Northern Aboriginal Communities Research Articles

Explaining Low High School Attainment in Northern Aboriginal Communities: An Analysis of the Aboriginal Peoples' Surveys

Within the off-reserve Canadian Aboriginal population, high school graduation rates are about 45 percent lower in Northern communities (North) than the rest of Canada (South). Using data from the Aboriginal Peoples' Surveys for 2000 and 2005, we document that economic incentives do not appear to be important in explaining the North–South gap in graduation rates. We then consider individual-specific and schooling-related determinants of high school graduation and find that these factors can explain between 31 percent and 59 percent of the North–South gap in the probability of graduation for those who had graduated by the time of the survey. Further, much of the gap is attributable to a respondent speaking/understanding or being taught an Aboriginal language. We discuss the possible implications of these results for language and curricular programming in the North.

The Medicalization of Birth and Midwifery as Resistance

Through the medicalization of women's bodies, the credibility and traditional knowledge of midwives and healers was forcibly lost. Northern Aboriginal communities continue to be especially impacted by the medicalization of birth. In recent years, there has been a resurgence in midwifery that is framed by a feminist discourse of women's reproductive rights. Many researchers believe that women who choose midwifery are exercising a conscious choice of resistance to the medicalization of women's bodies. In this article, I offer a review of the literature on how the medicalization of birth is conceptualized in relation to women's birthing experiences in Canada.

Challenges in conducting community-driven research created by differing ways of talking and thinking about science: a researcher's perspective

Increasingly, health scientists are becoming aware that research collaborations that include community partnerships can be an effective way to broaden the scope and enhance the impact of research aimed at improving public health. Such collaborations extend the reach of academic scientists by integrating a variety of perspectives and thus strengthening the applicability of the research. Communication challenges can arise, however, when attempting to address specific research questions in these collaborations. In particular, inconsistencies can exist between scientists and community members in the use and interpretation of words and other language features, particularly when conducting research with a biomedical component. Additional challenges arise from differing perceptions of the investigative process. There may be divergent perceptions about how research questions should and can be answered, and in expectations about requirements of research institutions and research timelines. From these differences, misunderstandings can occur about how the results will ultimately impact the community. These communication issues are particularly challenging when scientists and community members are from different ethnic and linguistic backgrounds that may widen the gap between ways of talking and thinking about science, further complicating the interactions and exchanges that are essential for effective joint research efforts. Community-driven research that aims to describe the burden of disease associated with Helicobacter pylori infection is currently underway in northern Aboriginal communities located in the Yukon and Northwest Territories, Canada, with the goal of identifying effective public health strategies for reducing health risks from this infection. This research links community representatives, faculty from various disciplines at the University of Alberta, as well as territorial health care practitioners and officials. This highly collaborative work will be used to illustrate, from a researcher's perspective, some of the challenges of conducting public health research in teams comprising members with varying backgrounds. The consequences of these challenges will be outlined, and potential solutions will be offered.

Characterizing Hydro-Limnological Relationships in the Shallow Thermokarst Lakes of the Old Crow Flats, Yukon Territory

The vulnerability of arctic wetlands to a changing climate is an increasing concern of northern Aboriginal communities, parks managers, and conservation authorities because these lake-rich areas provide food and habitat for a myriad of wildlife populations. For more than a decade, researchers have recognized that both the hydrology and the ecology of lakes and ponds within regions of permafrost will be altered significantly by climatic warming (Rouse et al., 1997). Shallow thermokarst lakes, formed in lowland regions by thawing of ice-rich permafrost, are particularly susceptible to hydro-climatic change because they lack sufficient storage and depend predominantly on seasonal input waters to offset evaporation (Woo and Guan, 2006). Annual precipitation is especially important in thermokarst lake water budgets because snowmelt in spring and rainfall in the ice-free season replenish water supplies and sustain lake water levels (Boike et al., 2008; Plug et al., 2008). In northwestern Canada, research in regions of continuous permafrost has shown that thermokarst lakes experience net water losses from evaporation in warm, dry years and net water gains in cool, wet years (Labrecque et al., 2009). Changes to either the timing and quantity of snowmelt or the frequency and amount of rainfall will likely cause major shifts in lake hydrology throughout the Arctic. It is also likely that such shifts in hydrology will initiate changes in lake water chemistry and biota. However, the specific relationships between hydrological processes and limnological characteristics in Arctic freshwaters are generally underinvestigated and remain poorly understood. Integrated hydro-ecological evaluations of thermokarst lake responses to seasonal variations in hydrology (i.e., snowmelt, rainfall, and evaporation) are needed in order to better understand the overall effects of a changing hydrology on Arctic freshwater ecosystems. This knowledge will help park managers, Aboriginal governments, and conservation authorities develop the predictive capacity to anticipate and monitor future climate-driven changes in Arctic wetlands. The primary objective of my research is to investigate linkages among climate, hydrology, and limnology in thermokarst lakes of Old Crow Flats, a dynamic lake-rich landscape in northern Yukon Territory designated by the Ramsar Convention as a Wetland of International Importance (Fig. 1). Old Crow Flats is the traditional territory of the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation (VGFN) and is one of northwestern Canada’s largest wetlands within a region of continuous permafrost. Over the past few decades, the Vuntut Gwitchin have witnessed unprecedented changes in Characterizing Hydro-Limnological Relationships in the Shallow Thermokarst

