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From Our Own Correspondent: 'Cultural Genocide'

"Cultural genocide"

13/06/2015

'Cultural Genocide'

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, 'Cultural Genocide'

Stories of immigration and cultural genocide from Sicily, Canada, Micronesia and Mexico

Stories of immigration and cultural genocide from Sicily, Canada, Micronesia and Mexico.

Gabriel Gatehouse finds that Sicilians in the small town of Mineo are surprisingly relaxed about the thousands of new migrants living in a nearby refugee camp. Is it because of the island's history of emigration? Sian Griffiths in Canada hears the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's chair deliver a damning verdict on a dark chapter of the country's past - 'cultural genocide'. It refers to the policy of sending over 150,000 First Nations or aborigine children to boarding schools, where they were made to lose their language and culture, and were subjected to abuse. Six thousand died of malnutrition and disease. 

Mark Stratton in Micronesia finds that while the islands seem to be paradise, with days spent fishing and drinking palm wine, the young people leave to get an education and jobs. Their elders fear that their culture will have died out in 50 years' time.  And Tim Ecott in Mexico's Baja California peninsula dives into the waters of sea of Cortez, that are legendary for their marine wildlife. He swims with sealions and is confronted by a huge whale shark. But the vaquita, the near-extinct, rarest and smallest of porpoises, remains elusive. 

(Photo: Judge Sinclair on a giant screen, delivers his verdict on Canada's maltreatment of aborigine children)

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