment (9.9 MB) and the Executive Summary in English (.12 MB) and Ojibway (.07 MB). In the fall of 2007, the Partnership plans on working with more communities to conduct self assessments.

Conditions in Remote First Nations Communities
The cumulative effect of oppression and despair have resulted in

	Desperate poverty: low income and lack of employment
	High costs of living: Groceries cost 2-3 times those in southern Ontario.
	Substandard housing: Overcrowding. Needs for major repairs. Mould problems.
	Deficient infrastructure: Inadequate electricity facilities, 19 communities without safe water, few recreation facilities (much needed in the long winters)
	Education needs: 3 communities have no schools, general academic levels 3-4 grades below provincial average
	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

	Loss of land and of resources and sources of income because of the Treaties.
	Canadians' failure to keep their Treaty obligations and responsibilities
	Assimilation policies intended to strip Aboriginal people of their identity and way of life
	Life in residential schools with their poor education, loss of language and culture, forced separation from family home, and abuse.
	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.
	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.

The North-South Partnership for Children gratefully acknowledges financial support
from the Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services and
the Ontario Centre of Excellence for Children's Mental Health
at CHEO (Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario).

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