Learning Journal: Focusing On the Various Issues In Exploring Urban Native Communities - Essay Example

FOCUSING ON THE VARIOUS ISSUES IN EXPLORING URBAN NATIVE COMMUNITIES Urban Aboriginal Communities in Canada provides an important examination of the challenges and issues faced by native urban communities in such key areas as income, education, language and mobility. Almost half of Canadian Aboriginal people are city dwellers. A study undertaken by Environics Institute and released to the CBC in April 2010 indicated that many of the native urban dwellers have no plans of returning to their home reserve. The scholarly work on urban native dwellers issues continues to focus on reserve-based communities. It is has also been shown in various studies that the major distributive compositions of the Aborigine communities throughout the country are found in the urban centers, in the reserves and in other rural areas. The study conducted by Silver (120-145), showed that more than half the population of the urban native societies in Australia and Canada lives in urban centers. Mixed-blood urban Native people in Canada are mostly affected by federal legislation that divides the Aboriginal communities into several legal categories. According to Forbes (5-26), he reveals the ways in which mixed-blood urban natives understand their own identity and the challenges they have to undergo in order to survive in world that, most of the time, fails to recognize them. Just like the Aboriginal, the Real Indians and others communities draws on the first-person accounts of 30 Toronto residents of Native heritage. This is in addition to archival materials and sociological research, and urban native heritage and experiences of the native urban communities (Forbes, 15-26). In trying to understand the urban native communities, this work will mainly focus on Aboriginals and American Indians communities to explain the life and challenges faced by the native urban communities. The complex nature through which systemic management of the urban native societies issues is established in social variances across the urban centers expresses the cohesiveness that appears to be controlling the nature of urban integration for the Aborigines which ensures that both positives from the process are preserved while the negatives are identified and dealt with in a systematic way to ensure problems do not crop up min future due to the solutions applied to today’s problems (Barman, Jean, Hébert, and McCaskill, 97). The impacts are naturally established and a linear factor is established in between the relevant components. Studies conducted in Winnipeg Canada show the vibrant community organizations run by, started by and created for the Aborigines. The Winnipeg example is instructive of the way the urban Aborigine population can move towards making a good life for themselves in an urban setting. The Winnipeg example is the most complete and functioning setup for urban native societies in Canada (William, 89-101). There is a significant relationship that appears within the urban living Aboriginals and societal cohesion with their neighbors who have different and varied cultures and the ability for the Aborigines to adapt to urban life (Howard, 22). This can be inferred through looking at the inequality between the other members of society and the Aborigines who are still trying to fit their day to day realities into the urban settings. Their realities consist of getting gainfully employed in the urban centers while also creating ties with different societies despite the numerous challenges they face. They are still struggling with issues of land compensation and other similar historical issues. It is however important to note that despite the hard economic realities that face the day to day lives of the Aborigines, an enterprising and hard working culture is helping them to define a good life for themselves in the urban centers (Howard, 87). Modern American Indian life is rural, urban and everything in-between. An all-encompassing urban/rural dichotomy still shapes the scholarly and popular perceptions of Native Americans. However, the fact is this is a false expression of a complex and constantly changing reality (Olson, James and Raymond, 145). From the Native perspectives, the concepts of urbanity and approaches to American Indian studies have undergone basic transformation. This is shown in terms of both academics and general scholarly works. Courses in Native American studies, anthropology ethical studies and urban studies have been stepped to “keep in touch” with the contemporary Indian realities. On his book, “Native Americans of California and Nevada”, Jack Forbes wrote an ethnographic study of Indian cultures from the prehistoric to present day times. His study was mainly based on the Nevada and California states. Topics and approaches are almost as diverse as the one-half to two-thirds of American Indians whose main dwellings are the cities as compared to reservations. Forbes claims that the multiplicity of several disciplinary angles helps emphasize the numerous facets of urban Indian experience. The loss of culture being passed down from the older Aborigine generations is exemplified in that some of the original knowledge that the old generations possessed seems to have been lost for ever as it never got passed down. However none of this got passed on to the younger generations and is presumably lost now. The federal government relocation program has been the main focus of the policy studies. For instance, the social science studies are on the forefront in addressing issues relating to drinking and group membership exclusively through the application of detailed quantitative surveys. Forbes works tries to move beyond these concerns and present a richer, fuller picture of American Indian urban life. In the drums keep beating: recovering a Mohawk identity, Laura Schwager who is an Aborigine by descent talks of the way the Aborigine culture has been diluted by western influence using herself as an example (Laura, 55). She admits that despite the fact that a good Number of aborigines which has managed to retain their aborigine identity, a good percentage of the urban natives have not. Intermarriages come to the fore as a factor in the diminished inheritance of Aborigine heritage from one generation to the next (Laura, 