The geographic proximity of any given community to population centres, services, and facilities can be a key factor for socio-economic outcomes and community growth. To provide accessible information on proximity for community stakeholders and policy development, the Centre for Special Business Projects has worked with Indigenous Services Canada to develop the Index of Remoteness, a continuous index available for all communities in Canada that measures the relative distance to population centres for that community within a set radius, weighted by population size. This review catalogues the development of that index and a set of subsidiary projects based on the index that have expanded the amount of information available on this topic to include specific facility types or additional index options.
The costs of providing social, community and health services in remote communities are potentially much higher than in non-remote communities, due to a range of factors including higher transportation and additional labour costs. Ensuring equity in service delivery requires funding to be indexed appropriately for these additional costs. The question of how to adjust funding to account for costs associated with remoteness is conceptually and methodologically challenging. We present the issues involved in measuring remoteness and the indexation of funding to measure remoteness in the Canadian context, with particular attention to remote First Nations. We also consider the data requirements in the context of First Nations, including issues of community versus agency-level data and of appropriate data ownership and control.
The objective of the community consultations was to ensure that the voices of the communities were heard in planning how to use any increase in funding associated with remoteness. Every community requires a detailed accounting of services that are being provided and services that will be needed to ensure that children have the opportunity to reach their full potential within their own communities. The community factors affecting the well-being of children and the need for services to address these concerns must be clearly articulated and reflected in any report intended to address the inequities in the current service delivery model. The experts on what is needed are the communities themselves. The task facing researchers and decision-makers is to clearly understand those needs and the costs of both providing and supporting the implementation of necessary services. A one-size-fits-all approach will not work. To conduct this engagement we covered visits to 19 remote First Nations belonging to the Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) where members provided their perspectives and insights on how living in geographically remote communities impacted the availability of child welfare services. The engagement uncovered a set of complex relationships and expectations that exist among the three Indigenous child and family service agencies serving NAN communities, regarding how funding should appropriately compensate for remoteness to improve the lives of children and families. These themes encompassed the lived experience of community members and the importance of the distinct community character and local culture. The findings demonstrated the importance of continued resource support for increased child welfare services in the NAN communities compared to equivalent non-remote communities.
Introductory article for the International Indigenous Policy Journal Special Issues on Remoteness
There is evidence that providing services in remote communities is more expensive than in non-remote ones. Existing methods for adjusting funding to account for these costs have various limitations. This article documents the development of a new methodology from Indigenous Services Canada for estimating the additional costs due to the impact of remoteness, for program funding and budgetary considerations.* The “Cost Adjustment Factor” is a generic formula that could be used in the absence of program-specific information. To develop the Cost Adjustment Factor, we applied regression analysis to the Index of Remoteness, transportation infrastructure, employment allowances of federal employees, and shipping costs data on a sample of 278 Isolated Posts in Canada. Based on the results of the regression analysis, an illustrative First Nations community with an Index of Remoteness of 0.8 and access by air would have a Cost Adjustment Factor of 125.6%. Sensitivity analyses based on various sample specifications and analytic criteria showed that the Cost Adjustment Factor is statistically robust to specific assumptions that were tested.
Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) is examining options to offset the costs of remoteness for First Nations and provide a rationale for additional funding for remote communities. This article presents best practices for building a measure of remoteness as well as an analysis of measures of remoteness used in Canada and in Australia. An evaluation of the various measures of remoteness against the best practices determined that the Index of Remoteness developed by Statistics Canada in partnership with Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada is currently the most robust measure of remoteness available.
This article highlights a collaboration involving seven Métis cancer survivors from Northern Saskatchewan, alongside researchers and staff from the Saskatchewan Network Environments for Indigenous Health Research (NEIHR) and StoryCentre Canada. Over a span of four days at Back to Batoche, a key Métis cultural event, participants worked with StoryCentre staff to exchange their cancer experiences and create their own digital stories. The research team partnered with Terri Hansen-Gardiner, a Métis knowledge keeper, cancer survivor, and advocate, to co-develop the project in partnership with her community. The participants shared insights about the challenges they faced in accessing care and the factors that supported their recovery. The findings from this project reveal that digital storytelling is an important tool for advancing social justice and advocating for policy and program changes that strengthen Indigenous well-being, sovereignty, and self-determination.
