The Ngunnawal People have been living within the borders and surrounding mountains of the Australian Capital Territory for over 25,000 years. The way the Indigenous people used the land to live off was extremely efficient and sustainable. They had a bounty of knowledge about the land surrounding them, and over generations, devised resourced management skills to ensure maintenance of the animals and plants, and most importantly, the land in which provided these things. Aboriginal culture existed long before Captain Cook arrived in Australia in 1770. He claimed the land to be "Terra-Nullius", meaning that the land did not belong to any person. This claim obviously seemed ludicrous and crazy to the Indigenous people whom already lived on the land. …show more content…
The government deemed this necessary after alleged wide spread sexual and physical abuse of children was accruing within these Aboriginal communities. This is commonly known as the stolen generation. By 1950, every state of Australia had embraced this Act. Repression of Aboriginal language, culture and beliefs continued and in 1961, The Australian Government declared "The Policy of Assimilation, which stated all Aboriginals will inevitably be expected to adopt the superior Anglo-Saxon ways, language, beliefs, and culture. This policy was a government attempt to take the last thing the Aboriginal people had, their identity. Regrettably, the impacts of colonisation have had detrimental effects on the Indigenous cultures remaining within Australia, being effected largely by media stereotypes and false accusations. Understandably, a mistrust for the government has developed throughout generations within Aboriginal communities, as years of slavery, pain, grief, depression and sorrow were caused by the Australian
After 10 long years Torres Strait Islander Eddie ‘Koiki’ Mabo has lead indigenous Australians to a victory over the Queensland government. This win this case is a historical moment, as of yesterday, the indigenous Australians have been recognised as the owners of Murray Island. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are known to have resided in Australia, 40,000 to 60,000 years before the British arrived in 1788. When the British took over they decided to take all the land for themselves even though the indigenous Australians were here first. This court case recognises indigenous Australians unique connection to the land and acknowledges that they have the rights to the land.
On June 3 1992, the legal decision of the Mabo case was made by the High Court, the highest court in Australia’s legal system (Webb, 2008). For thousands of years before the arrival of the British in 1788, Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders have had their strong connection to the Australian Land. When the British arrived in 1788, it was declared that the country was terra nullius (land belonging to nobody), which resulted to the absence of recognition towards the connection between the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders and the Australian land. The declaration of terra nullius also resulted to the British taking land without agreement or payment towards the indigenous Australians (Webb, 2008).
Sorry by Gail Jones and The Apology to the Stolen Generations speech given by Kevin Rudd are similar as they share the themes of apology, past mistreatment of Indigenous Australians, silence surrounding this mistreatment and apology. However, these ideas differ between the texts as Rudd’s speech recognizes the mistreatment, breaks the silence and offers an apology to the Indigenous community while in Sorry, there was no apology offered and the silence about the abuse of Indigenous characters remains. Sorry is set throughout the 1940s when it was the convention for the Government to abuse Indigenous peoples, which had a tremendous long-term effect on the Indigenous population and characters in Sorry. Rudd made an apology to the Indigenous peoples for their past mistreatment and its impact ‘We apologise for The laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments
In 1996 he left office before the report was completed. The 25th prime minister in Australia as being John Howard was aware of the issue, he received the ‘Bringing Them Home’ report and yet rejected it. The Bringing Them Home Report had many Inquiries that set demands for the rights of Indigenous Australians, the effects of this history on peoples’ lives and Indigenous communities varied in many areas. The Inquiries showed that there were a number of common effects that varied through the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders, many were left with mental and physical health problems, delinquency and behavioural problems, undermined parenting skills, loss of cultural heritage, broken families and communities and racism. It was a time for Caucasians to keep in mind that the removal policies effected generations of Indigenous people, even children who were not removed have been affected in someway, either as a community member or a child of a parent who was removed.
Racism is destroying the Australian Dream, is a speech that confronts the discrimination the Aboriginals received from citizens of Australia and aims to persuade these citizens to stop this once and for all. The native people of Australia were thrust forcibly by the first Europeans settlers into worthy-less beings in society and became seen as the degenerates of the world. Stan Grant tells to the audience the experience of his family’s in regards to their human rights. “ANECTODES.”
There are a lot of challenges that Indigenous Australians still face, but one that keeps being mentioned in society is the poor lifestyles of Indigenous Australians. Life-expectancy is a major problem in Aboriginal society, compared to non-Indigenous Australians there is a difference of 10 years. Not only that, Indigenous and Torres Strait Islanders have the worst life-expectancy in the whole world. To the current day, Aboriginal people have poor health and nutrition, low education levels and poverty. This shows that even though civil rights for Indigenous people and Torres Strait Islanders is improving there are still some aspects of their lifestyle that can enhance.
