Plain Talk 17First Nations Quality of Life

There are many possible ways to identify the possible dimensions of a quality of life. In an international context, nations could be compared according to the following dimensions:

• Material wellbeing
• Health
• Political stability and security
• Family life
• Community life
• Climate and geography
• Job security
• Political freedom
• Gender equality

Another approach looks at quality of life in terms of dimensions framed from a different perspective:

This list of contributors to First Nations quality of life is not exhaustive—it can be added to at any time to form a more complete picture of First Nations’ evolving quality of life. The order of this list is random.

The quality of life of First Nations peoples has been directly impacted by the Indian Act, which was meant to control nearly every aspect of First Nations’ lives. The purpose of the Indian Act was to assimilate First Nations peoples into mainstream society by taking away their autonomy by controlling their housing, education, health, languages, and more. Although amendments have been made to the Indian Act throughout the years, First Nations’ quality of life is still impacted heavily. Read Plain Talk 5: The Indian Act for more information.
The following information is based on various reports and data cited from the Assembly of First Nations, Statistics Canada, and Indigenous Services Canada.

Learn more about these components that affect 
First Nations quality of life:

Housing
Education
Health
Cultural Connection
Family
Employment
Language
Sports
Arts
Wellness
Urban Life

• As of May 2021, there are 52 long term drinking water advisories in effect in 33 First Nations communities. A total of 106 long-term drinking water advisories have been lifted since November 2015 (Government of Canada, 2021). According to the First Nations On-Reserve Housing and Related Infrastructure Needs Technical Report (AFN & FNIGC, 2020), excluding planned housing units, the total number of required housing units required to meet the current housing needs across communities is 34,884. 
• The average number of additional housing units that are required to meet community’s current housing needs is 82.4. 
• In considering the population growth of the community, the estimated total number of housing units required to meet the housing need in five (5) years is 33,955. 
• The average number of estimated new units required to meet a community’s housing need in five (5) years from now is 78.9. 

Education

First Nations have an inherent and Treaty right to education, which means every single First Nation has the right to learn in a quality environment and receive quality instruction. However, for many years, the government has not provided enough funding to maintain or build quality schools for First Nations students to learn. Furthermore, there has been intergenerational distrust toward educational institutes, as a result of residential schools. These factors, and more, directly impact the attainment of educational milestones for First Nations students. Nevertheless, First Nations have been striving toward having control over their education through the policy document called First Nations Control of Education (2010).

• There are over 110,000 First Nations elementary and secondary students living on reserve (Statistics Canada, 2017).

• Only 40% of First Nation young adults aged 20 to 24 living on reserve had a high-school certificate or equivalent, compared to 93% of non-Indigenous Canadians in 2016 (Statistics Canada, 2017).

• In 2016, 65% of First Nations students living off reserve completed high school, an increase from 59% in 2001 (Statistics Canada, 2017).
• In 2019, among those First Nations that have elementary and secondary schools on-reserve, less than half have access to high-school programming. Meaning nearly 54% of First Nations students need to leave their community to achieve a high school diploma (Indigenous Services Canada, 2019).
• According to the 2016 Census data, 73% of non-Indigenous Canadians have attained post-secondary education as compared with 62% of First Nations. To close this gap, 78,000 additional First Nations people, not currently enrolled, would need to attain postsecondary education credentials. In addition, 2016 Census data illuminates that the overall gap in post-secondary education between First Nations and non-Indigenous people is directly related to the persistent gap in university attainment (Assembly of First Nations, 2018).
• For example, 29.3% of non-Indigenous Canadians aged 25-64 have attained a university degree. In comparison, only 5.4% registered First Nations on reserve and 11.3% registered off reserve have a university degree (Government of Canada, 2020).

• The 2017 Aboriginal Peoples Survey found that 16% of the Indigenous adult population (First Nations people living off reserve, Métis and Inuit) reported fair or poor mental health, 31% reported good mental health and 53% reported excellent or very good mental health (Indigenous Services Canada, 2018).
  For First Nations people aged 18 and over in First Nation communities, 22.6% reported that the unavailability of a doctor or nurse was a barrier to receiving health care (Indigenous Services Canada, 2018).
  In 2017 AFN Chiefs-in-Assembly passed resolution 69/2017, directing the AFN to explore a legislative base for First Nations Health that is reflective of inherent, Treaty and international legal requirements, as well as the nation-to-nation relationship. In 2021, Indigenous Services Canada Minister Marc Miller, announced efforts toward the co-development of distinctions-based health legislation, starting with pre-engagement consultation with First Nations, Metis and Inuit.