This study presents a Judicial Intersectionality method that incorporates knowledge from arts, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences. It aims to examine how historical legal, political, and social injustices against Indigenous Australians have persisted in various spheres. When considering the Stolen Generations period, attention is directed on addressing the existing insufficient copyright rights and enhancing future legal results for Indigenous artists. In order to achieve that objective, a unique and distinct copyright system is regarded as the most suitable resolution. Philosophically and pragmatically, this approach was aligned with the Australian Government's 2023 Referendum, which aimed to grant constitutional status to Indigenous individuals and establish a Voice to Parliament advisory council. Although the Referendum did not succeed, the implementation of the standalone sui generis copyright system is a crucial step in the Government's efforts to acknowledge, reconcile, and create a relationship with Indigenous Australians. The Judicial Intersectionality method acknowledges the importance of chance-related connections in unique situations that are uncertain and necessitate action. Given that these circumstances offer fresh starts and chances for transformation, it is now the appropriate moment to embark on this endeavour, to deliberate on the paths of legal modification, and to enact fair, sustainable, and revolutionary copyright reforms for Indigenous Australian artists.
Objectives: Indigenous people in Canada continue to suffer from higher rates of opioid overdose death than non-Indigenous groups. Although substance use treatment remains a key strategy in the context of the overdose crisis, the barriers to timely substance use treatment access among Indigenous people have not been well-characterized. This study aims to identify factors affecting treatment access for Indigenous residents in Vancouver, BC. Methods: Data was derived from three prospective cohort studies of people who use drugs in Vancouver. Generalized estimating equations (GEE) were used to identify barriers to substance use treatment access among Indigenous people from June 2015 to May 2022. Results: This study included 784 Indigenous people who use drugs (median age 37.74, 48.41% who self-identified as women). At baseline, 55 (7.0%) participants reported difficulty accessing substance use treatment, increasing to 128 (16.33%) participants during follow-up. In multivariate analyses, homelessness ([AOR]: 1.63, 95% confidence interval [Cl]: 1.08-2.47), sexwork (AOR: 1.66, 95% CI: 1.12-2.47), and experiencing violence (AOR: 1.87, 95% CI: 1.25-2.81) were positively associated with difficulty accessing treatment. In sub-analyses, participants primarily found detox programs and treatment centers to be most inaccessible, with the primary barrier being long waitlists. Discussion: The study revealed that a small, but significant, proportion of Indigenous participants, including those possessing marker of overdose risk, struggled to access treatment. These results highlight the need for specialized approaches to enhance access to culturally sensitive substance use treatment and trauma support for Indigenous individuals.
For over 25 years, the Canadian Red Cross (CRC) has been invited into Indigenous communities across Canada to support them in mobilizing to prevent violence and create safe environments to promote wellness for children and youth. We collaborated with four Indigenous communities to understand community mobilization processes. Community-based researchers ensured that the research was culturally appropriate. Conversations with community members who participated in CRC's Ten Steps workshop were transcribed and qualitatively coded. We are reporting on the 15 themes that were common across the four communities. Ten common themes emerged related to how the workshop supported communities to mobilize and work cohesively to prevent violence. Five additional themes arose from community members' suggestions for future programming and are described following the seven questions. Communities recognized the value of the CRC programming to create safe environments for children and youth.
This qualitative research, the first Australian study of its kind, constitutes an in-depth analysis of kidney disease care policies and strategic plans (n=11) to identify how they recognise and affirm the healthcare rights of the Northern Territory’s (NT) Indigenous People. The Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights was used as a guiding document for the research. The study employed a thematic analysis method, specifically the framework analysis, due to its suitability for identifying and analysing patterns in qualitative data. The findings revealed that the Indigenous People’s healthcare rights are not explicitly addressed in the policies and plans, even though they constitute 89% of the kidney disease patient population in the NT. A salient aspect of every policy and strategic plan was the lack of specific affirmative actions and targets to evaluate renal care processes and progress for Indigenous People.
Canada's Impact Assessment Act (2019) presents threats to Indigenous homelands through environmental assimilation and the national public interest. The "taken-up" clause in the numbered treaties, unilateral exemption stipulation for designated projects, and other discretionary decision-making powers in the Impact Assessment Act all override sections in these documents or other pieces of legislation safeguarding Indigenous homelands, their way of life, and their rights-inherent and treaty. This research focuses on the views of Canada's Indigenous Peoples on how the Impact Assessment Act (2019) and other historical agreements and legislation have and will affect their homelands, way of life, and wellbeing.
