By Rick Harp, on September 3, 2010  Some recent tweets by RezSuperstar and YorkAboriginalU have alerted me to a disturbing, decade-long trend in federal support for First Nations students.
According to the Chiefs of Ontario‘s Summer 2009 newsletter, an internal Indian and Northern Affairs Canada audit published last spring reveals a less-than-rosy picture regarding the number of Status Indians attending post-secondary (i.e., university and college) institutions in Canada.
If you’re a believer in the power of education to lift people out of poverty, the results show the trend is headed in entirely the wrong direction: “[INAC officials] admitted that there has been a decrease of First Nations post-secondary students from 30,000 down to 23,000 over the past decade [1999-2009].”
That’s a drop of 23 per cent — or nearly one out of every four students. COO says the audit was released on March 15, 2009, and claims it shows that
INAC’s management of the program has serious flaws: INAC officials are unable to report on the effectiveness of the program, have not reviewed the sufficiency and appropriateness of funding levels and have not established a performance management framework to track outcomes based on accurate data.
Now, is this the very same INAC that has just, reports the Globe and Mail, “quietly ordered a study of Canada’s most economically successful First Nations”? Given its handling of the education file, one has to ask: is the Department even qualified to mount such a study?
But here’s the truly sad part about this serious dip in First Nations student enrolment: it comes at a time of serious growth in the First Nations youth (aged 18-25) population, which means that the shortfall is that much more pronounced.
How much of a shortfall? Here’s my best math, based on Statistics Canada data, over the period of 1996-2006 (benchmarks tied to its Census cycles). In 1996, there were 98,730 people aged 18-25 of ‘North American Indian’ descent, the rough equivalent of Status Indians. By 2006, that number grew to 124,835 — a difference of 26,105 or 26%.
So, as the number of potential students swelled by 26%, the number of actual students plunged by 23%. It would obviously be better to compare the exact same time-frame, but something tells me the funding demand-supply gap might prove even worse.
An ever-shrinking pot of education dollars for an ever-growing number of First Nations youth: what’s wrong with this picture? Oddly enough, as politicians speak of the need for more prisons, and pundits warn of Aboriginal gangs on the rise, none of them connects the damn dots.
By Tim Fontaine, on September 2, 2010  Remember when I said that, beginning Sept. 1, the province of Ontario was going to be honouring point-of-sale tax exemptions for its (8%) portion of the 13% Harmonized Sales Tax (HST)? Well, it seems some retailers didn’t get the message.
While shopping today, I flashed my trusty Secure Certificate of Indian Status at both Walmart and Home Depot and was denied the 8% exemption at both places.
At Walmart, the clerk told me she wasn’t sure that they were going to be giving the exemption, while at Home Depot I was told politely to hang on to my receipt since their system hadn’t yet been updated to give the exemption.
Turns out I’m not alone. Wawatay News is reporting that many other First Nations people in Ontario are being forced to pay the full HST by retailers.
According to the article, Anishinabek Nation Grand Council Chief Patrick Madahbee has a message for those retailers:
“That was part of the deal we negotiated with Ontario: they accepted responsibility for ensuring that all businesses in the province complied with their tax regime. We showed Ontario that we were prepared to take to the streets to fight for our rights. We are also prepared to fight for our rights in stores and malls, if necessary.”
[ Image via HSTpetition.com ]
By Rick Harp, on September 2, 2010  Missed this Tuesday’s mediaINDIGENA segment on STREETZ 104.7 FM? Have no fear!
Thanks to the magic of digital recording, you can catch Rick Harp and THE WORD host Lady V here on mediaINDIGENA. Listen as they discuss two pieces of global Aboriginal political history, plus, how controversial comments by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg reveal anti-Indian sentiment is all-too-alive and a little-too-well in the U.S..
MI on STREETZ: Aug. 31, 2010
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
[ image via athensmusicjunkie.com ]
By Guest Contributor, on August 30, 2010
 The following guest contribution is but the latest in a series of back-and-forth posts first inspired by mediaINDIGENA‘s Niigonwedom Sinclair and his review of Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry: The Deception Behind Indigenous Cultural Preservation.
