Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry: The Deception Behind Indigenous Cultural Preservation by Widdowson Frances

Author:Widdowson, Frances
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SOC021000
Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
Published: 2008-12-07T16:00:00+00:00

SACRIFICING FUTURE GENERATIONS TO AVOID STIGMATIZATION

FAS/FAE is an extremely serious problem, because unlike many other afflictions that affect Canadian children, there is no “healing” available. The brain damage caused by exposure to alcohol in the womb lasts a lifetime, entailing special care and assistance for victims until they die. FAS/FAE children will also face extreme difficulties if they have children themselves, which means the problem will continue for generations.7

But addressing FAS/FAE is very difficult; while its incidence is low in the Canadian population, it is a serious problem in aboriginal communities. FAS/FAE is estimated to occur between one to three births per thousand in European countries, but rates for aboriginal children can range anywhere from one hundred to four hundred per thousand of the school-aged population.8 When hospitals track FAS/FAE cases, up to 75 per cent involve aboriginal children, even though they make up approximately 6 per cent of births in Canada.9

But despite the implications that high FAS/FAE rates have for aboriginal communities, there has been no attempt to systematically document the extent of the syndromes in the aboriginal population across Canada.10 All estimates are based on the records of particular hospitals, studies in selected communities, or the anecdotes of health care professionals. In the Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, only three sources concerning FAS/FAE in Canadian aboriginal communities are cited, and one is a report requisitioned by the Commission itself.11 Even more disturbing, the most comprehensive study of aboriginal health problems in Canada – Aboriginal Health in Canada (Waldram et al., 1995) – does not even mention FAE or FAS.

The severity of the FAS/FAE problem was identified by the government as early as 1992, when a House of Commons standing committee recommended “aggressive public information campaigns” targeted at the aboriginal population and “more effective and appropriate community-based ways of dealing with learning disabilities, of which FAS is the major portion of demand.”12 The minister of health at the time rejected this recommendation, maintaining that current health programs were sufficient to combat FAS/FAE in aboriginal communities.13 It was asserted that aboriginal peoples were not at greater risk and that programs targeting natives would only stigmatize them.14

But why would the government take it upon itself to see “stigma” as the overriding concern? Isn’t health the more important issue here, not public perceptions? The government had targeted the aboriginal population concerning a number of health problems in the past. Why was it now choosing to avoid addressing a much more serious health risk?

There has even been an attempt to discourage a linkage between FAS and the aboriginal population on the grounds that this constitutes a stereotype. Dr Jack Armstrong, former president of the Canadian Medical Association, for example, stresses that “the white population cannot point smugly at aboriginals and claim fetal alcohol syndrome is just a native problem.” Diane Malbin, a co-founder of the FAS/Drug Effects Clinical Programs in Portland, Oregon, actually denies the seriousness of the problem within the aboriginal population.15 She argues that it is not poor and uneducated aboriginals who are the most at risk but white, middle-class, and educated women.

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