As an Aboriginal woman proud of her heritage and mindful of the social ills affecting all aspects of indigenous life I ask a simple question, "What has to happen?" What has to happen so that true and lasting health and wellness return to Aboriginal communities across all of Canada? To whom does the burden fall?

Do Aboriginal people turn to the Canadian government and ask, "Show us a way out of our crisis and lead us to prosperity and health?" Do we discuss our problems with the average Canadian tax payer and bid them to fix it for us? Do we inform our newly arrived neighbours, fleeing from depressed economic conditions in their own countries, of our plight and enlist their aid in overcoming our own current depressed situation?

"What has to happen?"

As I see it, our only hope is to look to ourselves.
As difficult as it is to admit, change must come from within. WE, and we alone, must decide we’ve had enough of living in poverty, enough of being homeless and jobless, enough of family violence, enough of illness and death – ENOUGH!

Making this decision is going to be tough though, there is no doubt about that. When we decide we won’t be physically abused anymore that might mean leaving an unhealthy long term relationship. When we decide to get out from under poverty, that might mean making some sacrifices and challenging ourselves to achieve higher education. Achieving wellness in our communities may require us to vote and participate in local (reserve, settlement, town), provincial and federal elections; after all leadership is there it help us achieve our dreams. Doing things we’ve never done before requires courage and a strong will. We need to keep pushing forward even if we fail or get doors slammed in our faces.

And above all we need to believe WE ARE WORTH IT! We are worth it, our children are worth it and our children’s children are worth it. We deserve to enjoy good health and prosperity. Where is it written that we can’t have money in the bank and a good vehicle in our driveway? Where is it written that if we achieve a measure of wealth and success it means we are selfish and don’t have traditional values? Traditionally speaking our Elders tell us that our whole lives were lived with the Creator in mind. That everything we had and the way we conducted ourselves was to be "the finest". The Creator was happy to see us healthy and well, with lots of good food and warm good quality clothes and bedding. We were NOT put on Mother Earth to suffer.

So we need to give ourselves permission to strive for more and live well. This doesn’t have to happen at the expense of others, we are a culture of sharing and compassion and nothing about that needs to change. Share our teachings of culture, but also share our teachings of wealth and health and maybe in time we can look at our lives and the lives of our people and see more joy and health than grief and death.

All My Relations.