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Indigenous Relationships In Australia Research Paper

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Indigenous Relationships In Australia Research Paper
How do ongoing Government/Indigenous relationships illustrate history’s relevance to contemporary Australian politics?

The current political scene in Australia has the following Indigenous aspects that have been issues for Australians for many years. These are: land rights, education, employment, health and breakdown of culture. These are the main matters of concern politically.

‘So it is like people say, “Trust me. I’m from the government.”
Well, it doesn’t carry any water with our mob’. ( Koori elder, cited in Kaplan-Myrth, Nili, 2005)
Recognising that Aborigines and Torres Strait islanders were the First Peoples of Australia and entitled to land rights because of their own culture and laws is a significant part of history and …show more content…
The 1901 Australian Constitution stated that Australian Aboriginals and Torres Straight Islanders were not counted in the census thus affirming lack of recognition. 1905, the White Australia policy restricted immigration and still failed to recognise Australia’s original inhabitants (Macintyre, 2009). Different Aboriginal Community and Protection acts were enforced which removed children from their parents (stolen generations) and made the Indigenous people wards of the state. The instigation of the Assimilation policy, 1937, where it was presumed that all Australians in time would be living like white Australians, exasperated the loss of identity. Even the history of conflict between Indigenous and the military is under debate as Keith Windschuttle argued the numbers of Indigenous killed in battles were considerably fewer than some historians estimate (Harris, J. …show more content…
(1998). Government and the Colonial Economies. In Australian Economic History Review, 38 (1), 74-101.
Harris, J. (2003). Hiding the bodies: the myth of the humane colonisation of Aboriginal Australia. Aboriginal history, 27, 79-101.
Kaplan-Myrth, Nili.(2005). Sorry Mates: Reconciliation and Self-Determination in Australian Aboriginal Health. Human Rights Review, Jul-Sep, 6(4),69-83. Macintyre, S. (2009) A Concise history of Australia (3rd ed.), Melbourne: Cambridge University
Perkins, R. (2009). SBS Television. ‘A fair deal for a dark race’, Episode 6, the First Australians; retrieved from http://www.sbs.com.au/firstaustralians/index/index/epid/6
Perkins, R. (2009). SBS Television. 'We are no longer Shadows ', Episode 7, the First Australians; retrieved fromhttp://www.sbs.com.au/firstaustralians/index/index/epid/7r deal for a dark race | Sunday 16 May at 8:30pm
Singleton, Aitkin, Jinks, Warhurst. (2013). Australian Political Institutions. (10th Ed.). Pearson
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