Indigenous mothers face unique challenges and violence when attempting to use the healthcare system for themselves and their unborn children. From the mid-20th century on, when Canada’s Indigenous communities were sedentarized, women were compelled to give birth in hospitals. As a result, by taking control of Indigenous women’s bodies, the hospital-based healthcare system altered the fundamental structure of Indigenous societies. Even when efforts were made to expand accessibility by creating community health facilities, Indigenous women were still forced to give birth in hospitals. By centering on Innu and Atikamekw women’s voices, we examine how Quebec’s medical colonialism has affected Indigenous women giving birth in medical facilities. We demonstrate how the healthcare system disrupts Indigenous practices and knowledge regarding pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal recovery, thus altering an entire communal support system. We also examine the growing movement among Quebec’s Indigenous communities to reclaim control over childbirth as a means of opposing medical colonialism.
This study presents a Judicial Intersectionality method that incorporates knowledge from arts, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences. It aims to examine how historical legal, political, and social injustices against Indigenous Australians have persisted in various spheres. When considering the Stolen Generations period, attention is directed on addressing the existing insufficient copyright rights and enhancing future legal results for Indigenous artists. In order to achieve that objective, a unique and distinct copyright system is regarded as the most suitable resolution. Philosophically and pragmatically, this approach was aligned with the Australian Government's 2023 Referendum, which aimed to grant constitutional status to Indigenous individuals and establish a Voice to Parliament advisory council. Although the Referendum did not succeed, the implementation of the standalone sui generis copyright system is a crucial step in the Government's efforts to acknowledge, reconcile, and create a relationship with Indigenous Australians. The Judicial Intersectionality method acknowledges the importance of chance-related connections in unique situations that are uncertain and necessitate action. Given that these circumstances offer fresh starts and chances for transformation, it is now the appropriate moment to embark on this endeavour, to deliberate on the paths of legal modification, and to enact fair, sustainable, and revolutionary copyright reforms for Indigenous Australian artists.
The Four R principles (4Rs) of respect, responsibility, relevance, and reciprocity were developed in the field of education by Kirkness and Barnhardt and have guided respectful approaches in research. Our purpose was to adapt the 4Rs for storytelling methods in Indigenous health research and identify associated exemplary research practices. Indigenous team members drew on their traditional Cree and Anishinaabemowin languages to formulate revised 4R definitions tailored to storytelling in health research and our location on Turtle Island, Treaty One territory. We used this adapted 4R framework to identify and analyze patterns of exemplary practices in studies (N=178) using storytelling methods. Our findings can guide respectful storytelling research to meaningfully incorporate Indigenous perspectives for the well-being and benefit of Indigenous communities.
Indigenous Peoples, especially Indigenous women, are overrepresented in Canadian prisons. Given the underlined importance and benefits of culturally-based programs for justice-involved Indigenous people, Canada’s federal correctional system is committed to providing culturally appropriate programs and practices to meet the needs of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit people in custody. Healthcare is one area the federal correctional system is committed to incorporating such programs and practices. This study evaluated the delivery and preliminary outcomes of a culturally-based health program implemented at a women’s healing lodge in Saskatchewan, Canada, which is centred on the provision of traditional medicine and healing practices. A mixed-methods design was used to assess program participants’ (n = 21) and collaborators’ (n = 17) perceptions of the program and its influence on wellness and cultural connectedness. Findings highlight the perceived positive effects on wellness (physical, mental, spiritual health) and cultural connection for women who participated in the program. Discussion considers policy implications, the potential for implementing similar culturally-based health interventions at other (federal) correctional facilities, and the need for further work in this area.
Despite enduring a range of atrocities, Mi’kmaq people continue to be resilient in the face of adversity. In collaboration with the Union of Nova Scotia Mi'kmaq and through discussions with eight Knowledge Holders, this research aimed to uncover sources of suffering and healing pathways in Mi’kmaq communities. Knowledge Holders identified salient sources of suffering including residential schooling and past policies, ongoing systemic discrimination, collective loss, and community conflict. Knowledge Holders emphasized the importance of engaging in wholistic healing practices that are grounded in Mi’kmaq culture, spirituality, and ways of knowing. Similarly, strengthening connections to culture, community, ancestors, and the land was described as a healing pathway. This research provides support for community-based services that promote healing through cultural revitalization.
