U of S Developed Online Aboriginal Atlas Reveals New Realities in Prairie Cities

Posted January 04, 2005


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Tuesday, January 4, 2005 2005-01-01-AR

Online Aboriginal Atlas Reveals New Realities in Prairie Cities

A new online Atlas of Urban Aboriginal Peoples developed by University of
Saskatchewan geography professor Evelyn Peters reveals patterns that may
help city planners, community groups and First Nations agencies.

While many Aboriginal people remain in poor areas of Saskatchewan's major
cities, they are increasingly earning good incomes and spreading out into
more affluent areas. Métis people, for example, are already
distributed fairly evenly throughout Saskatoon.

"More Aboriginal people are moving into the middle class," says Peters, who
created the resource with PhD student Oksana Starchenko. Peters is also a
Canada Research Chair in Geography.

As of the 2001 census, about half of Canada's Aboriginal people were urban
dwellers. About one in 10 citizens in Regina and Saskatoon are Aboriginal.

"If we think of Aboriginal people living everywhere, we don't think of
social challenges as 'aboriginal issues,'" she says. "Aboriginal people are
very much connected to the future of our communities."

Peters explains that the data also point to the dangers in comparing the
Canadian experience with that of black people in the United States. For
example, the term "ghetto" doesn't apply very well to the situation here.

Ghettos in major American cities can be home to hundreds of thousands of
people, with a population that is more than 80 per cent black. In contrast,
the Saskatoon census tracts with the highest Aboriginal populations top out
at about 35 per cent. A census tract is a relatively small geographic area
defined by Statistics Canada, usually containing a population of about 6,000
people.

Peters concedes this point might be lost on someone living on Saskatchewan's
mean streets.

"Aboriginal households living in areas of extreme poverty talk about fear,
housing inadequacy and problems their children face. It doesn't help to tell
them they aren't living in a 'ghetto' as defined by academics," she says.

"Still, areas of poverty and areas where Aboriginal people live in Saskatoon
are not like U.S. ghettos, and it isn't helpful to use language that
suggests that they are. The real challenge is to find out what is going on
with Aboriginal people in Canadian cities, and not assume that we know by
analogy with the U.S. situation. We need a made-in-Saskatchewan,
made-on-the-Prairies perspective."

The atlas is the culmination of three years of crunching statistics from
several sources, particularly the 1971, 1981 and 2001 censuses from
Statistics Canada. The numbers are fed into an online computer engine that
produces coloured maps that clearly show distribution of Aboriginal
populations. Funding for the project is provided by the Canada Foundation
for Innovation, and the Government of Saskatchewan's Innovation and Science
Fund.

Saskatoon and Regina are the first two cities to be included in the atlas,
with Winnipeg to follow in the next few weeks. Peters expects Prince Albert,
Edmonton and Calgary maps to be available by next summer, after which she
plans to add socioeconomic data to the resource.

"We've made this a resource to teach our own students about Aboriginal
people," Peters says. "Certainly geographers will use it, and we're very
much hoping that urban planners and Aboriginal organizations can use it."

The atlas is available on the U of S Department of Geography website
http://www.arts.usask.ca/geography (click on "Links"), or go directly to the
atlas at http://gismap.usask.ca/website/Web_atlas/AOUAP/.

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For more information, contact:

Evelyn J. Peters
Department of Geography
College of Arts and Science
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 966-5639
evp818@duke.usask.ca

Michael Robin
Research Communications
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 966-2427
michael.robin@usask.ca
www.usask.ca/research