How comfortable are Saskatchewan’s aboriginals with their non-Aboriginal counterparts?
REZ X magazine is finding out through a survey.
This follows a similar survey done by the CBC which finds that Prairie residents are the least comfortable of any region in the country with their Aboriginal counterparts.
The publisher of REZ X Magazine Chris Ross asked the exact same questions but switched white for Aboriginal.
He says the results show Aboriginals have a higher comfort level.
“If you go from comfortable to very comfortable the majority of our respondents suggested higher numbers,” he says. “Most of them were either comfortable or very comfortable.”
The one question that got the highest uncomfortable numbers was marrying someone who was white.
Twenty-six per cent of respondents say they would be uncomfortable or very uncomfortable.
More than 100 people took part in the REZ X survey.
The magazine will do a story on the numbers next month.
It will also post them on its website.
Ross says he wanted to put some balance into the story.
“To balance it out for our own people. Was the feeling mutual? That is what I was trying to accomplish.”
Ross goes on to say the numbers in the CBC survey do not surprise him.
Fifteen hundred people participated in the CBC survey.
Nationally, 63 per cent of respondents say they would be comfortable having a romantic relationship with an Aboriginal person and that number drops to 50 per cent on the Prairies.
Nationally, 75 per cent of respondents are comfortable with an Aboriginal neighbor compared to 61 per cent on the Prairies.
And working for an Aboriginal scored 76 per cent nationally but only 66 per cent on the Prairies.