The Future of Our Communities

What I feel lacks in the social infrastructure of our aboriginal nations is a secure and recognized training and career path that makes people confident of their choices and provides a continued support and security for jobs and education.  Though there is no lack of social programs on a federal and provincial and corporate level, I feel that the implementing of these strategies hits a standstill when it encounters the social inertia of individuals and families.

Before we go on with this, I feel we have to consider what are the needs in our communities.  In my opinion one of the most important things we can equip ourselves with in life is an education suited to our temperaments.  From that comes a health framework, a business framework, a technology suited to us.  

 The promotion of culture is done through media.  We need more people working in the media providing relevant content to media consumers, giving pertinent information applicable to real world issues.  Through music, graphic design, poetry, art, publicity we can mold the minds of people.  What happens most of the time is our youth are influenced by the global hegemony of corporate culture that permeates the media sphere.  Pop music, popular commercials, tv programs are not geared towards us as an aboriginal people but exist only to serve the needs of the corporate culture that produces it.  By having people workign in the fields of the arts we can better suit our populations  and provide a relevant content.

On a fundamental level we need social scientists, psychologists, social engineers to provide basic fundamental conceptual frameworks as to what philosophies and information models we can apply to our populations.  While we lack specialists in these fields there are people dedicated to providing these services coming from outside our communities.  By having people from our communities providing these type of social services all while being informed of the dynamics within our communities and aware what is going on elsewhere in this vast and complex world.

On another level we have technologies and material: the field of sciences, mathematics, engineering, architecture, construction, commodities businesses, mining and exploration.  On a basic Marxist analysis the persons who control the means of production have the power.  Who controls our means of productions?  Who controls the tools that shape our world?   How can we be players in the field of materia production when most of the people operating in our territories come from outside sources.  Most often than not people are hired on large mining operations or suchresource exploitation to fill ethnic quotas.  Rarely are we hired for strictly our expertise.  This must change if we must take control of our destinies. 

What it all boils down to really is that we must really push to engender a culture of education and provide the necessary means to allow our youth to be guided towards roles of power within the professional and cultural framework controlling our lives.  A culture of discipline and intellectual hygiene will permit the youth to advance in a profesisonal framework and to land the jobs that will give us a fairer representation in the produciton of our own culture.

 Do youhave an opinion on the subject?  What are your feelings about these issues?  And do you think we can still maintain our indidivual particularities as different aboriginal nations and cultures while doing these jobs and education programs?