Tag Archives: urban aboriginals

Urban Aboriginal Primitive Technology Studies & Practice

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The Urban Aboriginal Primitive Technology Studies & Practice page is a site targeting urban indigenous people that provides information on how to make things like dreamcatchers, crossbows, cattail visors, shelters and pretty much everything other traditional aboriginal practice you could think of.

Although there is no vision statement included, it appears that the goal of the website is to support the development of traditional skills by offering resources and instructional materials (often in video format) among people who do not have opportunities to learn these practices through elders or community members.

The site demonstrates a practical approach to technology and how it can be used to support cultural transmission.  It fits in well (I think) with the focus of Module 4.

 

 

Urban Aboriginal Peoples Study

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The Urban Aboriginal Peoples Study is a research project whose goal is to explore the “values, experiences and aspirations” of indigenous people living in Canadian urban areas.

It includes reports specific to a number of Canadian cities (Edmonton, Winnipeg, Vancouver, etc) that have a large indigenous population as well as providing a number of other studies, media and resources covering urban indigenous issues.

The site also released Key Findings based on their research.  Here is a summary of a few of them:

  • Most urban aboriginals feel comfortable in the city but still are connected to their traditional homes.
  • Most urban aboriginals have minimal fear of losing their culture.
  • Racism and dealing with negative stereotypes from non-aboriginals was a factor in the lives of many urban aboriginals.

The site is worth investigating if you are researching urban indigeneity.

 

City of Vancouver – Directory of Aboriginal services and context

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The City of Vancouver’s department of Social Planning has created a directory of Aboriginal resources entitled:  Aboriginal Inventory of Services and Context. The website helps city staff and Vancouverites develop an understanding of the activities and stakeholders relating to Aboriginal issues within Vancouver. The directory is intended to help Vancouverites make informed decisions about how the City can best support the Aboriginal community.

Each report (see partial list below) provides: a) relevant background on each topic b) a list of the organizations and communities involved with that topic  and c) info on partnerships, committees, trends, and gaps in services

Much of the research cited in the reports was conducted by locals and provides excellent information about Vancouver’s Indigenous communities that isn’t readily available anywhere else.  I found this site to be indispensable in writing my paper about Vancouver’s urban Aboriginal youth.  Here are some of the documents (of dozens) available on the site:

  • Coast Salish First Nations html PDF
  • Outreach and Engagement html PDF
  • Arts, Culture & Multimedia html PDF
  • Education html PDF
  • Elders html PDF
  • Two-Spirit / LGBTQ html PDF *Some Aboriginal people refer to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans-gendered people as Two-spirited.

Keep them coming back for more – Amy Parent

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In 2009, now PhD student at UBC and video speaker from Module 2 of Etec 521, Amy Parent completed her Master’s thesis:  Keep them coming back for more: Urban Aboriginal Youth’s perceptions and experiences of Wholistic education in Vancouver.

The goal of the thesis was to gain insight into the experiences of Aboriginal youth who were participating in Aboriginal organizations in Vancouver.

Amy also published a community report that is available on the Vancouver based Urban Native Youth Association website.  This 8 page report summarizes the 196 page dissertation that she submitted and contains key findings and lessons learned from the youth.

In writing her thesis, Parent hoped that it would encourage development of a wholistic educational framework for Aboriginal youth which pursues the goal of transformative praxis by honouring Indigenous culture within a positive, empowering and generative contemporary urban context.  I’ve read both the report and the thesis and can tell you that her research was exhaustive, thought-provoking, and ground-breaking.

Of note, Parent add a fifth R (relationships) to the well-received Four R research framework put forward by Kirkness & Barnhardt (1991).  These authors argued that  research in Aboriginal communities should be reciprocal, relevant, responsible, and respectful.  For Parent, the fifth R allows her to maintain relational accountability to her family, clan (Nisga’a), and community.

I recommend the study for anyone who is looking for an extensive literature review of leading Indigenous research.  Additionally, Amy’s findings on urban Aboriginal youth are thoughtfully framed by an explanation of wholistic education that is second to none.  Finally, the commentary, stories, and interjections about her guide, the Raven, is worth the price of admission on its own.

Urban Aboriginal Peoples Study

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Aboriginals are the fastest growing population in Canada.  The 2006 census revealed that there are half a million First Nations, Métis, and Inuit people living in Canadian cities and that over 50% of this population is under 25 year old.  Given the dramatic increase in urban populations, 60% of Canada’s Aboriginals now reside in urban settings, more research is sorely needed to understand how Aboriginals and Non-Aboriginals are relating in this atmosphere of rapidly changing demographics.

The Urban Aboriginal Peoples Study (UAPS) began to take shape when Michael Adams, founder and president of Environics Research Group and the non-profit Environics Institute, and Dr. David Newhouse, Chair of Indigenous Studies at Trent University, found themselves at a conference discussing social change among Canada’s Aboriginal groups.  In response to the startling information emerging from the 2006 census, Dr. Newhouse asked: “Does the average Canadian have any image of who these people are, how they relate to their cities, what they are contributing, or what their challenges are?”

The approach being suggested by Dr. Newhouse differs from earlier studies that focused research on social-services being utilized by Aboriginal populations.  That research tended to view Aboriginal communities through the lens of some problem or need— without the needed complexity to generate meaningful understandings of urban Aboriginal groups.

