Ike Awgu: Why Are Aboriginals Afraid of Integration?

Food for thought.

Ike Awgu: Why Are Aboriginals Afraid of Integration?: "At some point, aboriginal Canadians need to consider that the best hope of a future for their children may be integration into the mainstream of Canadian socio-economic life. They need also understand that integration is not the same as assimilation.

The latter is the process by which one group's culture and language disappear and are lost under pressure to become part of another dominant group. The former is the process where one culture gains ideas, technologies and products from another without losing its own uniqueness and becomes part of a greater whole.

No one is forced to assimilate in modern Canada. Tens of thousands of people from all over the world, from places that have living conditions worse even than those found on reserves, immigrate to Canada and find success. These people care no less about their culture of origin than aboriginal people do theirs. They care no less about their history than aboriginal people do theirs. They care no less about their traditions and language than aboriginal people do theirs. Have they been "assimilated"?"

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