Beyond the Blue and Green: The Need to Consider Aboriginal Peoples’ Relationships to Resource Development in Labor-Environment Campaigns

In this article, I argue that labor researchers in North America need to engage more thoroughly with Indigenous studies if they hope to advance social and environmental justice. First, I suggest that researchers approach Aboriginal peoples’ relationships to the environment by supporting Aboriginal rights to lands and resources. Second, and related to this point, I raise the issue of the need for Aboriginal-controlled development in northern Aboriginal communities. Finally, I draw on a case study on Inuit and union participation in the creation of the Vale Inco, Voisey’s Bay nickel mine in Labrador to discuss how the increasing prevalence of corporate-Aboriginal alliances is creating important challenges to union engagement that need to be addressed.

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Hunting for Hydrocarbons: Representations of Indigeneity in Reporting on the New Mackenzie Valley Gas Pipeline

Energy production is, without doubt, a subject of enormous economic importance and interest in North America. Consequently, energy topics are widely reported in American and Canadian news media. This article provides a comparison and analysis of Canadian and American newspaper reporting about one North American energy megaproject: the proposed Mackenzie Gas Project. The central feature of this project, if it goes ahead, will be a 1,220 kilometer natural gas pipeline to move natural gas from the sparsely populated Mackenzie River Delta of Canada's Northwest Territories to market. The Mackenzie Gas Project is currently under simultaneous regulatory review by Canada's National Energy Board (NEB) and a specially convened Joint Review Panel (JRP). The latter is charged with considering the environmental and social effects of the project for the communities along the proposed pipeline route. Because the affected communities are largely indigenous, so are five of seven members of the panel. The review process has taken longer than initially anticipated, but is expected to wrap up by the end of 2007 and result in governmental approval for the energy project. This will clear a major hurdle in the decades-long drive by energy companies to develop these natural gas reserves. The Mackenzie Gas Project story concerns a diverse set of issues, including environmental protection and regulation, economic and social health of northern indigenous communities, North American energy security, financial and commodity markets, corporate investments and profits, economic integration of the United States and Canada, international relations, and consumer issues, among others. Yet the reporting about the proposed pipeline has been framed narrowly as a struggle between the proponents and opponents of economic development. Significantly, reporters have been both puzzled by and at pains to explain to readers the positions of the several indigenous communities that appear at times to both support and oppose the development. There are two key points of this coverage. First, the indigenous communities are not recognized as part of the public and thus do not hold a interest in whether or not the pipeline is built. Rather, indigenous communities are presented as either obstructions or economic opportunists or both. Second, the economic interests of the multinational corporations that aim to build and profit from the pipeline development are rarely mentioned. I became interested in reporting about the Mackenzie Gas Project generally, and about indigenous peoples specifically, after reading feature stories in two U.S. papers: the Christian Science Monitor (Walker 2001) and the New York Times (Krauss 2003a). The focus of both stories was the supposed incongruity of aboriginal participation in the development project. In Krauss's New York Times account, northern aboriginal communities have been driven into an unholy alliance with pipeline developers as a result of animal rights campaigns by environmental activists. Using language intended to remind readers that northern indigenous peoples are hunters, Krauss describes the animal rights campaigns as snared the native populations in sanctions and labels their accusations against the environmentalists as having hit like harpoons to the soul. He completes the image of indigenous peoples as primordial hunters in a modern world with a visual metaphor, a photograph of a dog sled moving across the tundra; in the background looms an oil or gas derrick. The photo caption reads: A symbolic scene in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Their livelihoods in danger, Native Canadians are welcoming oil, gas and mining interests. Walker's Christian Science Monitor story, which is far more positive, concerns the ways that northerners are learning to work with the oil and gas industry. It, too, cannot avoid the allusion to hunting: an accompanying photograph shows an Inuk (singular of Inuit) standing beside a snowmobile. …

Local observations of climate change and impacts on traditional food security in two northern Aboriginal communities.

