Canada’s indigenous peoples are claiming new rights and resources

“EDUCATION IS THE New Buffalo”, a sculpture formed from words in indigenous languages, is a focal point of Calgary’s new public library. Its message is that, just as bison once sustained indigenous people in North America, so education will secure their cultural survival. Such messages of support for Canada’s “First Nations” are everywhere. Public events often begin with an acknowledgment of the people on whose “traditional territory” it is taking place. Under a revision of the citizenship oath proposed by the government in May, new Canadians would recognise “the aboriginal and treaty rights of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples”.

Indigenous groups have become more assertive, courts more sympathetic and the government more responsive. This has benefited many. Used to thinking of the country as based on English-and French-speaking nations, Canadians are starting to say it has a “triangular foundation”, says John Ralston Saul, an author. But progress is patchy.

In the census of 2016, 1.7m Canadians, or nearly 5%, described themselves as indigenous. Their number is growing faster than that of Canada’s population as a whole. Their living conditions are, on average, worse. Nearly 30% of First Nations people are poor, meaning their after-tax income is less than 50% of the median income, adjusted for family size. In 2016,...

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