The Urban Aboriginal Peoples Study

A new survey of urban Aboriginal people shows that while half of Canada's native population now lives in cities, most of those remain proud of their native heritage and maintain a strong connection to their original communities.


The Urban Aboriginal Peoples Study — sponsored by the federal government and a number of provinces and cities — has published what it calls the first ever survey of the "values and aspirations" of Canada's growing urban native population.


The study contracted the Environics Institute, a polling firm, to survey 2,614 native, Metis and Inuit people, as well as 2,501 non-native people living in Canada's 11 largest cities.


In Canada's most recent census, in 2006, 1.172-million people identified themselves as Aboriginal. Half of those reported living in cities.


The new study found that 60 per cent of urban aboriginal respondents remain connected to their native communities, their families, and their traditional culture.


While 80 per cent of respondents said they were "very proud" of their Aboriginal identity, a smaller number, 70 per cent, said they were proud to be Canadian.


Almost all respondents said they were viewed in negative ways by non-aboriginal people in their cities — views that included negative stereotypes about addictions, laziness and lack of intelligence.


More than half of the Aboriginal respondents, 55 per cent, said they lacked confidence in Canada's criminal justice system and supported the idea of a separate aboriginal justice system.


Among the non-aboriginal city-dwellers surveyed, there was a widespread belief that aboriginals experience discrimination, but only a small majority of non-native respondents, 54 per cent, said aboriginals should have special rights in Canada.


The study's manager said the survey's purpose was to examine the attitudes of urban Aboriginals in ways that looked beyond the stereotypical problems of poverty and childhood abuse.


"When urban Aboriginal peoples are researched it's often about problems like homelessness and sexual exploitation," says Ginger Gosnell-Myers, in a statement issued Tuesday.


"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."



Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Urban+Aboriginals+proud+native+heritage/2768480/story.html#ixzz0kKfSs6iG