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.