The review prompted a rebuttal by one of Disrobing‘s co-authors, Dr. Frances Widdowson. In her piece, Widdowson criticized Sinclair’s citation of Charles C. Mann’s 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. Mann subsequently responded. What follows here constitutes the first of Widdowson’s two-part counter-response to Mann. (Note: footnotes may be found at the conclusion of this post.)
 In my response to Niigonwedom Sinclair’s review of Disrobing, I questioned Sinclair’s use of Charles C. Mann’s 1491 as a source. My discussion of Mann, unfortunately, was not based on an in-depth examination of his work, or the evidence that Mann used to support his assertions. There is also an error in my statement that “Mann’s speculations with respect to Cahokia are exclusively based on the existence of large mounds of earth.” The word “exclusively” is too categorical a term, and “largely” would have been a better description. Finally, my poetic reference to Mann’s “flights of imagination” was not meant to imply that Mann “made this stuff up.” As will be discussed in further detail below, it refers to Mann’s tendency to “sew a shirt on a button” – that is, to make highly speculative and improbable claims on the basis of very scant archaeological evidence.
continued…
By Tim Fontaine, on August 29, 2010  Quick update to Rick’s post:
Ken Wyatt has been elected to Australia’s House of Representatives, making him the first indigenous MP in that country’s history.
But ABC Australia is reporting that Wyatt has been receiving hate mail, something the Aboriginal politician dismissed.
“Let’s move on from that — what’s more important is the way in which we move Australia forward and the thinking that we have and the society that we build on.”
Let’s hope the people of Australia agree.
POST-SCRIPT: It may be more accurate to say that Wyatt is actually the third Aboriginal person to become a member of Australia’s Parliament. Both the late Neville Bonner and Aden Ridgeway were previously elected to Australia’s Upper House, the Senate. However, Wyatt’s election marks the first time in history any Aboriginal person has been voted in to the Lower House, aka Australia’s House of Representatives, an achievement still very much worth noting.
[Image via ABC Australia]
By Rick Harp, on August 27, 2010 Aboriginal people are exploring new territory politically, in this case within the mainstream, and on different sides of the planet.
 Wyatt In Australia, Ken Wyatt is “all but assured” of making history as the country’s first-ever Indigenous Lower House Member of Parliament. The recent federal election remains too close to call officially, but Australian media feel increasingly confident that Wyatt will win.
The Liberal party politico, who’s on the verge of claiming the metropolitan seat of Hasluck in the state of Western Australia, is a “respected Aboriginal health expert,” reports Perth Now. He is on record as advocating for “guaranteed parliamentary seats for Aborigin[al people].” And in an election that’s produced a razor-thin minority for whomever forms government, every MP will have some clout to wield.
 Jackson Jr. Meanwhile, on the North American continent, Jack Jackson, Jr., was just elected to the Arizona State Senate as a member of the Democratic Party.
As his bio reveals, the openly-gay member of the Navajo Nation is no stranger to politics: he formerly served as a Representative to the Arizona State House. Refreshingly, a cursory search of media coverage on the Internet came up with nary a piece of controversy over Jackson Jr.’s sexual orientation. Which is as it should be.
Congrats to both men for their historic achievements.
[ Wyatt image via hasluckelection.blogspot.com ; Jackson Jr. via blogout.justout.com ]
By Tim Fontaine, on August 26, 2010  Photo by Mark Kenney, Postmedia News Not sure why I’m so tickled by this, but during a recent arctic tour Canada’s Prime Minister reportedly got down to some local drumming in Inuvik, NWT. And I’m pretty sure that’s newly appointed Minister of Indian & Northern Affairs John Duncan right beside him.
If anyone has video of this pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease send it our way. We’d love to see if Harper dances as well as he sings.
UPDATE: Behold! Prime Minister Stephen Harper in all his dancing gl0ry!
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Some recent tweets by RezSuperstar and YorkAboriginalU have alerted me to a disturbing, decade-long trend in federal support for First Nations students.
