Indigenous Governance in Winnipeg and Ottawa: Making Space for Self-Determination

Abstract

Introduction In Canada, over half of all Indigenous people live in urban areas. Given the growth of Indigenous populations in cities, particularly in Western Canada, political arrangements that enhance Indigenous self-determination and facilitate self-government require significantly more attention. Currently, a highly uneven array of institutional actors and configurations constitute the terrain of urban Indigenous governance. Consequently, a major challenge for Indigenous peoples who reside in urban areas is the lack of clarity with regard to the roles and responsibilities of different levels of government, Aboriginal governments, and local institutions. This paper examines the dynamics of urban Indigenous governance in Winnipeg and Ottawa, discussing ways in which processes, relationships, and structures can be transformed to better reflect the needs, rights, and aspirations of urban Indigenous communities. Following a brief description of the methodological choices informing this work in the first section (I), I discuss how public discourses have framed urban Indigenous communities (II). Settler notions of where Indigenous peoples belong continue to inform policies that deny urban Indigenous communities the necessary political space and adequate resources to be self-governing. The third section of this paper (III) outlines how urban Indigenous self-determination and self-government are conceptualized, and how inherent Indigenous rights provide the normative basis for transforming urban Aboriginal governance. The fourth section (IV) provides a brief demographic overview of Indigenous populations in Winnipeg and Ottawa and sketches the local contexts of Indigenous governance. In Section V, I examine three main constraints on urban Aboriginal self-determination that interview participants have identified around issues of funding, access, and representation. Finally, Section VI highlights how increased collaboration has been transforming the dynamics of urban Indigenous governance in Ottawa and Winnipeg. However, I argue that these transformations converge more with larger processes around urban governance and neo-liberal restructuring than with Indigenous struggles for self-determination. While the recent proliferation of partnerships has provided more opportunities for urban Indigenous self-determination,

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