Objectives. Our primary objective was to record participant observations of changes in the localenvironment, harvesting situations and traditional food species and to explore what impact thesemay have on traditional food.Study Design. A participatory study with 2 northern Aboriginal communities in Canada.Methods. Focus groups were conducted in both communities. Both specific and open-endedquestions were asked, to gather information about the traditional food harvest and a qualitativeanalysis was conducted.Results. Members from both communities are witnessing variable changes in climate that areaffecting their traditional food harvest. New species and changes in migration of species beingobserved by community members have the potential to affect the consumption of traditional food.Similarly, changes in water levels in and around harvesting areas are affecting access to harvestareas, which in turn affects the traditional food harvest.Conclusions. Community members have been required to change their harvest mechanisms toadapt to changes in climate and ensure an adequate supply of traditional food. A strong commitmentto programs that will ensure the protection of traditional food systems is necessary.(Int J Circumpolar Health 2006; 65(5) 403–415).

Climate Change, Health, and Vulnerability in Canadian Northern Aboriginal Communities

BackgroundCanada has recognized that Aboriginal and northern communities in the country face unique challenges and that there is a need to expand the assessment of vulnerabilities to climate change to include these communities. Evidence suggests that Canada’s North is already experiencing significant changes in its climate—changes that are having negative impacts on the lives of Aboriginal people living in these regions. Research on climate change and health impacts in northern Canada thus far has brought together Aboriginal community members, government representatives, and researchers and is charting new territory.Methods and ResultsIn this article we review experiences from two projects that have taken a community-based dialogue approach to identifying and assessing the effects of and vulnerability to climate change and the impact on the health in two Inuit regions of the Canadian Arctic.ConclusionsThe results of the two case projects that we present argue for a multi-stakeholder, participatory framework for assessment that supports the necessary analysis, understanding, and enhancement of capabilities of local areas to respond and adapt to the health impacts at the local level.

Student Researchers Negotiating Consent in Northern Aboriginal Communities

In this article, the authors discuss what students are doing to reconcile the differences between institutional ethical review standards and the reality of community-based, qualitative research, particularly in northern Canada. They examine the experiences of 12 students who are currently undertaking or have recently completed qualitative research in the North. Students raised concerns about what informed consent really mean; the contentiousness of obtaining written consent, and modified consent forms and the flexibility of research ethics board (REB) standards. The authors demonstrate that significant judgment is required in the introduction of ethics procedures in northern Canadian research. More work is needed to guide novice researchers and help build their agency for making ethical judgments in the field.

Performance comparison of a pilot-scale membrane bioreactor and a full-scale sequencing batch reactor with sand filtration: treatment of low strength wastewater from a northern Canadian Aboriginal Community

Northern Aboriginal communities in Canada suffer from poor wastewater treatment. Treatment systems on 75% of Manitoban Aboriginal communities produce substandard effluent despite the presence of sophisticated treatment systems. A 200-litre, pilot-scale membrane bioreactor (MBR) was established on the Opaskwayak Cree Nation to investigate the feasibility of MBRs in mitigating Aboriginal wastewater treatment issues. The pilot system was remote controlled and monitored via the Internet using the program pcAnywhere. The community utilized two existing sequencing batch reactors (SBR) and three sand filters for wastewater treatment. The community wastewater was relatively weak and highly fluctuating which led to poorly settling sludge that readily fouled the sand filters. A comparison study between the MBR and SBR was undertaken from September to December 2003. Operated at a 10-hour hydraulic retention time and 20-day solids residence time, the MBR outperformed the SBR and sand filtration on BOD and suspended solids removal. Furthermore, the MBR showed high levels of nitrification despite relatively cold water temperatures.

How clients choises influence cancer care in northern Aboriginal communities

Objectives. To illustrate how personal choice, or client self-reliance, is a determining factor in the management of cancer patients’ care in northern Aboriginal communities. Study design. Multiple-site study done in the northwestern part of the Canadian Province of Ontario. Method. In-depth interviews with professionals and paraprofessionals involved in community-based delivery of cancer care. Results. Study details how perceived care options, gender, awareness of disease and treatment, reaction to system-linked problems in care delivery, as well as cultural preferences influence clients’ choices and care outcomes. Conclusion. The study underlines the interdependence between personal choice and the health care system; “bad” experiences with the system cause clients to disengage from care, while client disengagement results in reduced care options.

