Developing sustainability indicators with Winnipeg’s urban First Nations community

This report describes a project by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs to develop sustainability indicators for the urban First Nations community in Winnipeg. The initiative focuses on a community-led process to identify key issues and measures of well-being across four domains—social, environmental, economic, and cultural—based on the Aboriginal Medicine Wheel, aiming to create a baseline for monitoring progress and influencing policy.

• The project adopted the Aboriginal Medicine Wheel as its framework for sustainability indicators because it provides a "holistic way of seeing, knowing and learning" and is "identifiable among First Nations cultures". This framework organizes well-being into four dimensions: social, environmental, economic, and cultural.
• Community engagement was central to the methodology to ensure indicators reflected actual rather than perceived issues. The process involved a series of grassroots forums, including a "Meet and Greet Information Session" and two "Feast and Forum" events, where participants shared personal stories to provide context for the challenges facing the community.
• The community identified specific priority measures across four domains to gauge progress: the Environment domain focuses on security and housing; the Economic domain on governance and employment; the Social domain on health and education; and the Culture domain on cultural identity and community services.
• There is a significant gap in the availability of specific data for urban First Nations populations in Canada. Most existing statistics group First Nations people with Métis and Inuit as "Aboriginals", which fails to recognize that their "leadership systems do not operate as one" and that these groups view themselves as "separate and distinct peoples".
• Several factors complicate the accuracy and comparability of data regarding First Nations people, including the historical impact of the Indian Act (1876) and Bill C-31 (1985) on status, changes in Canadian Census definitions, the exclusion of persons in institutions from Census counts, and high population mobility between reserves and urban areas.
• The project was structured in two phases. The first phase included background research, community engagement, and reporting on baseline indicators; however, the final component of the first phase—the baseline indicator report—remained incomplete at the time of writing due to a "project funding deficit".

APA

Rust, C. (2009). Developing sustainability indicators with Winnipeg’s urban First Nations community. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/measuring_wpg_first_nations.pdf

Chicago

Rust, Christa. Developing sustainability indicators with Winnipeg’s urban First Nations community. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2009. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/measuring_wpg_first_nations.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Rust |first1=Christa |title=Developing sustainability indicators with Winnipeg’s urban First Nations community |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=January 2009 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/measuring_wpg_first_nations.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rust2009developing, author = {Rust, Christa}, title = {{Developing sustainability indicators with Winnipeg’s urban First Nations community}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2009}, month = jan, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/measuring_wpg_first_nations.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }