The Challenges of Aboriginal Economic Development in the Shadow of the Borg [Journal of Aboriginal Economic Development, JAED]

"There has been a great deal of development and change in Aboriginal communities since 1966, the year the Hawthorn Report was released. The Hawthorn Report examined about 17 different Indian communities across the country and documented their social and economic conditions in the early 1960s. The report lays out contemporary social thinking about how these communities ought to be developed and what strategies the Government of Canada ought to follow. The report's main idea is to treat Indians as citizens plus. While this idea was rejected by governments, Indians took it up and have been pursing it through a variety of means ever since. So thirty or so years down the road, we are now beginning to see some changes, but I also think that it is useful for us- or those of us who work in Aboriginal community economic development - to step back and to think abo ut what we are involved in."