Cultural Connection

First Nations adults saw family values as the core of community life, followed by Elders and traditional ceremonial activities such as powwows.
First Nations adults who participated in traditional activities such as hunting and trapping, fishing, hiking, canoeing or kayaking, snowshoeing, or berry picking or other food gathering were more likely to report physical or spiritual balance than were those who did not.
Statistics on the value of culture connections:

• Almost ninety percent of First Nations youth felt that traditional cultural events were “very important” or “somewhat important” in their life.
• First Nations youth who participated in cultural or extracurricular activities on a regular basis demonstrated increased levels of personal resource variables, such as self-esteem, social support, and mastery, and reported feeling balanced more often than First Nations youth who did not participate in such activities.
• Nearly half of all First Nations youth identified traditional ceremonial activities as a community strength.

• A third of youth identify schoolteachers as significant players in cultural transmission.
• In each of the four facets of well being—physical, emotional, mental and spiritual—about three-quarters of First Nations adults reported feeling balanced “most” or “all of the time.”
• Two-thirds of First Nations adults reported that they participated in community cultural events at least “sometimes.”
• More than half of First Nations youth reported learning culture from their grandparents.

Family

First Nations family structures are dynamic and close-knit for many communities. However, the intergenerational impacts of residential schools and other circumstances imposed on First Nations people have fractured the function of many families. Nonetheless, First Nations families remain close-knit, even with their extended family, such as cousins, being like brothers and sisters. Also, grandparents often play a vital role in raising children, along with aunts and uncles being like parental figures (Camilleri, 2017).

• Over a third (37%) of First Nations children live in a lone-parent family–rates that were higher than that for their non-Indigenous peers (17%) (Statistics Canada, 2017).
• 28% of on-reserve First Nations people, with more than one person per room. The comparable figure for the non-Indigenous population was 4% (Statistics Canada, 2017).
• 4% of Indigenous children aged 14 and younger were in foster care; at 6%, the percentage was highest for First Nations children living off reserve. Moreover, of all children in foster care in Canada in 2011, just under half (48%) were Indigenous children, the majority of whom (82%) were First Nations children (Statistics Canada, 2017)

• In 2019, the Government introduced Bill C-92, An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Metis children, youth and families. receives Royal Assent. The legislation was co-developed with Indigenous, provincial, and territorial partners with the goal of keeping Indigenous children and youth connected to their families (Statistics Canada, 2017).

Employment

Employment is an important venue of self-development; it can provide a sense of participation in a collective purpose. People also derive enormous benefits from the social networks established through work (Gallie, et al. 1998). As such, securing and sustaining employment is important to numerous social and economic goals. Yet First Nations peoples experience significant labour market disadvantages compared to other Canadians. The disparity in job opportunities is a significant problem for both First Nations citizens and Canadians. Understanding what conditions affect labour market results is critical for understanding specific services and initiatives that help First Nations communities gain access to productive, well-paid work and the opportunities that come with it.

• In 2017, more than a quarter of a million First Nations people, between the ages of 25 and 54 years, lived off reserve. Within this group, the employment rate was 66.7% (Statistics Canada, 2019).
• In 2016, the unemployment rate among First Nations aged 25-64 living in First Nations communities was 22.5%. This was 3.5 times higher than the total population of Canada (6.4%) (Statistics Canada, 2019).

• In 2016, the employment rate for First Nations people aged 25 to 64 in First Nations communities was 46.8%, compared to 75.4% for the total population in Canada (Statistics Canada, 2019).
  First Nations have the lowest average incomes of all identity groups with First Nations on reserve having only 66% of the non-Indigenous average income in 2015, which is a slight improvement from average incomes in 2005, which were 58% of non-Indigenous average incomes (Statistics Canada, 2019).
  Findings indicate that Indigenous peoples have lower incomes than their non-Indigenous counterparts in the same occupations and industries. First Nations working in management, business and finance, natural and applied sciences, and natural resources and agriculture occupations earn less than all other groups working in the same occupational category (Statistics Canada, 2019).

Language

Due to Residential Schools, many First Nations survivors suffered with the loss of their traditional practices, culture, and languages. The Government of Canada implemented the Indian Act where the goal was to assimilate Indigenous children from their culture to the European ways. First Nations children were forcibly taken from their families and placed into the Schools where they were not allowed to practice their traditional ways or speak their language. If caught speaking their traditional language, they would be punished. Read Plain Talk 6: Residential Schools for more information.

• In 2016, 260,550 Indigenous people reported being able to speak an Indigenous language well enough to conduct a conversation. The number of Indigenous people who could speak an Indigenous language has grown by 3.1% since 2006 (Statistics Canada, 2017).
• The number of Indigenous people able to speak an Indigenous language (260,550) speakers exceeded the number who reported an Indigenous mother tongue (208,720). This suggests that many people, especially young people, are learning Indigenous languages as second languages  (Statistics Canada, 2017).

