Get out, young Native, get out!

Staying on the reserve can ruin your life, according to John Ibbitson (full text not officially online):

If you're an Indian in your 20s living on a reserve, you need to leave right now.

Some people are going to find this advice offensive. And it doesn't apply to every native living on every reserve. But this has to be said: We have utterly failed to rescue the latest generation of on-reserve native Canadians. The least we can do is admit this, and urge those who can to save themselves...

...while prospects for aboriginal Canadians living off reserve have improved considerably in many respects, the situation for the 30 per cent of aboriginals living on reserve hasn't improved at all. Every effort over the past generation to raise educational outcomes for on-reserve Indians has been a complete waste of time and money...

...a large majority of the latest generation of Indians on reserve has failed to complete high school. Most depressing of all, there is no evidence of any improvement between the 1996 and 2001 census...

Off reserve, the news is much better. Young aboriginals living in cities have almost twice the high-school completion rates of those living on reserve (though they are still well behind the general population)...

Pack your bags, say goodbye to your family and friends and get out of there...

...for the great majority of young Indians living on a reserve, this is the only realistic choice. The state has failed them, the community has failed them, their parents have failed them, and they have failed themselves...

Mark C.

Update: Analysis by The Phantom Observer.

Posted by markc at August 3, 2006 04:44 PM