Indigenous Guardians Help Emergency Response to COVID-19
April 21, 2020 | Land Needs Guardians
Tanya Ball of the Kaska Nation’s Land Guardians program. Photo: Taylor Roades
Tanya Ball may be working from home these days, but she is contributing to a community-wide effort to protect people from the coronavirus. Ball is the Guardians Coordinator for Dane nan yḗ dāh Network of the Kaska Nation in northern B.C. And like other guardians across the country, she is helping her nation respond to this crisis.
“We are here to help as much as we can,” she said.
COVID-19 poses unique challenges to Indigenous Nations. With limited medical resources in communities and a history of losing people to previous waves of contagious disease, Indigenous Nations recognize the serious threat of this virus. Patrols, outreach to elders, food distribution and preparing families to go out on the land can keep people safe. Indigenous Guardians have the skills to help with those efforts.
Ball is one of those guardians. She grew up in Lower Post, studied environmental science at college, then served as a GIS technician before joining the Dane nan yḗ dāh Network. On the job, she has received training in wildfire response and evacuee registration and has worked extensively with elders and knowledge holders.
“Right now, I’m using GIS to make a map for emergency support services,” she said. “If an ambulance has to pick someone up, they need to know how to find them. During the wildfires, we registered everyone, how many people were living in a household, if there were special needs. Now with COVID, we are making sure we know who might be at high risk.”
Tanya Ball’s office while she’s working as a guardian from home. Photo: Tanya Ball
Another member of the Kaska Land Guardians, Lisa Horsey has had to shelter-in-place in Whitehorse, but she continues to support the emergency response by completing an online training, to assist with the emergency operations team.
Ball is also ensuring community members have the information they need to weather the pandemic. She manages a Facebook page with almost 500 members as far away as Whitehorse. “I post only credible sources,” she said. “The Three Nations [The Tahltan, Kaska and Tlingit] are working on pandemic planning, so they have tons of good information.”
She shares information about how to apply for assistance and when the community van—now outfitted with a plastic shield around the driver—will take elders one at a time to the doctor. “We also tell people who are going hunting how far they can drive on one tank of gas, so they don’t have to fill up in another community and expose themselves to the virus.”
Other Indigenous Guardians programs are playing similar roles. The Heiltsuk Coastal Guardian Watchmen, for instance, are patrolling the Pacific Coast near Bella Bella and letting boaters know the community is closed to outsiders.
Guardians have the local knowledge and leadership experience to help in times of crisis. More guardians on the land will help keep more communities safe.
“There’s tons of work to do,” Ball said. “Being involved in emergency response just gives me another way to help.”
Security checkpoint into the community of Lower Post. Photo: Tanya Ball