This paper examines how well Higher Education (HE) meets the aspirations of Indigenous people in Australia, especially as reflected in the public policy discourse and its measurements of success. Through a literature review, the paper analyses current public policy and experiences of Indigenous students to identify the extent to which the HE system meets the needs of Indigenous people, especially those from remote areas. From a critical examination of the concept of success, the current limitations within HE are presented, and recommendations are made to help ensure that Indigenous Australians' aspirations and needs for HE are more firmly at the forefront of policy, design and delivery of HE in Australia.
The Four Rprinciples (4Rs) of respect, responsibility, relevance, and reciprocity were developed in the field of education by Kirkness and Barnhardt and have guided respectful approaches in research. Our purpose was to adapt the 4Rs for storytelling methods in Indigenous health research and identify associated exemplary research practices. Indigenous team members drew on their traditional Cree and Anishinaabemowin languages to formulate revised 4R definitions tailored to storytelling in health research and our location on Turtle Island, Treaty One territory. We used this adapted 4R framework to identify and analyze patterns of exemplary practices in studies (N=178) using storytelling methods. Our findings can guide respectful storytelling research to meaningfully incorporate Indigenous perspectives for the well-being and benefit of Indigenous communities.
Indigenous homelessness in settler-colonial societies is determined by the ongoing impacts of colonization. Therefore, policies to address homelessness need to be effective for Indigenous populations whilst supporting ongoing systemic decolonization. Like other settler-colonial states, homelessness in Aotearoa New Zealand is disproportionately experienced by Māori, the Indigenous Peoples of Aotearoa. In Aotearoa NZ, Housing First has been funded by government to address chronic homelessness. Housing First is a rights-based approach to homelessness, centering around providing permanent housing and wraparound support, without preconditions such as sobriety or treatment compliance. As Housing First is a non-Indigenous North American model, the efficacy of the policy for Māori has been the subject of considerable discourse. In this paper, we present a pre- and post-housing analysis of outcomes for Māori clients of a Housing First programme in Kirikiriroa-Hamilton, using integrated government administrative data across health, justice and social welfare. Existing and systemic inequities are apparent in our results, but overall, the trajectory for Māori in Housing First is positive. Our findings support the efficacy of Housing First for Māori, if this occurs within the context of enduring systemic change. E whakatauhia ana te kore-kāingatanga o ngā iwi taketake i ngā porihanga kirinoho-tātāmi e ngā pānga mauroa o te taipūwhenuatanga. Nā reira, me whaihua ngā kaupapahere hei whakatau i te kore-kāingatanga ki ngā taupori iwi taketake, i te wā hoki e tautoko ana i te wete-tāmitanga ā-pūnaha e haere tonu nei.Pērā ki ētahi atu whenua kirinoho-tātāmi, ko te nuinga o te hunga kore kāinga i Aotearoa he Māori, arā, te iwi taketake o Aotearoa. I Aotearoa, e tautokotia ana a Housing First e te kāwanatanga hei whakatau i te kore-kāingatanga tauroa. Ko Housing First he huarahi ā-motika ki te kore-kāingatanga, e aro ana ki te whakarato kāinga tūturu me te tautoko kauawhi, me te kore herenga tōmua pēnei i te tautuku haurangi-kore, maimoatanga rānei. I te mea he tauira a Housing First nō Amerika ki te raki, ā, ehara i te tauira iwi taketake, he nui ngā whakawhiti kōrero o te hua o te kaupapahere mō te Māori. I tēnei tuhinga, ka whakaatu mātou i ngā tātaritanga rapu whare tōmua, tōmuri hoki o ngā putanga mō ngā kiritaki Māori o tētahi hōtaka Housing First i Kirikiriroa, e whakamahi ana i ngā raraunga ā-whakahaere kāwanatanga pāhekoheko puta noa i te hauora, te tika me te tokoora. Mārakerake ana te kite i ngā tautika kore o te wā nei, ā-pūnaha hoki i roto i ngā hua, engari i te whānuitanga ake, he pai te huarahi mō te Māori i roto o Housing First. E tautoko ana ā mātou kitenga i te whai hua o Housing First mō te Māori, ki te pēnei tonu te āhua i roto i te horopaki o te panoni ā-pūnaha mauroa.
