Speaking Out: A new study reveals the experiences and values of Canada’s Urban Aboriginal Peoples
By speaking directly with both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people, the Urban Aboriginal Peoples Study (UAPS), released in April 2010, offers Canadians a new perspective on their Aboriginal neighbors living in Canada’s eleven largest cities.
“This study is about the future, not the past,” says Michael Adams, president of the Environics Institute for Survey Research, who conducted the study. “The UAPS offers Canadians a new picture of Aboriginal peoples in cities. Ideally, the things we have learned will help people understand each other better, have better conversations and live together better in our urban communities.”
To conduct the study, Aboriginal staff designed the research themes, methodology, and executed the main survey. More than 100 interviewers, almost all of whom were themselves Aboriginal, conducted 2,614 in-person interviews with Métis, Inuit and First Nations (status and non-status) individuals living in eleven Canadian cities: Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Toronto, Montreal, Halifax and Ottawa (Inuit only).
The study also investigated how non-Aboriginal people view Aboriginal people in Canada today through a telephone survey with 2,501 non-Aboriginal urban Canadians living in these same cities (excluding Ottawa).
"When urban Aboriginal peoples are researched, it’s often about problems like homelessness and sexual exploitation,” says Ginger Gosnell-Myers, UAPS project manager. “There are hundreds of thousands of us living in cities and there are a lot of positive things happening in our communities; it’s not all crises.”
Here are the study’s key findings:
- For most, the city is home, but urban Aboriginal peoples stay connected to their communities of origin. Six in 10 feel a close connection to these communities – links that are integral to strong family and social ties, and to traditional and contemporary Aboriginal culture. Notwithstanding these links, majorities of First Nations peoples, Métis and Inuit consider their current city of residence home (71 per cent), including those who are the first generation of their family to live in their city.
- Eight in 10 participants said they were “very proud” of their specific Aboriginal identity, i.e., First Nations, Métis or Inuk. Slightly fewer – 70 per cent – said the same about being Canadian.
- Urban Aboriginal peoples are seeking to become a significant and visible part of the urban landscape. Six in 10 feel they can make their city a better place to live, a proportion similar to non-Aboriginal urban dwellers.
- Six in 10 were completely or somewhat unworried about losing contact with their culture, while a minority were totally (17 per cent) or somewhat (21 per cent) concerned. As well, by a wide margin (6:1), First Nations peoples, Métis and Inuit think Aboriginal culture in their communities has become stronger rather than weaker in the last five years.
- They display a higher tolerance for other cultures than their non-Aboriginal neighbours: Comparatively, 77 per cent of urban Aboriginal peoples believe there is room for a variety of languages and cultures in this country in contrast to 54 per cent of non-Aboriginal urbanites.
- Almost all believe they are consistently viewed in negative ways by non-Aboriginal people. Almost three in four participants perceived assumptions about addiction problems, while many felt negative stereotypes about laziness (30 per cent), lack of intelligence (20 per cent) and poverty (20 per cent).
- Education is their top priority and an enduring aspiration for the next generation. Aspirations for the future include 20 per cent who want the next generation to understand the importance of education, 18 per cent that hope younger individuals will stay connected to their cultural community and 17 per cent that hope the next generation will experience life without racism.
- Money was cited as the number one barrier to getting a post-secondary education among 36 per cent of those planning to attend and 45 per cent of those already enrolled in a university or college.
- Urban Aboriginal peoples do not have great confidence in the criminal justice system in Canada. More than half (55 per cent) have little confidence in the criminal justice system and majorities support the idea of a separate Aboriginal justice system.
- A significant minority (4 in 10) feel there is no one Aboriginal organization or national political party that best represents them, or cannot say.
Perspectives of non-Aboriginal urban Canadians included the following insights:
- Non-Aboriginal urban Canadians are divided on where Aboriginal people fit in the Canadian mosaic: 54 per cent believe Aboriginal people should have special rights and 39 per cent think they are just like any other cultural or ethnic group (this divide varies across cities).
- Perceptions of the current state of relations between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people are divided, but there are signs of optimism.
- Non-Aboriginal urban Canadians are starting to recognize the urban Aboriginal community and their cultural presence but have limited knowledge of Aboriginal people and issues, although they do demonstrate a desire to learn more.
- There is a widespread belief among Non-Aboriginal urban Canadians that Aboriginal people experience discrimination.
In the 2006 census, nearly 1.2 million people self-identified themselves as “Aboriginal,” half of whom reported living in urban centres. Findings and insights from this research are intended to establish a baseline of information on the urban Aboriginal population in Canada, prompt discussion within Aboriginal communities and between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples, and inform public policy and planning initiatives that pertain to urban Aboriginal peoples.
The Urban Aboriginal Peoples Study may be downloaded free from www.uaps.ca.
