European colonisation has marginalised the first peoples' in industrialised countries such as Australia and Canada. In remote regions, still the homes of large Aboriginal, Indian and Inuit populations, this legacy remains strong.Modernisation - the boom and bust' model of state and private development - and the partial and biased assistance provided by the state have eroded many communities through their disregard for socio-economic structures and the beliefs which underpin them.Third World in the First explores the past, present and future of these peoples, their treatment by the West' and the alternative strategies of development which might be available to them.