“This is an Indigenous city; why don't we see it?” Indigenous urbanism and spatial production in Winnipeg

Abstract

This paper examines indigeneity and spatial production in the city of Winnipeg, home to the largest urban Indigenous population in Canada. Using data from semi‐structured interviews with Indigenous inhabitants, municipal officials, and Indigenous leaders, this paper argues that the right to the city and to difference are deradicalized for urban Indigenous communities. Indigenous engagement in processes of everyday urbanism occurs through broadly participatory public consultation and through mechanisms designed by City Hall to communicate with Indigenous communities about municipal initiatives. To arrive at a more robust and meaningful Indigenous urban visibility in Canadian cities, spatial production and programming mechanisms will need to be reconstituted. Guided by the perspectives of Indigenous participants, this paper considers some of what Indigenous urbanism might yet entail. Fulfilling coexistence and reconciliation is dependent on enabling Indigenous urbanism to guide the course taken in urban governance, spatial planning, and the built environment of Canadian cities.

Edmonton,Amiskwaciy Wâskahikan, and a Papaschase suburb for settlers

“…However, a growing chorus of scholarship considers cities as Indigenous land. This changes the perspective on cities such as Minneapolis-St. Paul (Keeler 2016); Ottawa (Tomiak 2016); Detroit (Mays 2015); Winnipeg (Burley 2014;Nejad et al 2019);Chicago (LaGrand 2002;Bang et al 2014); Los Angeles (Rosenthal 2012); Sydney (Gulson and Parkes 2009); Vancouver (Stanger-Ross 2008); or San Diego (Pulido 2000). Thrush's (2016Thrush's ( , 2017 analysis of Seattle and then London shows how even imperial centres were taken up and partly shared by Indigenous geographies and cultural networks.…”

Ethnocultural diversity, Indigeneity, and intercultural understanding in the context of planning for reconciliation: Perspectives from the City of Winnipeg, Manitoba

“…The challenge of such categorization is that the planning system of Canadian cities normalizes, and hence downgrades Indigenous inhabitants to an ethnocultural minority group such as immigrants. This categorization circumscribes Indigenous peoples' specific rights-claims to a tight framework of urban service delivery instead of their right to participate in spatial production and placemaking according to their own needs, aspirations, and epistemologies (Nejad et al, 2019).…”

“…For most of the Indigenous interviewees, spatial segregation is a daily reminder of persistent marginalization and oppression on traditional Indigenous lands. The spatial structure of Winnipeg has managed to keep most Indigenous peoples outside of urban life through invisible spatial borders and institutional arrangements which segregate Indigenous inhabitants from the society (Nejad et al, 2019;Walia, 2013). A participant shared their views on spatial segregation in Winnipeg:…”

“…The representation of members of the same community, ethnicity, or religion in the municipal government might not be of an advantage for all members of that ethnocultural group as inter-ethnic tensions may exist in every community. Distributing social opportunities among Indigenous and racialized populations, a focus on enhancing service delivery, and various stakeholder engagement mechanisms are also components of this outcome-based discourse that are unable to unsettle hierarchies of oppression which is a first step toward reconciliation (Alfred, 2009;Nejad et al, 2019;Viswanathan, 2019;Young, 1990).…”

Indigenous health organizations, Indigenous community resurgence, and the reclamation of place in urban areas

“…For example, roughly 63% of Métis people reported living in a metropolitan centre of at least 30,000 people in 2016, whereas only 15% of Inuit reported the same (Statistics Canada 2017a). Canadian cities are more and more being acknowledged as sites of cultural revitalization and powerful movements for Indigenous rights (Smith et al 2016; Nejad et al 2019). Research in Canada is increasingly recognizing that Indigenous traditional territories include urban areas, contesting the urban‐rural dichotomy that previously portrayed cities as non‐Indigenous land (Peters 2006; Nejad et al 2019).…”