Documenting the health realities of urban Indigenous populations

In Quebec, more than half of the Indigenous population lives in large cities. As both Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities continue to grow in urban areas, understanding the unique health challenges of city life is becoming more and more important for health care providers and researchers.

To serve this growing population, the Regroupement des centres d’amitié autochtones du Québec (RCAAQ) launched the Observatory of Urban Indigenous Realities in December 2022. This initiative aims to create data and share knowledge on urban Indigenous populations, with a focus on research with, by and for Indigenous people.

“There was a demand for research at Friendship Centres,” says Ariane Desjardins, who works at the Observatory within the RCAAQ. “The Observatory was created to enable the Friendship Centre Movement to conduct its own research alongside outside researchers.”

Data collection is a top priority for the Observatory, as there is currently little information on urban Indigenous populations. “We want to focus on creating reliable data,” says Desjardins.

“It’s important for data to be accessible and answer concrete questions for urban Indigenous people,” adds Desjardins. “Indigenous knowledge and data shouldn’t be owned by individuals but by the collective.”

The Observatory’s research has four main focuses: culture and identity, health and well being for all, housing, and governance.

Currently, the Observatory is conducting a census to gather information on urban Indigenous populations, including population size, language, home nation, access to services, number of children, education, and housing and work status. This information will help determine access to public services and provide a clearer picture of what it means to live as an Indigenous person in a city in Quebec.

“The Friendship Centres will be able to use this data to provide for their communities,” Desjardins explains.

Beyond data collection, the Observatory also supports Friendship Centres in leading their own research by teaching them research methodology, governed by a framework [ PDF (3.5 MB) - external link ] designed by and for Quebec’s urban Indigenous peoples. The Friendship Centres and the Quebec Network Environments for Indigenous Health Research (NEIHR) Centre have long been partners, and they “share many of the same values and ways of working,” says Dr. Treena Delormier, the Quebec NEIHR’s principal investigator.

“The Regroupement wants to express their self-determination to conduct research that is important to urban Indigenous Peoples in Quebec,” says Dr. Delormier.

The RCAAQ is now a principal investigator on several grants, including a recent climate justice project, funded by CIHR, called Nashpitshipanu.

“Given that collective researchers have long been overlooked as funding recipients, we see this victory as a further step towards the decolonization and self-determination in research,” says Desjardins.

Friendship Centres exist in 14 cities across Quebec, including in Montreal, Maniwaki, Sept-Îles, Baie-Comeau, Trois-Rivières, and others. The cities each have their own research needs and specific local context, and the Observatory will work closely with each centre in 2025 to determine their distinct priorities.

“Montreal has people from many different nations and languages, and people come from all over Canada, so the service is not the same,” says Desjardins. “Then we have centres that are in small cities, and they usually serve one or two nations, so their needs and services are quite different.”

At a glance

Issue

Data on urban Indigenous Peoples, including population number and access to public services such as schools and hospitals, is scarce. Insufficient data makes it difficult for Friendship Centres to properly provide for urban Indigenous populations.

Research

Created through consultations led by the Regroupement des centres d’amitié autochtones du Quebec with support from the Quebec NEIHR and other partners,the Observatory of Urban Indigenous Realities supports Friendship Centres interested in leading their own research to help Indigenous communities take charge of their future in an urban world.

Distinctions-based healthcare

For more information on distinctions-based approaches, see: What We Heard: Visions for Distinctions-based Indigenous Health Legislation. (2022). Government of Canada. Executive Summary available at: Visions for Distinctions-based Indigenous Health Legislation: Executive summary