Canada Canada''s Aboriginal Peoples

Canada Travel Itinerary

Canada''s Aboriginal Peoples

Nearly a million Canadians can claim at least partial aboriginal ancestry. Aboriginal populations continue to increase, and interest in their cultural heritage, by aborigines and nonaborigines alike, continues to grow. However, the term "aborigine" does not indicate a common or shared culture, only descent from groups of people who arrived on the continent long before Europeans. Canada's constitution specifies three categories of "aboriginal peoples": Indian, Inuit and Metis.

The term "Indian" is now recognized as a misnomer, but other attempts to be more specific, such as "Amerindians" or "Native Canadians", have been no more successful and you're likely to hear several different terms on your travels. The terms "First Nations" and "aboriginals" are in vogue but again there is the possibility of more change. Treated as wards of the federal government since the birth of Canada, the Indians were put in a different legal category from all other Canadians by the Indian Acts in the nineteenth century. Modern legal distinctions divide this group further into those who are recognized as "Indian" by the federal government - a status bestowed on more than 800,000 Canadians - and those who are denied this recognition, the so-called "non-status Indians". Amongst status Indians there are 633 aboriginal bands (the term "tribe" has also become outmoded) across Canada. Some communities number fewer than 100 inhabitants and others more than 5000. Status enables rights to fishing, hunting and living on a reservation, while nonstatus denies these rights but allows a person to vote, buy property and alcohol. Status can be lost and gained through marriage, an act of parliament or even a band taking a vote on the matter.

Later, as Canada's attention turned to its vast nothern regions, the Inuit were also recognized as falling under federal jurisdiction. The Inuit have a separate origin, arriving much later to North America and inhabiting the inhospitable lands of Arctic Canada. The term Inuit totally replaced use of the derogatory term "Eskimo" in the 1970s. Eskimo is an Algonkian word for "eaters of raw meat". The Inuit share a common origin and a single language and at present number around 27,000.

With a current population of 400,000, the Metis are the product of the unions between male fur traders, usually French-Canadians, and native women, particularly Cree. For centuries they were not recognized as Canadians or aborigines, and with no rights they wandered the country, unable to settle. After a failed rebellion in 1885, they almost disappeared from social and political life and became "the forgotten people", largely poverty-stricken squatters on Crown land. Finally, in 1982, they were recognized as a First Nation in the Constitution.

Because of the distances separating them, each nation and even each community has its own characteristics. Their personality and culture are fashioned by history, the environment and by their surrounding neighbours. A large part of the aboriginal people live in relatively close

contact with nonaboriginal people and interact on a daily basis with cultures that have a determining influence on their way of life.

If there is any thread linking these groups, it is the cultural revival experienced over the last forty years. Under the banner of national political movements, all of these groups have renewed their commitment to organizing their social world, to re-establishing legal relationships to the land, and to maintaining and revitalizing their cultures and languages

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