Indigenization Vs. Internationalization Analysis

Inspired by Pidgeon’s (2016) idea of Indigenization vs. internationalization, my final paper will make connections between the lived experiences of Aboriginal people and Korean people. The paper will explore three aspects of the two populations: colonial history, the use of language, and the culture of the collective community. The underlying circumstances of the two populations are different. Aboriginal people were forced to become civilized by attending residential schools, where the majority has lost their language and cultural values. In contrast, Korean immigrants in Canada have been losing their language and cultural identities by emphasizing the assimilation into the dominant Western culture with the use of English. Using the idea of

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2015) provided information on all three aspects, with various suggestions of reconciliation needed for Aboriginal people, and the influences of the colonial history are presented in depth. This is also true of South Korea, as they share the colonial history of the Japanese empire and such history continues to affect Korea (Chung, 2010; Dodge, 2016; Lee, 2014). The history of colonialism has affected the practice of language for both populations and further influenced their cultural values. The close connection between language and culture will also be considered using Hayhoe’s (1998) claim that language reflects the deeply rooted cultural and social understanding of a

312) as it was observed that immigrants were able to relate to the history and cultural experiences of Aboriginal people in Canada. The Native Students Association at the University of Toronto invites non-Indigenous students to join their gatherings and cultural events. I find this opportunity of comparing the cultural values of Aboriginal people and Koreans to open up and expand a larger learning community that can support Battiste’s (as cited in Pidgeon, 2016) idea of the process of decolonization through education, in addition to providing a means of cultural awareness practice for the Korean-Canadian community to consider. Furthermore, there is a great applicability towards further expanding among East Asian immigrant students from their shared Confucian cultures and