Aboriginal History

ABORIGINAL HISTORY
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Introduction
This paper discusses a primary document to analyze the content, context and significance of the document from the book Aboriginal History: A Reader, edited by Kristin Burnett and Geoff Read and published by Oxford University Press in 2012. The main focus of this paper is aboriginal working women and in analyzing the facts based on the document, this paper evaluates the historical background during the time stated in the document as well as make critical analysis of the document.
Discussion
The primary document Indian Girls Achieve Successful Careers- Pave Way for Others, published in the Indian News on June 1958, is a very decisive document as it tells about the working state of female aborigines, and more importantly, it reflects the society’s acceptance and position towards the aboriginal women in the society; to be more specific, in the professional world. Although the article is not very voluminous and does not represents lots of arguments and examples, but it is very clear to understand why. First of all, the aborigines were not well accepted in the western society for a very long time and the document tells about a time when the aboriginal women were coming out and claiming education, counseling, recreation, housing and overall, better lifestyle. Another important aspect of this document is, it focuses on the Winnipeg where a large number of Indians were living during that time and how Winnipeg attracted Indian workers.
Traditionally, in the aboriginal families, women used to do most of the farming and household works. They used to work around the house while men worked physical tasks and in the field. However, the situation changed with the arrival of the Europeans. This made huge changes in the labor market. The economic status before the arrival of the European was better in North America. Upon the arrival of the European, a very large portion of single women, who were either unmarried or whose husbands were disabled or dead, started work for wage. On the other hand, most of the married were engaged in household works; although, the growing number of working women did not help much to uplift the standards of lifestyle for their families. The situation has not changed much yet as by the year of 2008, there were 10% Canadian families who were living below the poverty line.
The most important thing about this document is that, it tells about the state of aboriginal women workers around 1960s. This is very important as we can compare the situation with current status. The examples mentioned in the document are not high profiled; however, it is clear that this was the beginning. One of the major targets of this article was to motivate aboriginal women into working. From the very beginning, Manitoba was a popular choice among the aborigines for living...