When we hear the word homeless, we often conjure up images of the men, women and youth that make the streets, surrounding forests or back allies their home. As humans, we may hold judgements, biases or our own theories of why people are homeless. Some may see homelessness as a ‘choice’ where individuals choose the streets to call home. Some may relate it to the housing or opiate crisis. Whatever the viewpoints, we all respond to the homelessness crisis in our own way. We may find ourselves volunteering our time or donating to shelters, we may turn our heads and not want to see, or we may find ourselves giving money or food to those in need.
My stepfather was a red seal chef. He led a vibrant life, and, in his career, he catered for the Premier and was also awarded a key to the city for his work with the homeless at the local soup kitchen. One day, my father was riding his bike and had an accident. He hit his head and was unconscious when he arrived at the hospital. Sadly, my dad did not know he had aneurisms. Due to the accident, one of his aneurisms burst and with the cranial damage, my father was left with a brain injury. Most of his frontal lobe had to be removed and as a result my dad no longer had short term memory amongst other cognitive impairments.
Within a few years, my father went from a strong independent man to a man pushing a shopping cart homeless on the street. We did our best to keep him home, but due to his brain injury he continuously found himself on the street or in a shelter. After many years of advocating, we were fortunate to secure our him into a housing unit for people like my father. Finally, there was hope. Then COVID hit.
My father eventually died alone in a room by himself. After an autopsy, the coroner listed cause of death due to COVID.
My father’s story is not unique to Indigenous men and women. Men and women who find themselves battling mental health issues and turn to the streets without any specialized services to support them. The 2023 Report on Homeless Counts identified that 40% of those who reported homelessness identified as Indigenous despite only being 6% of the population. This number has climbed to over 80% in some Northern communities.
My question to you the reader, is why are so many of our Indigenous people homeless when this is the very land they originally inhabited?
Pre contact our Indigenous people population for North America was about 115 million. Today North America’s population is about 380 million. Indigenous Nations made up roughly one third of today’s population pre contact. As Nations we had thriving societies. We had our own governance and social structures that supported our Indigenous ways of being and knowing and our economies. Extensive trade routes supported us as a people to ensure we continued to grow and prosper. We had Nation to Nation treaties that ensured peace and equity amongst the people. Yes, there was war, but it never decimated our people and not one Nation dominated.
The following quotes shed light on the mentality that led to the Canadian Government ensuring that our very way of life was destroyed.
“I want to get rid of the Indian problem . . .Our objective is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic and there is no Indian question and no Indian Department” Duncan Campbell Scott
“When the school is on the reserve, the child lives with its parents, who are savages, and though he may learn to read and write, his habits and training mode of thought are Indian. He is simply a savage who can read and write. It has been strongly impressed upon myself, as head of the Department, that Indian children should be withdrawn as much as possible from the parental influence, and the only way to do that would be to put them in central training industrial schools where they will acquire the habits and modes of thought of white men.” John A McDonald
With the introduction of the reserve systems and the Indian Act, our people were placed on small tracts of lands, often removed from their traditional resources for survival while settlers were being granted 160 acres of ‘free’ land each. Reserve lands were often not fit for agricultural use and were not environmentally sound for healthy living conditions, for example flood plains or swamp lands were chosen or areas so far removed from natural resources. Hunting and fishing were banned and instead food rations were given on the reserves. In fact, our people would be fined for pouching if they attempted to practice their inherent rights. Our people were also subjugated to the ‘Pass System’ where no one was allowed to leave the reservation without the approval from the Indian Agents or police who enforced the Indian Act. This system also made it illegal for Indigenous people to gather in large groups. Another oppressive tactic was the ‘Permit System’ where our people had to have permits issued to purchase items, sell produce grown or wood chopped. Basically, our people became wards of the government.
Today, the legacy of the Indian Act continues to plague our people who still reside on reserved lands with limited governing power, while their unceded territories home settlers and the services that are multi barriered or do not support us as Indigenous people. Band Council systems that were forced upon our people that only serve Government issues, continue to hold the power as our traditional hereditary systems are either nonexistent or are seemingly not prioritized. Without adequate land to sustain us, the housing shortage and crises continue within our Nation. Without proper housing, our people are forced into overcrowded living conditions and poverty with detrimental social impacts. When I relocated to the Quw’utsun territories I inquired about a home within their Nation, I was told that waitlist had over 20,000 people on it and that recently after 20 years, someone was finally awarded a home! This is not uncommon for the rest of the Nations within the Province.
Due to the historical trauma of our people including the 149 years of residential schools and the continuous removal of our children starting with the Scoop of the 60’s, many of our people have turned to alcohol and drugs and other addictions to cope. Sadly, chronic underfunding has left our people without any means to heal with the lack of treatment centers and the waitlists for entry and horrendous fees for private clinics.
My people are homeless due to the graves that were dug for them when the settlers arrived. Their lives forever changed by the prescribed genocide that continues today.
When I see a homeless Indigenous man, I see his life if it had been unscathed by the Canadian Government. I see him in his regalia, sober, proud, wearing a headdress that one day he would have worn to be a Chief for his people. When I see a homeless Indigenous woman, I see her robbed from being the Matriarch she deserved to be. Wearing her beautiful regalia, skin glowing and healthy, eyes bright and vibrant. A strong woman who was meant to lead her community with her wisdom and teachings.
Instead of donating my time to the band aid solutions of welfare, soup kitchens, and shelters of our current society, I choose to fight every day to be a proud Indigenous Nisga’a woman. I fight to educate our world on the injustices of our people by sharing our truth. I build bridges between our people and the settlers to ensure that we have opportunities to heal together and do not repeat the mistakes of the past. If we can all do our part, like throwing a small pebble into the water, we can create ripples that can continue to grow and impact our future in meaningful healing ways.
Additional read:
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/here-is-what-sir-john-a-macdonald-did-to-indigenous-people