Aboriginal Community Case Study

After many years of European settlement in Australia, many Aboriginal people had been removed from their families and placed into schools with white Australians. This was due to the ‘protection policy’ laws that encouraged the removal of Indigenous children. Because fewer indigenous children were able to learn about their own culture, there was a slow decline in the culture of the indigenous people. As a result of this, there were continued tensions between the free settlers and Indigenous people as they had no roles in the government and couldn’t vote. This made them feel as if they were excluded from greater society and had long term negative impacts upon their sense of belonging to the new

The CFCSA states in part 1, section 4, that “if a child is an aboriginal child, the importance of preserving the child’s cultural identity must be considered in determining the child’s best interest” (1996). In both cases, both youth had family members within their Indigenous culture that were willing to take them but due to unrelated circumstances these requests were not taken into consideration. The overrepresentation of Indigenous children in care is demonstrated here, where child protection workers are not equipped with the training or resources to adequately identify and address risk when dealing with Indigenous children. This is one of the recommendations within the TRC where “ensuring that social workers and others who conduct child

Firstly, Aboriginals have been run out of their native lands and what little they have left is constantly being fought over by the Natives, the government and major corporations. Mr. Norman Slotkin, a lawyer for the Union of Ontario Indians, had this to say:

Education is fundamental to growth, the growth of the individual, and the growth of a nation. Anthropologically this can be seen from the earliest of developments of human societies where practices emerge to ensure the passing of accumulated knowledge from one generation to the next. In the centuries since the invasion and colonisation of Australia in 1788, colonist authorities and governments have dominated the making of policies regarding most major aspects of Australian life, including the lives of Indigenous Australians. The enactment of these policies and legislation, whether targeted at society as a whole or directly at education, has had significant and most often negative causal impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, resulting in not only poor educational outcomes, but the loss of cultural identity, the development of serious issues in health and wellbeing, and the restriction of growth of Aboriginal communities. Moreover, there has been an ongoing pattern of the adoption of ill-informed policies in Australia, resulting in these poor outcomes and cultural decimation. Aboriginal people have developed a wariness, a mistrust, and even an attitude of avoidance to engage with non-Indigenous officials and those who they associate as their representatives, i.e. personnel working within

The Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business (CCAB) is an organization that facilitates the engagement between aboriginal communities and Canadian businesses. Founded in 1982, the CCAB has helped aboriginal communities and businesses become economically self-reliant through various learning, mentorship and certification programs, and also bridged the gap between aboriginal and non-aboriginal businesses via programs such as Progressive Aboriginal Relations (PAR). At present, the CCAB has more than 600 members (including aboriginal and non-aboriginal businesses), and it hosts regular events to foster the relations between its members.

The poor health position of Indigenous Australians is a contemporary reflection of their historical treatment as Australia’s traditional owners. This treatment has led to Indigenous Australians experiencing social disadvantages, significantly low socio-economic status, dispossession, poverty and powerlessness as a direct result of the institutionalised racism inherent in contemporary Australian society.

History has unveiled the early contacts of colonization from the Europeans that set motion to cultural oppression and exclusion of the Aboriginal communities (Kirmayer, Tait, Simpson & Simpson, 2009). The introduction of the residential school system was meant to eliminate the indigenous people’s cultural heritage and way of life, creating a historical trauma. As a result, survivors of the residential school system left the majority of the Aboriginal population without a sense of cultural heritage, lack of self-esteem, and depression (Gone, 2010). Aboriginal culture was suppressed, breaking the connection of traditional knowledge from parent to child (Kirmayer, Tait, Simpson & Simpson, 2009). Trans-generational trauma of the Aboriginal people has left psychologically and physically damage towards their own heritage (Gray & Nye, 2001).

The process of colonisation by European powers, as might be expected, has had a radical effect on Aboriginal culture. The settlers viewed the natives as barbarians, seizing tribal land and, in many cases, following a policy of pacification by force. Many others died of disease, starvation, cultural dislocation and neglect. Today, there are fewer than 230,000 Aborigines in Australia, less than 2% of the population.

The government has a history of not respecting the right that the indigenous people of Canada were promised years ago. They start projects on or near their land without their consent, or frankly not caring if they consent or not. The bottom line is, this issue needs to be resolved

The Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander people are Australia’s first people. They’re the Indigenous and traditional owners of our beautiful land. However, until the last few decades, this hasn’t always been recognised. The Indigenous people of Australia have faced colonization, oppression, the Stolen Generation, and all kinds of disrespect to their cultural heritage.

For the last 200 years Indigenous people have been victims of discrimination, prejudice and disadvantage. Poor education, poor living conditions and general poverty are still overwhelming issues for a large percentage of our people and we remain ‘as a group, the most poverty stricken sector of the working class’ in Australia (Cuthoys 1983).

It is estimated by the World Health Organisation, that by the year 2050, there will be 1.5 billion people worldwide, who will be over the age of 65. Similar, escalation of statistics can be witnessed in Australia’s demographic, where it is expected that by 2050, 25% of the Australian population will be over the age of 65, which is a staggering jump from the 14.7% that was estimated in 2014. Thus, with the increase concentration in the Geriatric ward, hospitals have constructed assessments through which onset of cognitive and physical decline can be measured (Pachana et al., 2016). However, there has been considerable amount of criticism at the mainstream assessments offered at geriatric wards, especially when utilized towards Aboriginal

The dictatorship of colonialism began an age of devastation that has destroyed the heritage and spiritual beliefs of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada. As British colonists arrived to present day Canada, they began a revolution that altered the Aboriginals’ civilization forever. As the European settlers invaded the Aboriginal land in search for settlement and profit, the First Nations’ rights were brutally ignored and suppressed, while they were forced to withdraw from their territory. The dominating race of the British demoralized the values of the First Nations’ peoples, as well as obliterated the Aboriginal way of life, which has been maintain and passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years. The ferocious actions of the Canadian government also lead to several horrific outcomes for the Aboriginal population such as genocide and poverty in the 19th century. Aboriginal peoples have been brutally mistreated by the Canadian Government as they were evicted out of their land, forced to assimilate into British culture while their population was eliminated.

With the arrival of large numbers of immigrants, there was also a strong negative impact on Aboriginal people. Some Aboriginal people had to leave the residence because of poor housing conditions. The shortage of housing and poor housing conditions have forced many Aboriginal people to choose unsafe housing and unsecured housing in the communities. What the aboriginal people want is what we have, to protect and freely exercise their cultural lifestyle and language. In our contemporary framework, their cultural elements can be preserved and explained, they have faced hundreds of years of social and political discrimination against discrimination and racial discrimination. They wish to be able to access to power, resources, status and meaningful decision-making capacity. In addition to these things, Aboriginals wish to be seen differently as well, not “different” in a negative way. They wish that they can have the right to protect

Government initiatives often fail to address other root causes. More than 200 years of dispossession, racism and discrimination have left Indigenous Australians with some of the lowest levels of education, highest levels of unemployment, poorest health and most appalling housing conditions.