Public policy and health of urban Aboriginal peoples: A look at the Canadian case

Abstract

The article reviews three of the main Canadian federal policies towards Aboriginal communities that address the issue of urban Aboriginal people’s access to health services (the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, the Getting Strength plan, and the Urban Aboriginal Strategy). It also contrasts the central aspects of these policies with the findings reported by academic papers on the current health status of urban Aboriginal peoples in Canada. The case of a Colombian urban indigenous community (the Yanaconas of Popayán) is presented as part of the argument. The paper is the first one of a series of two, aiming to describe and compare some of the main public policies towards urban indigenous communities in two countries, Canada and Colombia.