The development of urban Aboriginal communities represents one of the most significant shifts in the histories and cultures of Aboriginal peoples in Canada. The essays in this volume are from contributors directly engaged in urban Aboriginal communities and draw on ethnographic research on and by Aboriginal people.

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Neoliberalism and the Urban Aboriginal Experience: A Casino Rama Case Study

Darrel Manitowabi

Casino Rama, located on the Mnjikaning First Nation near Orillia, Ontario, was lauded as an 'Aboriginal' solution to Aboriginal poverty within the framework of neoliberal reform led by Ontario in the 1990s. However, as a consequence of latent colonial membership structures and of disparities and social divisions generated by the casino, many Aboriginal casino workers have taken up residence in the city of Orillia. This chapter examines the challenges and particularities of the urban Aboriginal experience of these workers as conditioned by the interactions of Aboriginal symbolic capital and neoliberalism.