2. Women's Perspectives - Christian Aboriginal Infrastructure ...

4.2.2
Aboriginal governments and organizations provide for the full and fair participation of
Aboriginal women in the governing bodies of all Aboriginal health and healing
institutions.
In our chapter on health and healing, we set forth other recommendations relevant to
Aboriginal women. For example, we called upon the government of Canada to fund
national Aboriginal organizations, including women's organizations, to prepare a
comprehensive, co-ordinated plan for human resource development in health and healing
that builds on regional and local knowledge and initiatives.
Concerning certain existing initiatives — the Community Health Representative
Program, the National Native Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program and the Indian and Inuit
Health Careers Program — we recommended that Canadian governments and national
Aboriginal organizations, including national Aboriginal women's organizations, examine
how to expand and improve these programs so that they become cornerstones of the more
holistic and integrative approaches needed to address the health and social needs of
Aboriginal people.
In Chapter 7 of this volume, we discuss migration patterns and the urban experience of
many Aboriginal women, particularly in relation to housing and social services. In
acknowledgement of the critical role and responsibility Aboriginal women have assumed
in urban areas, we recommend in that chapter that urban service agencies seek direction
and guidance from Aboriginal women in formulating policy, programs and services
respecting Aboriginal women. We also recommend that non-Aboriginal individuals and
organizations whose work or responsibilities affect Aboriginal women's lives receive
comprehensive information and education on the specific condition and needs of urban
Aboriginal women.
In further discussion on health matters, Aboriginal women also spoke to us about the
importance of the environment. In the far north, for example, we heard that poor
sanitation is a serious problem:
This is preventable, but in a lot of cases [there are] inadequate sewage lagoons,
disposable solid wastes, inadequate clean, running water….There is evidence that certain
Baffin communities are contaminated with PCBs….This recognized contamination of the
sea mammals affects the staple diet of many of the Inuit who eat the traditional Native
foods. Concerns have been raised that PCBs can be transferred to the milk of breastfeeding
mothers.
Ineaq Korgak
Executive Assistant, Baffin Regional Health Board
Iqaluit, Northwest Territories, 26 May 1992
On the west coast, where many Aboriginal people depend upon healthy fish stocks, we
heard that the human and environmental crisis is exacerbated by other factors that are
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