Urban Aboriginal Issues Explored At Conference

Urban Aboriginal Issues Explored At Conference

Monday, November 02, 2009 at 12:18

More than 30 experts in urban indigenous issues from around the world gathered in Saskatoon on Friday.

They shared their research at the Indigenous Urbanization in International Perspective conference.

The experts discussed their findings about issues facing Aboriginal people who live in cities.

Chris Andersen is a researcher with the University of Alberta who presented his findings at the conference.

Anderson says the Canadian census should be changed so that the urban Aboriginal identity can be explored.

“I just wanted to get people thinking about what are some of the things that are distinct about the experience of being an urban Aboriginal person, and how does that affect — in my particular case, how does that affect the types of questions that Statistics Canada asks when they’re looking for information on urban Aboriginal people,” he says.

Today, more than 50 per cent of Aboriginal people in Canada live in urban centres.