Aboriginal People and Historical Globalizations Aboriginal People lived in North America. They were the first people to step into North America, but when the European countries tried to find a way to get to Asia by sending explorers, one of them was Christopher Columbus who sailed to find the routes to Asia. When he reached North America, he found the new land where he met the Aboriginals. This was the time of historical globalization. The English people took them and put them in residential school because “it was best for the future of aboriginal people”.
Ever since the first settlers arrived in Australia right up to the end of the 20th century indigenous Australians had limited rights compared to whit Australians. One of the biggest problems was that there were different laws and treatment of aboriginals depending on what state they resided in. The year of 1967 was a big year for indigenous rights as a referendum was held to give the federal government the power to make laws for all aboriginals. Many factors and events influenced the overwhelming success of 1967 Referendum but the Freedom Rides of 1965 was the most important of these events in making the referendum the most successful in Australia’s history.
Introduction –The arrival of the first white settlers had a severe and a huge devastating impact on Australia’s indigenous Australians. When the first British migrants arrived in January 1788 it was said that there was at least 750,000 Aboriginal people living in Australia at the time of colonization. Most of those people were split up into six hundred different groups with hundreds of different languages. Relationship between British and aboriginals – when the settlers arrived in Australia with them they brought a number of European diseases, because of the diseases the aboriginal population decreased rapidly.
The Aboriginal perspective on health is holistic, wherein physical, cultural, spiritual and mental health must be harmonious in order for a person to be in good health. Should these not be in balance, ill-health would persist (Social Health Reference Group, 2004). As such, it is important to talk about the history of Aboriginal people as affected by the arrival of the British in 1770 to put Indigenous health into context. Inter-generational trauma, as caused by the effects of colonisation, loss of country and the enforcement of discriminatory government policies over the history of Australia, has negatively
However, there is still hope. While the injustices of the Stolen generation, massacres and centuries of mistreatment against Indigenous Australians can never be erased, we can create future in which these atrocities never occur again. These atrocities emerge from ignorance and fear, so working to understand Indigenous culture must surely be the only path to removing the racism that plagues Australia. We have so must to learn from the rich cultural history of Indigenous Australians, particularly in their spiritual relationship with the land they have lived on for thousands of years. If we embrace this incredible knowledge, not only will we eliminate the barriers preventing equality in our society, we will also be stronger as a nation in both environmental and social relations.
The Aborigines Act was one of the most horrific acts of hatred and racism to ever commence in history, and has affected generations of Indigenous Australians, and will continue to affect several generations of Indigenous Australians to come. It led to decades of generational trauma, an irreversible loss of cultural identities within society, and ongoing educational and occupational inequalities. Mistreated children often grow up to have children of their own, who are often mistreated due to their parent’s trauma. This is called Generational Trauma, which can impact several generations of children, often called a ‘cycle of abuse’, much like a ripple effect. In other words, Generational Trauma involves the transmission of trauma from one generation
‘Analyse and reflect upon how the dance work, Mathinna, makes a powerful political and/or social statement regarding the Indigenous stolen generation in Australia.’ The contemporary dance work, ‘Mathinna’ by Bangarra Dance Company was inspired by a portrait of the same name by Thomas Bock depicting an Aboriginal girl in a red dress. The dance tells the true story of the short, confusing and tragic life of a young Aboriginal girl during the early days of Australia’s colonisation. Born on Flinders Island in 1835, Mathinna was taken from her family, alienated from her indigenous culture and placed in the home of a prominent white family, Governor Sir John and Lady Franklin.
The indigenous people of Australia, are both heavily traditional people, who have had to face some issues regarding communication, health, stereotypes as well as human right breaches. Aboriginals and Torres Straight Islanders are the indigenous Australians that are descended from families that inhabited Australia and its surrounding islands before the British colonized Australia. The indigenous Australians have inhabited Australia for around 60,000 years. There are several hundred indigenous Australian languages, and some are on the brink of extinction. There was originally 500 separate ‘nations’ which held different cultures, beliefs and languages.
Before the European invasion, the local people were nomadic, moving around to hunt and fish. Contact between the two cultures and colonisation had a devastating, life changing effect on aboriginal people, with the introduction of new diseases, government policies and massacres. In 1869, the Victorian board for the protection of aborigines was established. The Governor could order the removal of aboriginal or ‘half caste’ children to reformatory or industrial school.