
They are sitting ducks — the innocent Indigenous children, of course, but also their parents or, as in the case of the latest awful (and probably preventable) house fire on a First Nation, their long-time foster mother.
Dead in an early-morning blaze last Thursday on the remote Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) First Nation are Geraldine Chapman and her daughter, Shyra Shadara Taylor Bella Chapman and three of the children she had fostered, Angel Kenisha McKay, Karl Jovon Cutfeet and Hailey Ocean Jenna Chapman.
The youngsters were respectively six, 12, nine and seven.
As KI Chief Donny Morris said in a Monday press release, “Geraldine raised her adopted children
“It is important to understand, however, that this devastating tragedy has directly impacted four families and, as a result, extends throughout the community as a whole.”
Consider how inured Indigenous people are to the deadly toll of the fires on their reserves. Morris’s spokesman, Sam McKay, told Paola Loriggio of the Canadian Press in a story published last Friday that the community has a fire truck that doesn’t work, a fire hall that wasn’t finished and no fire hoses.
“When there’s a fire,” McKay said, “you pretty much stand around and look at the building burn and make sure there’s nobody there. At this time, we were very unfortunate that we lost five people.”
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.
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