When my mother immigrated to Canada in 1992 she had clear sense of who she was, her culture and identity had a strong foundation that could not be shaken.As a child of an immgrant understanding who I was and where I belonged was diffcult and at times confunsing. In Sherman Alexie's “War Dances”, the protagonist struggles to understand the national identity of First Nation peoples and his own cynicism of what he sees as a lack of authenticity in First Nation culture.
The colonization of Canada and the policy of assimilation created by the Canadian government erased much of Aboriginal culture leaving a void for many Aboriginal peoples. Culture and traditions are a key part of maintaining identity and