Non-Indigenous Canadians support immediate gov't measures to address First Nations challenges: survey
- Fraser Needham | June 09, 2016
A new survey shows non-Indigenous Canadians are increasingly aware of the unique challenges Indigenous people face and support institutions like government taking action to address these challenges.
However, the same survey reveals many non-Indigenous people are unaware of Canada’s historic obligations to First Nations as part of the treaties and possess little knowledge of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission or its calls to action.
The survey was conducted by the non-profit Environics Institute for Survey Research in partnership with seven leading Indigenous and non-Indigenous organizations.
It comes roughly a year after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s interim report, which was released in June 2015.
Some highlights include roughly two-thirds or 66 per cent of non-Indigenous Canadians are at least somewhat familiar with the legacy of the Indian residential school system, a substantial increase from 2008, and 73 per cent believe the challenges Indigenous people face today are to some extent the result of residential schools.
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Ninety-one percent believe government funding for Indigenous education should match other provincial levels, 90 per cent support increased funding for clean drinking water and adequate housing on First Nations reserves and 97 per cent favour the teaching of Indigenous history and culture being made part of the core curriculum in schools.
“I think the general appetite for education and closing the gap by Canadians was pleasantly surprising,” Director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation Ry Moran says. “We’re up around the 80 to 90 per cent levels of support for those initiatives and I think that’s very positive. I think that gives politicians and decision makers a very strong mandate to pursue these agendas very vigorously.”
Nevertheless, at the same time the survey finds although most non-Indigenous people believe Indigenous history and culture are characteristics that make Canada unique, they are divided on whether First Nations people have inherent rights and privileges as first inhabitants.
“To put it bluntly, that is primarily a measure of the ignorance rather than a measure of opinion really,” Moran says. “When Canadians say that they don’t think Indigenous people have unique rights, they’re just plain wrong, they do. In the constitution we have treaty rights, we have other Indigenous rights that have been confirmed by the courts time and again and now we have the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples that’s in play as well. So, that just means that Canadians simply are unaware of this and they don’t really understand what Indigenous rights are. Some do but a lot don’t and it’s an indication of the education that needs to happen.”
The survey also finds just over four in ten or 42 per cent of non-Indigenous people have heard or read something about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and few in this group can recall any of the commission’s calls to action.
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- New TRC research centre opens at University of Manitoba
- Affinity Credit Union moves to adopt TRC calls to action
Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations Chief Bobby Cameron agrees the survey contains a number of positives and, like Moran, he says education is key to addressing some of the current shortcomings.
“It (education on Indigenous history and treaty rights) has to start and it must start in the classrooms,” he says. “Obviously K-12, whatever they decide but we currently support and will continue to push for that item to be introduced in schools.”
Cameron says he is also hopeful that some day soon universities will offer a comprehensive four-year degree program on the history and long-term ramifications of the treaties.
In Saskatchewan, some teaching of First Nations treaties is currently part of the core curriculum in kindergarten to Grade 12 schools.
The survey also finds 78 per cent of non-Indigenous Canadians favour government funding to protect Indigenous languages, 66 per cent believe First Nations communities should be given full control over natural resources on traditional territories and 60 per cent say all outstanding land claims should be settled regardless of cost.
As well, it finds non-Indigenous Canadians endorse measures to strengthen Indigenous representation in the federal government including guaranteed seats in cabinet and First Ministers meetings and a new Aboriginal Parliamentary committee to review all new laws from an Indigenous perspective.
The survey was conducted between January 15 and February 8 with a representative sample of non-Indigenous Canadians 18 years of age and older and a margin of error for a survey of this size drawn from the population of plus or minus 2.2 per cent – 19 out of 20 samples.