Tag Archives: Indigenous Women

Indigenous People Bare the Brunt of the Toxic Drug Crisis

May 2, 2023 Odette Auger

The Tyee, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The B.C. First Nations Health Authority opened its gathering to present a grim report on toxic drug toxic deaths in 2022 with a song, a prayer of hope and unity for the families and friends affected by toxic drugs.

The report found toxic drugs have been taken a disproportionate toll on First Nations members, who were almost five times as likely to die of drug poisoning in 2022 than non-Indigenous B.C. residents. Although representing only 3.3 per cent of the province’s population, Indigenous people represented 16.4 per cent of toxic drug poisoning deaths in 2021.

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Indigenous Nations, Women

Indigenous women are blazing a conservation trail

March 9, 2022 Guest Post

By Natasha Bulowski, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

There is a saying in the Kaska language: “Dene K’éh Didī Nī́ʼ Sū́géhʼīn Mā” — “woman taking care of the land.”

“It’s something that’s really well known in our community,” Gillian Staveley, a director at the Dena Kayeh Institute in British Columbia, told Canada’s National Observer, “because people acknowledge that it is women who are taking care of the land and they always have been and they always will be.”

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