Aboriginal Social Environment

This subject is very broad and includes the understanding of past, present and future of the Aboriginal people and their families. In particular, it is essential to lay stress upon how the history has been affecting peoples ' lives from past to present and will also affect our future. This essay will demonstrates that how the health professionals have work together and been involved with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as well as how our communities will respond to these connections.

The determinants of health are economic and social conditions that affect people’s health status. These influence the living and working conditions that impacts people’s everyday living condition. Factors such as the place and the environment we live in, genetics, educational level or work status and income, as well as friends and family are some of the aspects that affects our health condition. On the other hand, the people that have an access to good health care and have financial stability are less susceptible and are often less affected. (NANB, 2009)

As Beard recognizes, "Native peoples often serve as reminders of a place, an occasion, or, most often a mythic past, and they are expected to perform that identity in the present" (494), what this quote speaks to is a kind of conspicuous performance, a social construction of Aboriginal peoples that pivots around a variety of stereotypes and systemic racism. Writing from the position of a pre-service secondary English language arts (ELA) teacher, my motivations in this paper involve using Marilyn Dumont 's poetry as a way to address Beard 's concerns, "[building students '] capacity for intercultural understanding, empathy, and mutual respect" (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 7), while simultaneously teaching them how to analyse poetry. More specifically, Dumont 's series of beading poems, in her collection The Pemmican Eaters, provides an opportunity to engage high school students in a discussion around the significance of cultural practices, while at the same time revisiting the interplay of Canadian histories, both Aboriginal and colonial. At the same time, I will also describe Dumont 's use of irony, which Andrews explains as a cultural ethos that is a unique element of Plains peoples’ Indigenous art (3). Introducing this uniquely First Nations brand of irony to students may work to give life to Aboriginal culture, bringing "Native peoples . . . [out] of the mythic past" (Beard, 494) and into the present. Finally, the act of beading itself ties directly to

Social determinants of health encompasses ethnicity, gender and social class. It is seen as the essential

History has unveiled the early contacts of colonization from the Europeans that set motion to cultural oppression and exclusion of the Aboriginal communities (Kirmayer, Tait, Simpson & Simpson, 2009). The introduction of the residential school system was meant to eliminate the indigenous people’s cultural heritage and way of life, creating a historical trauma. As a result, survivors of the residential school system left the majority of the Aboriginal population without a sense of cultural heritage, lack of self-esteem, and depression (Gone, 2010). Aboriginal culture was suppressed, breaking the connection of traditional knowledge from parent to child (Kirmayer, Tait, Simpson & Simpson, 2009). Trans-generational trauma of the Aboriginal people has left psychologically and physically damage towards their own heritage (Gray & Nye, 2001).

The health inequality between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, and Non-Indigenous Australians is evident, (Empirical)

Sherwood (2013) discusses that in 1788 Europeans invaded Australia, bringing new diseases, taking ownership of land, treating Aboriginals inhumanely and forcing Aboriginals into crowded and poor living conditions leading to malnutrition and spread of disease. Furthermore, from 1814 – 1970’s Indigenous children were taken from their families to be ‘civilised and educated’, this lead to loss of family and culture ties and loss of trust. Indigenous Australians are still suffering from other long standing effects (Sherwood 2013) such as emotional disconnections from the land, introduced diseases and ongoing discrimination. Sherwood (2013) recognises how this has led to higher rates of depression, suicide and low self-worth and other negative health effects. These psychosocial factors have a negative impact on the health of Indigenous Australians further reducing the health status of Indigenous

Australian Aboriginal people enjoyed better health in the past than most people living in Australia today. All this changed with the influx of introduced illness by the non-Indigenous people (Malcolm, Alexandra, & Michael, 2011). The effect of introduced diseases was certainly the leading cause of death for Australian Aboriginal people. Though on average people in Australian have good health, the life expectancy of Indigenous Australians is higher than the average life expectancy of Aboriginal people in Australian with about 20 years longer (Scheele, 2010). Australian Aboriginal people not only experience worse health than non-Indigenous Australians, but they also experience worse health conditions comparable. The health gap might have been

The natural environment provided the Aborigines with a significant place to perform physical activities including; singing, dancing, hunting and playing traditional Aboriginal games. The strong connections and relationships, within and throughout the group, provided many benefits that enhanced the health and well being of this cultural group. The Aboriginals were associated with the environment everyday through different physical activities that they participated in, which enhanced their physical, mental and social strength. Their physical health was improved, as playing sporting games can advance their stamina and inner core strength and it can build up muscle and awareness.