Addressing the realties of health care in northern aboriginal communities through participatory action research

To address concerns about disruptions in the continuity of health care delivered to residents in three remote aboriginal communities in northern Ontario, Canada, the local health authority initiated a study in collaboration with the department of Health Canada responsible for ensuring that aboriginal reserves receive mandatory health services, and an inter-disciplinary team of researchers from two universities. The study focussed on the delivery of oncology, diabetes and mental health care, specifically, as well as systems issues such as recruitment and retention of health human resources and financial costs. The paper discusses the procedures involved, the benefits derived and the challenges encountered in doing this as a community driven participatory action research project. It also summarizes the findings that led to community formulated policy and program recommendations.

Calibration of Hunters' Impressions with Female Caribou Body Condition Indices to Predict Probability of Pregnancy

Aboriginal harvests of barren-ground caribou (Rangifer tarandus) potentially offer a large sample for assessing body condition. The purpose of this study was to determine the probability that a certain amount of fat would be at designated anatomical sites when Dënesóline hunters qualitatively report the condition of an animal. Hunters' impressions were used to evaluate the condition of adult female barren-ground caribou (R. t. groenlandicus) in late winter. A semi-objective body condition index (BCI) was developed using fat indices described by biologists as useful for measuring caribou body condition. Fat deposits from 217 adult female caribou harvested in late winter (41 in 2000 and 176 in 2001) were used to calibrate hunters' impressions with BCI estimates. Variation in hunters' impressions and BCI estimates indicated that adult female caribou were fatter in 2000 than in 2001. Multinomial log-linear models indicated that hunters' impressions were related to each of the variables that make up BCI. The probability of pregnancy was significantly related to both BCI and hunters' impressions in 2000 and in 2001. Both models indicated that fat adult female caribou had a greater probability of being pregnant than thin cows. Monitoring of barren-ground caribou body condition provides common ground for northern aboriginal communities and government biologists to collaboratively manage a wildlife resource.

THE HOUSEHOLD AS AN ECONOMIC UNIT IN ARCTIC ABORIGINAL COMMUNITIES, AND ITS MEASUREMENT BY MEANS OF A COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY

Northern aboriginal communities are widely recognized as having mixed, subsistence-based economies. The chief characteristic of this economy, aside from the contribution of subsistence harvesting and related activities to household well-being, is that the household operates as a "micro-enterprise" that is the basic unit of production as well as consumption. This economic form has persisted into the present day, contrary to the predictions of many social scientists and policy-makers. This paper outlines a model of the household in mixed, subsistence-based economies, and describes its characteristics and activ- ities. While the discussion focuses on northern Canada, the model is thought to apply generally in the circumpolar North. Quantitative measurement of northern aboriginal household characteristics and activities has been limited, however, because national and regional data collection systems are not designed specifically to capture these phenomena. The model is therefore based primarily on the results of in-depth case studies, and the systematic measurement of subsistence harvest- ing. This paper describes the development, for the first time, of a questionnaire specifically designed to document quantitatively the key characteristics of the household economy as part of a comprehensive survey of living conditions in the circumpolar Arctic.

Realizing potential: improving interdisciplinary professional/paraprofessional health care teams in Canada's northern aboriginal communities through education

To address a shortage of health professional human resources and to overcome cultural barriers, the interdisciplinary health care teams practicing in most northern Canadian aboriginal communities include a number of paraprofessionals recruited locally. This model has great potential to fill service gaps in many rural contexts; there are challenges, however. Drawing from an extensive program of research in indigenous communities in the northwestern part of the Province of Ontario, we identify factors fundamental to effective team functioning: members' clarity about their own and others' roles, appreciation of their respective 'equal but different' knowledge bases, and confidence in one another's competence. We argue for an extension of the information on interdisciplinary practice included in health science education programs to address these issues, thereby enhancing the utility of paraprofessionals within the health human resource mix in rural areas.

Book Reviews: Northern Aboriginal Communities: Economies and Development by Peter Douglas Elias (North York: Captus University Publications)

Book Reviews: Northern Aboriginal Communities: Economies and Development by Peter Douglas Elias (North York: Captus University Publications)

Northern Aboriginal Communities: Economies and Development, edited by Peter Douglas Elias

Northern Aboriginal Communities: Economies and Development, edited by Peter Douglas Elias