67). The comparative learned urban values have been developed in view of the changing world trends and in particular for the urban natives like the Aborigines of Canada and Native Americans. The critical analyses of various compositions are distinctly aligned to provide total quality education. These have been expressed by silver (156) on the development of an urban culture unique to the Aborigines that have been integrated into modern society by either being born there or having spent a big portion of their lives in cities. Lawrence (79) explained that specific conclusions could be derived theoretically in view of differentiated societal perceptions from the broader society concerning the Aborigine integration into the urban setting. This hence explains a typical composition of concurrently appearing relationships which formed a newly established study process and a wide network of this study was accordingly developed using specified comparative techniques. For aboriginal people living in the Toronto area there is rich and long history on Native occupation which cannot be eradicated even by the existence of the Toronto’s tower. During the fur trade Aboriginal people camped in Toronto Island while trading fur at Fort Rouille and later Fort York. There has been a mistaken belief that North American forests were primordial forest, or proto-forests. This assumption was based on the evidence that when European explorers first invaded the interior of North American they discovered broad park-like forest areas. The fact is, the park-like forest were actually cultivated and managed by horticultural storehouse for Native people (Bobiwash, 1-3). The history of the Toronto area is one in which Native people were integrally involved. The proximity of numerous reserves to Toronto and the development of the city as the center for government activities, trade, commerce and education, was the main reason why the Native people maintained a presence in and ultimately inflicting some influence within the life of Toronto. The 19th Century was the defining moment for change and full recognition of the Native people in Toronto. During this century, pressures of settlement, competition for game, disease, political alliances and warfare of Aboriginal nations lead to the marginalization in their own lands. At the time, justice was inventible hence the Natives continued to press for redress of the injustices they suffered throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Native people continued to live in the Toronto area, individually and as communities. Not until after the 2nd World war when they significantly reemerged, their existence was “like fire that lives under the moss-burning slowly and gently but with little smoke” (Bobiwash, 190-203). Studies have indicated that there exists a wide gap between indigenous and non indigenous citizen’s life expectancy levels in Canada and in Australia where the life expectancy of the indigenous people is lower than that of their counterparts. However, the results are not conclusive due to difficulties emanating from methods, data and concepts (Ramirez, 189). The relevance demonstrated in the journal readings expresses a powerful reflection of human concept versus social integration and how urbanization values have contributed to the development of political participation for the marginalized Aborigines. This has precisely showed the rate at which civic engagements have been captivated by influential behaviors noting in contexts the individualistic measures including social therapies, social change and addressable factors which have for years transformed the nature of human composition. Flanagan (34) has demonstrated that virtually every single apparatus is conceptually developmental and that the questions relating to social change are capitalized by variables which are in themselves highly causative. In view of the effects related to social change, the societal effects have been aided by resources and skills available at both personal and co-operative levels. The societal level is in itself a conceptual measure that defines the educational and integration relevance in any conceptual apparatus. This has shown that the norms, networks and functional human capitals have been transferred from one level to another with special deliberations on resource availability for the whole society including the urban native societies. As such, the societal institutions that have been factored with social relations have worked through the transformational networks to ensure that a huge participatory level for the Native urban dwellers is realized. This has led to the rise in inclusive politics and other areas of society for the urban native societies and a resultant rise in their population levels in the urban centers (Flanagan, 201). In order to address the effects of societal aggregation and institute important areas required in controlling the institutions as well as the cultures which are all developmental, in principle, the development of the required skills represent an empirical formula that works on social cohesion that is at the same time required in developing the micro societal capital. The new dynamics of the interaction between the urban natives and the urban dwellers has led to the need for them to learn the language of the majority and learn skills that will enable them fit into the urban society. The argumentative factor has demonstrated the society as a main frame area which represents the apparatus required diagnosing and reimbursing of the required factors as represented by the theoretical links and in particular the norms that have for years transformed the society (Bobiwash, 78). The standards developed through the economic platforms were identified to be highly volatile and the redistributive mechanism ensured that the degree of undertaking proper policies was based on the code of belief required for educational enterprises. The endeavors managed by the required policy initiatives explained the enhanced protocols which were deemed highly researchable and the modeled measures explained by the developmental concerns of the associated social cohesive statistics (Flanagan, 190). Policy concentrations have been advocated through the management of unified factors aiding the justification of known protocols that have contemporary reflection of the