Hence the UAPS was born.  The Study has been funded by the government of Canada, the governments of various provinces, some private organizations, Elections Canada, and the United Way.   The goal of the UAPS was to gone beyond the numbers and capture the values, experiences and aspirations of Aboriginal peoples living in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Toronto, Montreal, Halifax and Ottawa. 2,614 First Nations peoples, Métis and Inuit living in these major Canadian cities, as well as 2,501 non-Aboriginal Canadians were surveyed.

    Click here for the UAPS report summary, full report, or quick key findings from the study.  City findings are also available such as the  Vancouver City Report

      This research is useful for anyone looking for comprehensive information about the dynamic interaction between Non-Aboriginals and Aboriginals in Canada’s major cities.

      James Clifford

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      I came across James Clifford on another site while researching my paper. He’s a professor of consciousness at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and he writes extensively on indigenous issues, particularly on topics like the indigenous diaspora (as far as I can tell, he invented the term). This is a relevant issue for me as I am writing about urban indigeneity.  I think Clifford has interesting things to say about the modern indigenous experience that usually challenge western mythologies.

      His site includes many of his publications for download. Two that I have come across before are “Varieties of Indigenous Experience: Diasporas, Homelands, Sovereignties” and “Indigenous Articulations” but some of his other work, which has an anthropological and ecological perspective, looks interesting as well.

       

      1969 film “The Exiles”

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      I came across this film through the suggestion of a friend, although we are in the final days of ETEC521 it really fits with a number of discussions from weeks past.  Released in 1969, the same year as the Canadian Government released the White Paper, The Exiles is an American production chronicling the events of one Friday night for group of Native Americans in Los Angeles.  After befriending a group of Native Americans in downtown LA, writer Kent Mackenzie broached the subject of a film about their life experiences, asking the group to help write the script, with their own narration, and with them as partners in the film’s production. Mackenzie was attempting to deconstruct the exotic  portrayal of “The Other” common in films about Native Americans of the day.  While the film today might be considered a narrative fiction, in the context of it’s writing and release it was considered a documentary. A more thorough description of the film’s history and restoration can be read here – I found it to be a fascinating read.

      View the trailer here: http://youtu.be/9VepP9Eyfp0

      This film was re-released in 2008 by Sherman Alexie, writer of Smoke Signals, and Charles Burnett. The Exiles was on late night television last night although it’s also available for purchase.

      The vital relationship between Aboriginal Elders and Youth

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      Video Link

      • In the time of change of mother earth,
      • there would be a group of young people born,
      • and those young people would carry all the gifts of ancestors,
      • the healers, the visionaries, the dreamers, the leaders,
      • they would bring spirituality into their work
      • and they would empower their work with that spirituality.

      Diane Longboat

      The above passage leads us into this video that documents the efforts by Native Child and Youth Family Services (NCYFS) of Toronto to connect urban youths with Ojibway, Cree, and Iroquois elders.

      What has remained constant among the many changes of the Macaw Hawk Youth Council in Toronto is a desire among members to learn about cultural traditions.

      Some of the Elders and staffers with NCYFS mention how difficult it was for them as urban Aboriginals to connect with their cultural teachings when living or growing up in Toronto.  NCYFS has attempted to address this shortfall through the construction of a lodge in the heart of urban Toronto.  Through the efforts of Elders and connections with culture, youth have described feeling more empowered and unified than at any point in their lives.

      The prevalent theme among interviewed youths is a desire to “know who they are.”  In urban settings, youth do not have the benefit community support from clans or families, and can become very isolated.  Once youth connect with Elders, it is felt that they are better able to identify who they are as brothers, sisters, and beneficiaries of a rich ancestry.

      The video provides an example of how far the urban Indigenous have come in re-connecting with traditions in a short period of time.  One of the NCYFS staffers, Alita Sauve, mentions that when she was growing up it was difficult for her to acknowledge to others that she was Indian.  Now she helps youth re-connect with authentic traditional practices in the heart of Toronto.

      Aboriginal Policy Studies

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      Aboriginal Policy Studies is a new online journal edited by Dr. Chris Anderson at the University of Alberta. It is also hosted and funded by the University of Alberta.

      It publishes peer-reviewed scholarly work on a range of Canadian aboriginal issues, including urban indigenous concerns, which is the focus of my research for this course.

      Dr. Anderson notes in his editorial introduction that a key rationale for the creation of this journal was its recognition of, and focus on, the changing demographics of indigenous identity in Canada, with a shift to greater urban aboriginal populations, as well as Metis, which policy makers have not fully adjusted to.

      The content of this website aligns with any of the modules we have covered so far, although I am linking it to Module 3.  I recommend a closer look at it, particularly if you are interested in urban aboriginal issues.

      NEC Native Education College in Vancouver

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      The NEC Native Education College (formerly Native Education Center) in Vancouver opened it’s doors in 1967 and is British Columbia’s largest private Aboriginal college.  The NEC is governed by the NEC Native Education Society, a non-profit charitable organization that assumed governance of the institution in 1979. NEC provides an avenue for culturally responsive post-secondary education for Aboriginal students grounded in it’s physical setting as well as it’s philosophical underpinnings. in 1988/89, Dr. Celia Haig-Brown, currently faculty of York University, conducted fieldwork towards a critical ethnography of the institution to identify the meanings and processes of First Nations control of First Nations education. The published ethnography, Taking Control: Power and Contradiction in First Nations Adult Education (UBC Press) is a thorough read and I recommend it to any person with an interest in First Nations’ educational issues.