• One in three First Nations seniors (33.3%) reported having an Indigenous mother tongue in 2016. By comparison, about 1 in 10 First Nations children aged 0 to 14 (10.7%) had an Indigenous mother tongue (Statistics Canada, 2017).
• More than 70 Indigenous languages were reported in the 2016 Census. These languages can be divided into 12 language families: Algonquian languages, Inuit languages, Athabaskan languages, Siouan languages, Salish languages, Tsimshian languages, Wakashan languages, Iroquoian languages, Michif, Tlingit, Kutenai and Haida (Statistics Canada, 2017).
• Cree languages are most often reported as the language spoken at home in Canada (83,985 people) in 2016. Inuktitut was spoken by 39,025 people, while 21,800 people spoke Ojibway, 13,855 people spoke Oji-Cree, 11,780 people spoke Dene and 10,960 people spoke Montagnais (Innu) (Statistics Canada, 2017).
• In 2019, the Indigenous Language Act received Royal Assent. Based on direction from First Nations, the AFN is advocating for legislation to establish long-term, sustainable, consistent, appropriate approaches to support First Nations in their efforts to recover, reclaim, maintain and normalize First Nations languages (Government of Canada, 2019).

Sports

A number of First Nations individuals have demonstrated their athletic prowess and serve as role models for First Nations youth and contribute to their motivation and quality of life. For example, the Iroquois Nationals have captured the world’s attention by demonstrating their skill, power and success in Lacrosse. First Nations sports role models include:
Fred Sasakamoose, the first Aboriginal and Treaty Cree person to play for the National Hockey League as a Chicago Blackhawk in 1953-1954.
Reggie Leach, the first First Nations (Ojibway) player to reach super-star status, playing 14 seasons in the NHL.
More information about prominent First Nations athletes is available in Plain Talk 13: Role Models.

Arts

A number of First Nations individuals have demonstrated their creative abilities as musicians, actors, writers, painters and playwrights. Their energy and talent serve as role models for First Nations youth and contribute to their motivation and quality of life. First Nations role models in the arts include:
Adam Beach, Lake Manitoba First Nation, actor, producer and political activist.
Norval Morrisseau, Ojibway, a grand shaman and a great artist known as Copper Thunderbird and the Picasso of the North.
Daphne Odjig, Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve, honoured and renowned artist.
More information about these and other prominent First Nations artists is available in Plain Talk 13: Role Models.

• Fred Sasakamoose, the first Aboriginal and Treaty Cree person to play for the National Hockey League as a Chicago Blackhawk in 1953-1954.
• Reggie Leach, the first First Nations (Ojibway) player to reach super-star status, playing 14 seasons in the NHL.

More information about prominent First Nations athletes is available in Plain Talk 13: Role Models.

Wellness

The concept of wellness refers to the condition or state of the four traditional indigenous dimensions of personal development: mental (mind), physical (body), emotional (emotion), and spiritual (spirit).

Wellness can be affected by all the components that contribute to quality of life. For example, poor housing can have a negative effect on one’s physical and mental wellness. On the other hand, strong cultural connection can have a very positive influence on one’s emotional and spiritual wellness.

Wellness can also be affected by the presence or absence of the different types of skills, knowledge, and attitudes in the following competencies:

Meditation:

Urban Life

The term “First Nations” refers to one of three groups of Indigenous peoples recognized in the Canadian Constitution Act of 1982. First Nations are a diverse group of about 80 Nations in over 634 communities speaking languages that encompass over 50 distinct linguistic clusters. The 2021 Census of Canada indicates that there are more than 1,048,405 First Nations people from coast to coast to coast. Among the 753,110 First Nations people with Registered or Treaty Indian status, 41% lived on reserve and 59% lived off reserve (Statistics Canada, 2021).

Conclusion

The data about First Nations’ quality of life indicate that a number of conditions adversely affect the quality of life of individuals, families and communities. First Nations citizens face much higher rates of chronic and communicable diseases and are exposed to greater health risks because of poor housing, higher unemployment, and contaminated water. At the current rate, it will take two decades to close the education gap between First Nations and other Canadians. We can and must do better!

At the same time, the data indicate that connection with their culture and their language promotes and strengthens quality of life, especially among the youth.

The future of Canada depends on strong First Nations. If we close the education, housing and employment gap and support cultural connection and First Nations language use among First Nations, First Nations workers would add $400 billion to Canada’s GDP by 2026 and Canada would save $115 billion in government expenditures.