Industry in Canada

Aboriginal Peoples of Canada

03/04/2007

The study of aboriginal peoples in Canada and their population trends are often overlooked by the general public. Being that a large percentage of aboriginal peoples live outside of urban centres or on designated reserve areas there often is a sense of disregard associated with the study of the people of aboriginal descent living in Canada by the rest of Canadians. This disregard of the aboriginal people can be associated with the isolation that the rural populations of aboriginals in Canada are placed in.

The reality of the situation is that many of the reserve areas where most of the rural aboriginal populations are located are set up in locations that are miles away from large urban centers and are for the most part difficult to travel to and from on a regular basis. There are many factors that contribute to the aboriginal situation around Canada such as the language barrier, demographic factors, and social structure factors. There is a great educational value of teaching the youth of the country about this interesting issue and it is in fact a more valuable facet of knowledge then generally perceived.

With this being said, there has been a significantly strong trend that has been occurring over the past 30 years being that the aboriginal population of the urban areas in Canada has been growing at a much larger rate then that of the rural areas of Canada. This statement is one that can be examined in depth by using statistical data and analytical literature from several academic sources such as textbooks and census data.

One of the sources I chose to use in order to find data regarding this topic of aboriginal populations in Canada is the text book titled Canadian History: Patterns & Transformations written and edited by Ian Hundley, Michael Magarrey, Rosemary Evans, and Brian O’Sullivan. This text is a historical collection of Canadian events and data. On page 56 of this text there is a...