ABSTRACT
This chapter details a quantitative Indigenous research methodology wedded to Hokowhitu’s (2009) theory of Indigenous density or “immediacy” (detailed in Chapter 1) to explain how dominant quantitative methodologies can be reconfigured for Indigenous community benefit. In this context, the chapter’s second part explores the Canadian census’s inability to enumerate Aboriginal sociality, in three contexts: a tribally specific context, an urban context, and a Métis national context. These are important issues insofar as both represent forms of Indigeneity every bit as legitimate as others currently in place and, likewise, they both speak to central tenets of my own Indigeneity.1 The major difference between them is that they largely fail to conform to the needs of existing official policy requirements. In emphasizing these three case studies, I seek to denaturalize the context within which official statistics are constructed and, thus, offer a basis for their deconstruction and alternative possibilities.
