Indigenous entrepreneurship.

Poverty Inc. gave me a completely different perspective about the results of the work done by aid organizations. Also, I agree with Professor Laura when she says that the approach taken by some of those organizations towards indigenous communities can be negatively paternalistic.

Being from Brazil, I have seen that most people usually stand that indigenous people should be kept apart from the rest of society, in order that they can keep their own costumes (like in this article). It is true that the indigenous people have suffered a lot during the colonization period and continue to suffer from the lack of protection of their reserves.

However, I have not seen yet a public policy designed to offer the indigenous people the opportunity to integrate the rest of society in a way that they can keep their culture and also  benefits from the goods of a modern society, such as better health care treatments. Searching the internet about the topic, I realized that Australia and Canada have taken a different way to deal with their indigenous community, promoting opportunities to indigenous become entrepreneurs. I even found this organization in Canada, which goal is to improve the quality of work with indigenous people.

 

One thought on “Indigenous entrepreneurship.

  1. Marcelo, I also agree that a lack of an integrative mechanism is hurting indigenous people. As portrayed in Poverty Inc., and as you highlighted, many of the attempts by aid organizations have failed to close the opportunity gap with the rest of society. Therefore, I find it important that you mentioned the different and more beneficial route countries like Australia and Canada have taken. The main goal, in my opinion, should be to focus on promoting opportunities, not simply providing aid, and this is an area where entrepreneurial programs can be highly helpful.