The exclusive city: Identifying, measuring, and drawing attention to Aboriginal and Indigenous experiences in an urban context

Aboriginal and Indigenous people are among the world’s poorest of the poor, and are forming increasing proportions of urban centres throughout the world. Little information is currently gathered on urban Aboriginal and Indigenous populations, and almost no systems exist that examine their quality of life or importance to urban sustainability. An indicators system was developed by the Centre for Native Policy and Research to examine the condition of the Greater Vancouver region’s 36,000 Aboriginal people. The system was based on the traditional Aboriginal concept of the medicine wheel and incorporates four elements or directions (physical/economic, spiritual/cultural, emotional/social, and mental/environment) as the foundation of sustainability. Information for the indicators revealed a much lower quality of life for Aboriginal people in the Greater Vancouver region compared to other residents. Only 36% of the indicators ranked as fair or improving, while 60% ranked as deteriorating, weak, or poor. In order to improve our understanding of progress towards sustainability, Aboriginal and Indigenous people need to be involved in developing and defining measures of sustainability. Such measures should take into account the significant cultural heritage and importance of Aboriginal and Indigenous people, and the significant socioeconomic gaps that exist.