here. - Canadian Women's Health Network

Women, Income andHealth in Manitoba29reserve are provided by Indian andNorthern Affairs Canada.5.2 DATA ISSUESThe National Forum on Health noted thatAboriginal women face a heightened risk ofa wide range of health problems includingboth increased morbidity and mortality. 58Yet, data about the health of Aboriginalpeople is scarce. This was noted in the1999 Statistical Report on the Health ofCanadians, which stated in part:One issue that cuts across almostall sections, however, is the relativepaucity of data on Canada’s Aboriginalpopulation and on marginalizedgroups such as street people. Whilemost of the topics in this Reportdescribe at least 97% of theCanadian population, it is importantto remember that the missing 3%often have a disproportionateshare of health problems. 59Aboriginal people, including Aboriginalhealth professionals have strong views onthe collection of health data. In March 1999,the Health Canada’s Advisory Committeeon Women’s Health Surveillance held aworkshop to discuss the development ofits plan of action.Dr. Judith Bartlett, of the Aboriginal Healthand Wellness Centre of Winnipeg statedthe following during the closing plenarysession:There needs to be a separate orenhanced surveillance system forAboriginal peoples, particularly Métis,non-status and off-reserve FirstNation people. There are no dataavailable except for those that areextrapolated from on-reserve FirstNations. The approach to issues andconcerns as expressed by the mixedgroup of women participating in thisWorkshop is not relevant or contextualto Aboriginal women (for example,the discussion of fatigue or stress).The approach to the disease entitiesmust be holistic; data needs to becollected within an Aboriginal frameworkand owned by Aboriginalpeople. Several years ago, a NationalAboriginal Women’s Conference heldin Winnipeg clearly reported that theydid not want to discuss specificdiseases (need to be holistic and lookat root causes), nor did they wishto discuss women’s health in theabsence of a discussion of men’shealth. Analysis of Aboriginal datamust not be undertaken withoutAboriginal participation – at alllevels – from initial determinationof research questions to dataanalysis, dissemination and resultantpolicy and program development.Additional rationale for specific focusand control of Aboriginal data lieswith the constitution. 60Given these reservations, the followinginformation is presented on the healthstatus of Aboriginal women.5.3 HEALTH STATUSAboriginal women have shorter lifeexpectancies than Canadian women asa whole. Data from Indian and NorthernAffairs Canada (which includes only thoseFirst Nations people whose names appearon the Indian Register maintained byIndian and Northern Affairs Canada)indicate that the life expectancy ofRegistered Indian women has increasedover time, from 65.9 years in 1975 to 75.7years in 1995. While the gap in lifeexpectancy between Registered Indianwomen and all Canadian women hasdecreased over time, it is still significant.In 1995, all Canadian women had anaverage life expectancy at birth of 81.4years. That is, they could be expected tolive almost six years more than RegisteredIndian women. 61