Aboriginal Women and Education: Overcoming a Legacy of Abuse [Canadian Journal of Native Studies]

This paper is concerned with why there is such low representation of Aboriginal people in Universities. While there are many possible answers ranging from lower socio-economic opportunities to a deficiency in culturally appropriate curriculum, all of which are extremely relevant to understanding the position of Aboriginal people in Canada, this paper addresses how abuse in human relationships impacts our perceptions of ourselves and how the subsequent perceptions affect representation in Universities. Of key concern in this paper is whether formal education can harness a legacy of abuse or simply exacerbate it.