The Aboriginal Self-Governance in the Urban Areas in Canada

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The Aboriginal Self-Governance in the Urban Areas in Canada
Introduction
More than half of the Canadian aboriginal population resides in the urban areas of Canada. This therefore calls for attention on the issues facing the urban aboriginals in the cities in relation to the self-government. Despite the fact that numerous researches and reports have been carried out, little attention is accorded to the aboriginals living in the Canadian cities. Such a large population of people with their own culture needs to exercise their inherent right of self-governance in the urban areas (Morse, p 20). If the self-governance of the aboriginal people in Canada is to bring about a significance influence in the social, cultural, political and economic status of the aboriginal people, it must be designed to have a meaning and must apply to the lives of the aboriginal people living in urban areas. It requires sustained efforts in order to make the urban centers places where the aboriginal are welcomed and their cultures enhanced. Therefore, the aboriginal people should be involved and entirely engaged in implementing the appropriate programs and initiatives. Hence, this report reviews the issues and challenges of the implementation of the inherent right of self-governance of the minority aboriginal community residing in the big Canadian cities.
The aboriginal people of Canada (First nations, Métis and Inuit) have an egoistic and long history including a rich culture and strong spiritual traditions. However, most of the values were lost and others forced to compromise upon the arrival of the European powers in Canada. The new values forced by the European settlers among the aboriginals such as the dispossession of their land, alien modes of governance, new cultures and values ignited a destructive cycle on their spirituality, social and physical being. The effects of these destructive cycles are evident even today. They include poverty, substance abuse as well as poor health. The greatest of these issues is the loss of identity among the aboriginals (Morse, p 20). However, the aboriginal people of Canada in the urban areas have pushed for their right to the self-governance in the urban areas. As the aboriginal people in Canadian cities with determination continue to fight for the application of their inherent right to self-governance, there has been continued hardship or rather resistance from the federal government especially in the urban centers. The institutional structure for the governance of the aboriginals in Canada was designed for the population that largely dwelt in the rural areas of Canada. The chiefs who were based in reserves countrywide for instance elected the leaders into leadership positions. However, today most of the aboriginal people do not reside in the reserves rather most of them live in urban areas. It is estimated that half of the aboriginals’ population live in the urban areas of Canada. This has led to numerous challenges on the urban aboriginals in the country. In turn, the aboriginals have held various protests and boycotts in search of support in dealing with the challenges facing them (Tomiak).
There have been legal differences between the aboriginal people of Canada as well as their traditional and present hence complicating the implementation of the concept of self-governance of the urban aboriginal people. These distinctions among the aboriginal people are such as economical, social, and political, which has played a major role in putting individual aboriginals in the city within a jurisdictional land of uncertainty. It would be easier for the self-government to perpetuate only if these differences as well as the attendant marginal social and economic of the aboriginal people living in the cities are identified and solved. To an extent some of the aboriginal people in the urban areas are self-governing. This is with the help of the wide range of organizations providing services and representation to the aboriginal people living in the urban centers. Despite the fact that these organizations may lack the necessary financial independence and autonomy constitutionally, they provide a good platform where self-governing institutions may be established on.
The lack of the perspective of the aboriginal people on the research and reports on the self-governance in the urban areas is another issue encountered in the implementation of the concept. Research indicates that the non-aboriginal authors produce most of the literature in relation to the self-governance of the urban aboriginal people. This is indication that the research on the issues of self-governance does not engage or rather involve the urban aboriginal people. Therefore, in order to have an effective self-governance of the aboriginal people in the urban areas it would be critical to obtain the perspectives and perceptions of the aboriginal people on the approaches that would be involved in the implementation of the self-governance of the aboriginal people in the urban areas. For example, in the citizenship representations as well as the approaches self-governance based on the traditional territories calls for focus that goes beyond the urban boundaries. There seems to lack numerous publications by the aboriginal people. However, most of the aboriginal peoples have explored various approaches to the self-governance that might involve the urban aboriginals. Therefore, the selection of the contacts to be engaged in the exploration of the issues of the implementation of the self-governance of the urban aboriginals must be done carefully as its scope ought to be broad enough to engage and involve the aboriginal people. It is also important to examine the aboriginal people living in the urban areas because most of the available materials are on theory. This is beneficial in determining the representations of governance in the urban centers for the aboriginal people.
The implementation of the concept of self- governance of the aboriginal people in the urban areas in Canada faces the challenge of the legal issues. The federal and the urban governments seem not to pay any attention to the legal issues related to the self-governance of the aboriginal people in the urban areas. It appears that the political rights of the aboriginal peoples of Canada are theory and a mere law. The Federal and provincial governments categorizes the urban aboriginal people as the aboriginal people in the reserves. Therefore, their privileges are accorded the people in the reserves. This raises the question of the validity of the aboriginal peoples of Canada right to self governance and its implications on the aboriginal peoples in the urban centers. The advances in the legal and political arenas have largely bypassed the urban aboriginal people. These advances force the urban aboriginals to join the state recognized land-based communities/ institutions as the source of their political and legal rights. For example, the RCAP (royal commission on aboriginal peoples) symbolizes a turning point as it identified ...