preview

Aboriginal People In Aboriginal People

Decent Essays

Aboriginal people, often known as Indigenous people, refers to the original people of North America and their descendants, including First Nations, Inuit, and Métis. Data showed that 4.3% of Canada’s population is represented by Aboriginal people, which increased by 20.1% between the 2006 and 2011 (Statistics Canada, 2011). Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia had the largest numbers of Aboriginal people (Statistics Canada, 2011). The median after-tax income for Aboriginal people aged 15 years and older in 2010 was $20,060 (Statistics Canada, 2015). In a 2014 Canadian income survey conducted by the Government of Canada (2016), 8.8% of Canadians were below the low-income cut-offs and were living in poverty, 18.7% of Canadians were Indigenous people on living on a reserve. It is important for sociologists and health care professionals to be aware of the income issues of Aboriginal people in Canada to better understand the social context and health issues that aboriginal people face daily.
A large number of Aboriginal Canadians struggle with diabetes. According to Gionet and Roshananfshar (2013), four-percent of Métis, two-percent of Inuits, and six-percent of First Nations living off reserve are living with diabetes in Canada. Diabetes affects the body’s production of the hormone, insulin, that works to regulate the amount of glucose in the body (Canadian Institutes of Health Information 2015). Without the proper treatment, diabetes can lead to heart

Get Access