world’s educational values. Silver (120) explained that the standard of living has been virtually developed to be expressly aligned with special family welfares and this arbitrarily reflects the quality enhancement of a modernized system. As such, the privacies which relate to the nationalistic processes are in themselves highly justifiable as per the required protocols. Educational federalism has hence been massively expressed as per the initiated strategic compositions. This has y been accorded a special charter in which all virtues are measured accordingly. As such, the American values take a huge stake of an education system that has a set of values necessary to develop an individual’s mind. This American national character has been thought to be profitably idealistic and its necessity is prudent to an active public understanding (Barman, Jean, Yvonne, Hébert, and Don, 176). Educational campaigners have for a long time taken the democratic principles of education in one practical composition hence explaining the pillars that have satisfactorily aided the interventional methodologies. Public education has been expressed in form of a democratic dispensation and this has vitally given the key concentrations a technical know-how of the systemic implementation and the theorization of the required essentials which are functionally merged to demonstrate the societal vantage points. Hence, the existences of a real degree of homogeneity have been viewable expressed as a social function necessary to effect certain realistic changes in any economic development. Educational functions have hence been created to supplement the egoistic build-up process necessary to usher in a new wave of a practical intervention. In terms of the specific concerns regarding national identities, Forbes (89) expressed that the practical position is precisely composed of similar variants of terms that have been shown to be largely related to newly aid developmental process. The century long legacies regarding liberalization of education have been aided by positions and hierarchies. These conformations have had impact on the surveillance of formal values which are thought to be particularly useful in enhancing the cohesiveness of any particular organ within the community. Therefore it is impractical to assume the role Education has played in transforming the Urban Native society. A study of quite a few media houses established that the issues concerning multiculturalism that got a lot of coverage were immigration and Indigenous land rights issues. This was mainly because they were portrayed tom be problems affecting the culture of the majority. The media has however been challenged ands is responding to being more inclusive and portraying a more balanced reporting formula on matters affecting the Urban Native society after a concerted campaign by the aboriginals and other sympathizers. According to Jack Forbes (89), stories covering aborigine issues were mostly aimed at white audiences and were made with a clear tilt towards an “us” versus “them” perspective. The portrayal of the indigenous issues as potentially threatening for the majority culture and not in terms of late to deliver justice for the aborigines was a common theme in the media a short while back in Australia. Conclusion The complex nature through which systemic management of the urban native societies issues is established in social variances across the urban centers expresses the cohesiveness that appears to be controlling the nature of urban integration for the Aborigines which ensures that both positives from the process are preserved while the negatives are identified and dealt with in a systematic way to ensure problems do not crop up min future due to the solutions applied to today’s problems. The impacts are naturally established and a linear factor is established in between the relevant components. (Ramirez and Renya, 67). In Canada, most of the Aborigine people live in western Canadian cities though not exclusively. As with any city in the world, the cities have the more affluent neighborhoods which are normally inhabited by those in society that are better off economically and the poorer sections of the city inhabited by the less affluent. The Aborigines living in these urban centers are mostly in the less affluent category and as such are faced with problems like poor housing, unsafe neighborhoods and different forms of racism (Silver, 56). On the other hand, Native Americans have undergone transformation since the 17th century. Their social, cultural and economic status has been redefined according to the current changing global economic status. As much as they are still marginalized, they have continued to live as urban dwellers. Their voices and influence have continued to live in the cities. References Anderson, Kim and Bonita Lawrence (Eds). Strong Women Stories: Native Vision and Community Survival. Toronto: Sumach Press, 2003. Barman, Jean, Yvonne M. Hébert, and Don N. McCaskill. Indian Education in Canada. Vancouver: University of British Columbia, 1986. Print. Bobiwash, Rodney A. “The History of Native People in the Toronto Area: An Overview” in The Meeting Place: Aboriginal Life in Toronto. Frances Sanderson and Heather Howard-Bobiwash (editors). Native Canadian Centre of Toronto, 1997, 5-24. Flanagan, William G. Urban Sociology: Images and Structure. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2010. Print. Forbes, Jack D. “The Urban Tradition Among Native Americans” in American Indians and the Urban Experience. Susan Lobo and Kurt Peters (Editors). New York: Altamira Press, 5-26 Howard, Heather A. and Craig Proulx, Editors. Aboriginal People in Canadian Cities: Transformation and Continuities. Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2011. Lawrence, Bonita. "real" Indians and Others: Mixed-blood Urban Native Peoples and Indigenous Nationhood. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004. Print. Olson, James S, and Raymond Wilson. Native Americans in the Twentieth Century. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1984. Print. Ramirez, Renya K. Native Hubs: Culture, Community, and Belonging in Silicon Valley and Beyond. Durham: Duke University Press, 2007. Print. Silver, Jim. In Their Own Voices: Building Urban Aboriginal Communities. Halifax, N.S: Fernwood Pub, 2006. Print. Read More