VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – How much do we really know about the challenges facing our native community?    

On this National Aboriginal Day, we are speaking with the author of a new book based on the residential school tragedy.


In “Blue Saltwater,” West Vancouver novelist Dan Green uses real-life cases to tell the story of a survivor of Canada’s residential school system. The title character is a restless teenage boy taken from his family on Haida Gwaii.

Green wrote the book because he feels non-aboriginals simply don’t understand that today’s challenges stem from abuses suffered decades ago.

“We have very high unemployment rates amongst the youth, we have high suicide rates, we have high teen pregnancy rates, and I think all these things can somewhat be traced back to the dissolution of families that occurred during that 150 year period,” he explains.

Green says the protests and blockades we see today are a result of that, too. “These demonstrations, which you see, I think are results of that treatment that the aboriginal people were given and this is the way they’re reacting.”

He also feels native leaders themselves bust bear some responsibility in explaining the plight of their community.