Loss of land: The impact on indigenous Australians was immense once the settlers arrived in 1977 and claimed the land as their own, stocking it with cattle & sheep. This left no food resources for them & many perished .The indigenous tribes of Australia began to starve and their numbers rapidly declined. This also resulted in loss of connection to their land, & broken kinship ties which impacted immensely on the mental & spiritual wellbeing of the indigenous people; these issues are still being felt today. The loss of the land has contributed to a loss of language, stories, & sacred places vital to the ongoing culture of the indigenous people. The effects are still strong to this day & present themselves as lack of…
The long challenge of indigenous people has been overcome by not only their feeling of dispossession of their land but also that dispossession of being emotionally hurt through that of indigenous culture and family. Passage one Red Indian Heritage is my reading of a plea by Chief Seattle to keep his peoples land and this their way of life; it informs my reading of Garry Foley’s article White Myths Damage Our Souls which was writing over one hundred years after Seattle’s. Both texts explore similar ideas of dispossession within indigenous people. Foley’s article informs the reader of that forced assimilation of Koori people in Australia has cost them their Aboriginality which is also something Chief Seattle mentioned in his speech as to what…
Noel Pearson’s ‘An Australian History for us all’ discusses his approach to trying to solve some of the most systemic problems facing Australian Aboriginals today. Through the uses of various language techniques and context, Pearson’s speech details the struggles of the relationship between the first European settlers and Aboriginal Australians.…
Essay Topic: European settlement in Australia provided the catalyst for the near destruction of Indigenous society…
They placed children under the care of Europeans because they thought this would mean “advancing” the aboriginal children. However, many Aborigines are still searching for their children, mothers and other family members. Through this forced separation many aboriginal people have struggled in life, experienced low-self esteem, feeling of worthlessness, social dysfunction, high rates of unemployment and ongoing health issues. This loss if identity can result in depression and other mental illness (Creative Spirit…
1. How did Indigenous Australians engage with colonizing society? In historical studies throughout the past few centuries, Aboriginal people have often been represented as passive and uninvolved in the early colonization of Australia. More thorough research, however, indicates that the opposite is true.…
Good evening, thank you for inviting me here this evening. I would like to discuss how Carmel Bird’s non-fiction book The Stolen Children-Their Stories (TSC) and Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s poem, “We are going” (WAG) gives us an understanding of how Australian voices reflect Australian values. Both texts explore the unfair treatment and effects of suffering inflicted upon Aboriginal communities and individuals by past government’s policies, as well as western society’s disrespect and ignorance. By analysing the texts, we learn about the values of egalitarianism from the perspectives of both indigenous people and the government. Egalitarianism means a fair go for all people where everyone is equal in fundamental worth and status. Getting this kind of insight into social and political issues of assimilation changes the view on problems of equality in this country. It reveals we should have sense of responsibility towards Aboriginal people and provide justice for their suffering.…
Indigenous Australians are a prominently disadvantaged group that are subject to extreme discrimination impacting on their life’s. The Stolen generation had severe negative impacts on the victims of the stolen generation and has continued to negatively affect future generations. Further negative implications have stemmed from this extreme action. And it is the cause of many issues of inequality today among Indigenous Australians. This essay will define the stolen generation, outline and discuss the negative impacts that have stemmed from it and then link the impacts of assimilation to theories such as functionalist theory, structural, etc.…
however the overarching determinant on a structural level that continues to oppress Aboriginal children is racism. Racism is correlated and entrenched within the history of Australia, starting from the time of colonisation (Priest, Mackean, Davis, Waters, & Briggs, 2012). Griffiths, Coleman, Lee, & Madden (2016) describes that social injustice occurs in the context of colonisation which is to forcibly takeover Indigenous people’s land without any respect to their laws and rights. Furthermore, for the Indigenous community, health isn’t just about being physically immune from diseases, but rather health is seen as a holistic notion that is achieved through the wellbeing of the land, the community and spirit. The colonisation process however separated them from this holistic wellbeing and its implications are manifested through various health related issues in children and youth (Griffiths, Coleman, Lee, & Madden, 2016). In a study done with parents perspective on their children’s experiences with racism, one parent named Bob emphasised that Aboriginal people cope with day to day survival dude to colonisation that has resulted in the diminishing of majority of the Aboriginal community in South East Australia. Other parent’s responded that colonisation has negatively influenced the self-esteem on their children in regards to how they saw themselves in respect to others…
the aboriginals faced many hardships and issues from the effect of colonisation. these are displayed through a number of different texts and films such as 'rabbit proof fence' by phillip noyce, 'the rabbits' by john marsden and shaun tan and oodgeroo noonuccal's poems 'white Australia' and 'then and now'. issues include loss and destruction of the environment, stolen generation and…
- Assimilation - The policy of trying to make people change their culture or way of life and adapt to a new culture.…
From the time that Europeans landed in Australia ‘Pastoralists were pushing into Indigenous territory, robbing Aboriginal people of the land they had lived on and nurtured for thousands of years. ‘But Aboriginal communities did not just stand by as the land which they had formed rich bonds with, both spiritually and physically, was taken from their hands. Through a mixture of fear and hatred of the Aboriginals, European settlers engaged in many brutal clashes with them to attempt to seize their land. The Myall Creek massacre and the genocide that occurred in Van Diemens land are two prominent examples of the vicious and inhumane treatment of Aboriginals and the story of Pemulwuy is a reminder of the courage shown that was shown in adversity by many Aboriginal people.…
The European settlement had a devastating impact on the entire Aboriginal population, not only those who died from disease and violence. This is despite the fact that some white settlers, including colonial government officials and Christian missionaries, tried to help Indigenous people. These people believed that the Aboriginal people were primitive and uncultured, and that without their help they would die out. Their somewhat misguided attempts to help the Indigenous people are known as paternalism. Paternalism means looking after someone and taking care of their interests in the belief that they cannot do it themselves.…
Sitting in the lecture theatre and taking in all the information that was put forward, really opened my mind up to a lot of the horrific issues surrounding the Indigenous people of Australia. When first being exposed to the Stolen Generation, I didn’t know how to feel toward innocent children being taken away from their homes. This was done by social workers and police officers that would invade the homes of the Indigenous people for the removal of their children (Gerrett 2013). It was concluded in 1989 the national Indigenous survey on health found almost half (47%) of Aboriginal children had been forcibly removed from both their parents (Gerrett 2013). This left me in distress, that something like this could happen to innocent children and their families. When saying this, I’m not implying that there are no children in the Indigenous community that weren’t mistreated, but this too happens in other racial communities. It is seen that incidence of sexual abuse of minors is far more worrying in other communities other than the…
Beginning in 1910 and ending in the 1970s, Australians Federal and State government agencies and church missions made a policy to forcibly take many aboriginal and Torres Strait children away from their families in an attempt to destroy the Aboriginal race and culture. There was an impact on the aboriginals with a particular policy the Australian Government had introduced, which was the policy of ‘Assimilation’. This policy was to encourage many Aboriginal people to give up their culture, language, tradition, knowledge and spirituality to basically become white Australians. Unfortunately this policy didn’t give the Aboriginals the same rights as white Australians, as a result of discrimination, aboriginals were moved to live in special housing…