Sport within the aboriginal community is definitely a key area that not only the government should be looking at but we as sports managers should focus on as well. There are many growing concerns for our first nation’s people, health being the greatest of all the concerns. Those from a aboriginal background have become more susceptible to health risk such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, many of the aboriginal children living on the reserve are overweight and obese. What is alarming is that, 49% of aboriginal youth smoke, which is more than double the rate of young people in British Columbia. Something needs to be done about this alarming trend amongst the aboriginal community, one way to help lower the risk of diabetes is to help implement programs that promote physical activity and a healthy lifestyle. With the recent increase in funding organisations will be able to offer more programs that involve physical activity, sport and education. It is important to help raise awareness for the aboriginal community; there are so many gifted athletes that have not been given a chance due to the lack of programs, funding and access. With The North American Indigenous Games coming to Toronto in 2017, I hope this will help give a potential opportunity to help increase the awareness for sport and athletes in the aboriginal community.

Preserve distinctiveness or be open to cultural diversity and risk assimilation? This ever-increasing dilemma is affecting Aboriginal communities Canada-wide, since there is debate as to whether Aboriginal identity should be solely based on bloodline, or if culture should also be considered. As observed in the documentary Club Native¬ that specifically addresses this issue, the Aboriginal identity of the Mohawks of the Kahnawake reserve have a Membership Code that is uniquely based on bloodline, discriminating those who have broken the bloodline by having relationships with non-Aboriginals or whose ancestry is not completely Mohawk to a certain extent. Due to this dilemma being a very controversial one amongst the Aboriginal communities in

The Aboriginal society and the Maori Society However, these societies were completely different when it came to social structures and how they ran things in terms of political power. They also had different cultures but the largest difference was how they portrayed a certain god. While Aboriginals believe in a certain Supreme Maker, they also have lots of different stories of creation and the Maori have multiple gods that they believe in and don’t have any creation stories that don’t involve their base gods. This report will examine the similarities and the differences between the two and explain why this is.

Western Australia Aboriginal communities in Western Australia are basically the communities for indigenous Australians within their ancestral country. The communities comprise the families with the continuous links to country that extend before the European settlement of Australia. For the Aboriginal Peoples in Western Australia, basically before the invasion of their lands, they live in a nomadic partnership with nature harmoniously. Australian Aboriginal people are actually a diverse group of people where they live vastly different lifestyles according to the places where they stayed.

Health and ill health on the basis of Cultural/Behaviour is explained as having direct relationships with social class and how their actions determine their health. According to (Bourdieu 1984) Life expectancy amongst people in high social class standing was because of their “inclination towards a cult of health-consciousness and their appearance of the body: the body as a thing displayed to others…and a high value being placed on moderate drinking and careful diet.” What Bourdeau is suggesting is that our lifestyle is determined by our culture, and seems to be suggesting

Next, I will be looking at the nutritional aspect of the Indigenous culture, and as to why Armstrong chose to include Rice Krispies in the poem. The Europeans used food to coerce many tribes who were struggling with famine to sign Treaties. (Hiebert 21) The Canadian authorities also used food to blackmail the First Nation tribes, claiming they had to earn their meals through labor work. The food the starving First Nations did receive was often expired or lacking any nutritional value. The result of this issue was a contributing factor to tuberculosis. (Hiebert 21) Attempts to force on-reserve First Nations allowed the government to fully isolate them from the growing economy. They were restricted from trading their food off reserve to