Indigenous cultures view of themselves IS heavily influenced by the perceptions of the dominant culture – the Western mainstream capitalistic culture – paving the way and deciding which interpretation is considered “true” in their eyes – and indigenous people follow suit and end up becoming / behaving the way they are viewed! What a cycle of perpetual mayhem! At least there is hope as Smith (1999) reminds us – hope in different ways!

In my Module 3 blog post searches I found a couple different videos and websites from different parts of the world about Indigenous rights and the role of media and community reality and how Indigenous peoples are still fighting to be acknowledged and have their basic rights acknowledged. I found a couple short videos of a news clips reporting on the UN accusing Australia of the embedded and entrenched racism of the past remaining in their current daily lives and the dominant culture, again Western mainstream capitalism, of the north of Australia (specifically noted in this clip) continues to perpetuate this racism and discrimination towards Indigenous communities. They discuss the fact that Indigenous peoples are still fighting for their basic human rights including becoming part of the health system, justice system, etc. These clips showcase exactly how common these issues are to appear in the news and that these issues of the past are still alive today!

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yrKwNrv0Ws&NR=1[/youtube]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8y9FEfIi88&NR=1[/youtube]