Quote:
Originally Posted by ScrappyPeg
Fixing it?
Last I heard, the Government already made efforts at 'teaching a man to fish' - now tax dollars are-a-flowing to each aboriginal person who attended a residential school. Time to stop throwing good money after bad.
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That is hardly 'teaching a man to fish'. The Government screws it up more and more with all the money they throw at the problem, hoping it will go away. I agree with you guys completely on that one.
It comes down to education and opportunity and hope and a sense of pride in one's culture and one's self. I waffle back and forth over whether a government can actually provide any of those, or how much has to come from within.
Trying to apply Western "Individualism" solutions to Aboriginal problems will result with nothing but continued frustration. It doesn't work. Their cultural makeup and the social blood are so different (no matter how far from their culture things have strayed) that different solutions and different ways of approaching the problem are needed.
There is a great local anthropologist named Menno Wiebe who has spent most of his life learning and teaching on reserves and has much to say on the matter. And he will rightly argue that much of our attitude today is still closed because we refuse to learn from their culture and continue to impose our solutions. It ultimately needs to be an honest 2-way discussion. The Aboriginal community already has within its history and spirituality and social system all the tools it needs for healing and re-alignment ... it just needs the vision and leadership and strength to be able to carry them out.