DCHP-3

native friendship centre

DCHP-2 (Oct 2016)

Spelling variants:
Native Friendship Centre, native friendship center, Native Friendship Center

n. — Aboriginal, especially First Nations

a centre offering services for Aboriginal people, usually in cities.

Type: 1. Origin — Native friendship centres are Canadian in origin, as is the term. The earliest known use of native friendship centre refers to the Canadian Native Friendship Centre in Edmonton (see the 1963 quotation). However, the first Indian and Metis Friendship Centre opened in Winnipeg in 1959 (Langford 2016). As of 2016, 118 native friendship centres are part of the National Association of Friendship Centres (see NAFC reference). The term is nearly exclusive to Canada (see Charts 1 and 2), even when the less common spelling center is included (see Chart 2).
See also COD-2, s.v. "native friendship centre", which is marked "Cdn", and OED-3, s.v. "native friendship centre", which is marked "Canad.".

Quotations

1963
At 8 p.m. Philip Thompson will speak on INDIA-WHITE [sic] RELATIONS IN ALBERTA. Mr. Thompson is executive director of the Canadian Native Friendship Centre in Edmonton.
1972
An afternoon of country and western music, old time fiddling, and country dancing was featured at the Rainbow Ballroom last Saturday. The event was the annual Alberta Native Festival, sponsored by the Alberta Native Friendship Centre. All the participants were Canadian native people, some of them from the city, others from as far North as Yellowknife.
1980
Bill Caves, president of the Odawa Native Friendship Centre, said the national centre will provide links with other ethnic groups in Canada, act as a meeting place for foreign visitors with an interest in native culture, help Canadian natives recognize their own identity and help link Indians, Inuit and Metis with the political, cultural and social life of Ottawa.
1990
A total of $8-million has been taken out of programs to finance aboriginal associations, aboriginal women's groups and native friendship centres (including the cuts to the native communication programs).
2000
Election officials have also taken steps to make it easier for the homeless to vote. In many ridings, overnight shelters will be asked to provide a list of people who stayed there Saturday night to the local polling officers. In some ridings like Kelowna, people are permitted to use the local native friendship centre as their address.
2010
Since the 1990s, The Fredericton Native Friendship Centre has helped Fredericton-area aboriginals by providing job- and apartment-hunting resources, a food and clothing bank as well as workshops on such topics as resume writing, building self-esteem and budgeting.
2016
The Native Friendship Centre in the Gorge-Tillicum neighbourhood is the only facility to open as a shelter in Saanich and thats [sic] only on provincially mandated extreme weather days.

References

Images

Chart 1: Internet Domain Search, 27 Jun. 2013

Chart 1: Internet Domain Search, 27 Jun. 2013

Chart 2: Internet Domain Search, 27 Jun. 2013

Chart 2: Internet Domain Search, 27 Jun. 2013