Australi A Strong Culture Of Racism

Through my life, I have seen several different approaches to Indigenous people’s rights and importance in Australia. I have been fortunate enough to visit Ayers Rock and undertake a tour which allowed me to see Aboriginal culture in art and drawings as well as hearing Dreamtime stories from guides. I have also witnessed family friends who have been severely racist and disrespectful of Indigenous heritage and history. I also was lucky to work with some Indigenous students who were in Reception during my Professional Experience 1, and I was able to see first-hand how a culture clash can affect a student’s behaviour. I feel that even before entering this course, I have had the privilege of being able to observe both positives and negatives

We all know Australia is an amazing place where approximately everyone is laid back ( to some degree , it has a worthy parliamentary system as you do not need royal blood to be a leader, and you get paid considerably more compared to other countries. Although this continent is unfortunately not perfect as, in Australia there are two main types of racism. Aboriginal racism and multicultural racism. Racism is a terrible force as it has destroyed lives with verbal and physical abuse because they are of a different race. So we must change our ways. Examples of the soul crushing creature known formally as Racism are shown in the story "Tri" by Francs Echin and "Fifties Australia" by Phillip Knightley.

This article gives the reader an inequitable view of Indigenous Australians, defending Tony Abbot’s point of view and the audience is encouraged to agree with mainstream media in regards to whether or not Tony Abbott is racist. Article B from the Koori Mail condemns Tony Abbott’s viewpoint as not only racist but he is insulting the very culture that he is representing. Article B states that Tony Abbott does not understand Indigenous culture and how important land is to them “Connection to country is everything to Aboriginal people – defines Aboriginal people and sustains us in a cultural and spiritual sense and can play a vital role in building economic independence, self-determination and healing” (Greg Cromelin, Article B). With Article B the audience is encouraged to get angry at Tony Abbott’s comments and make him out to be racist.

History of Racism in Australia. A short of historical facts the exemplify the power of racist ideals in Australian the past

Since the time of federation the Aboriginal people have been fighting for their rights through protests, strikes and the notorious ‘day of mourning’. However, over the last century the Australian federal government has generated policies which manage and restrained that of the Aboriginal people’s rights, citizenships and general protection. The Australian government policy that has had the most significant impact on indigenous Australians is the assimilation policy. The reasons behind this include the influences that the stolen generation has had on the indigenous Australians, their relegated rights and their entitlement to vote and the impact that the policy has had on the indigenous people of Australia.

In the first half of the 20th century, the Australian Government sought to create a white, uniform society. After observing an increase in the Aboriginal population and realising that they would not just ‘die out’, the Government developed assimilation policies that encouraged ‘half-cates’ Indigenous to assimilate into white community and ‘full-blood’ Aborigines would be left

All over the world, races are still treated as inferior, even here in Australia. Though they officially and legally have the same rights as all other people, the Indigenous are still discriminated and mistreated. I have personally heard several stories about acts of racism towards Aboriginal individuals of whom I have met. The two men whom I met described the history of the indigenous people before and after the British arrival, giving me and others a first person view of life for their eyes, under the thumb of illegal and inconspicuous racism. But not all Aboriginals are treated so poorly, intentionally or otherwise. One of the greatest crisis befalling our country in the poverty in the Aboriginal communities of Australia. I am not saying that it is the fault of racism in the 21st century, but because of racism in the 20th. Because of their treatment as inferior, the indigenous people have been and still are suffering; health problems, social prejudice and housing. Of course, people are trying to stop this, to clean up the messes of our political predecessors, but others aren't. There is no one person to blame for all of this, but there is something. Discrimination towards someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior, or, racism. It changes people. It ruins lives. It creates conflict that can forever shape the lives of those

The fundamental factors that led Australian people to discriminate against Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders, were their opposing skin colour and cultural values which were not understood by white Australians. This resulted in the segregation and labelling of these ‘outcasts’ as 2nd class citizens, that did not obtain the same rights and freedom as other white individuals. This discrimination is evident when Bill Simon’s

The ‘White Australia policy’ is a term commonly used to refer to the collection of Federal, State and Territory immigration policies for excluding non-white people from immigrating to Australia from the late 1880s through to the 1970s. The White Australia policy was applied progressively less strictly following the Second World War. The number of non-European settler arrivals, for example, nearly quadrupled between 1966 and 1971. The White Australia policy was finally dismantled by the Whitlam Government in 1973. Multiculturalism emerged at this time as a means of responding both to this new form of culturally diverse migration and to the phenomenon of post-war mass migration in general. During the 1940s and 50s in Australia, ‘assimilation’ was the dominant approach to newly arrived migrants, followed, in the 1960s, by ‘integration’. During the assimilation period it was thought that newly arrived migrants ought to attempt to blend into mainstream society as much and as quickly as possible, removing the traces of their former identities to become like other Australians. Integration policies, which were developed with a greater awareness of the lived realities of migration, saw the maintenance by migrants of links to their past cultures and nationalities as less threatening and not incompatible with the aims of integration. ‘Multiculturalism’ supplanted both of these terms during the 1970s, carrying with it an emphasis on the virtues of tolerance and respect for other cultures and the value and necessity of recognizing difference and diversity (Australian collaboration,

The complex history of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people causes a great deal of mistrust in the other cultures who now live and existing in Australia, a mistrust of the systems in place. After European colonisation and the impact of the Stolen Generations, asking the original land owners of Australia to trust the policies and procedures in place in today’s society is a big ask, considering it was the policies and procedures of our government that resulted in the Stolen Generation in the first place. It is also difficult for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to prosper in mainstream culture of Australia, as there are a great many barriers preventing them from understanding the processes for everyday things such as medical appointments and assistance, education and employment. According to a the National Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage Report as quoted in a piece of writing entitled The Social Cultural and Historical Context of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians ‘Indigenous people are the

(Reconciliation Australia, n.d) Major Australian events such as colonisation, the stolen generation, and past policies have caused marginalisation and oppression in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. (Mallard, 2016) Throughout history negative stereotypes have been cast upon Indigenous Australians, with myths of alcoholism and sexual abuse and domestic violence often linked to Indigenous Australians, however these myths are statistically incorrect and are not a true representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture. (Reconciliation Australia, n.d) For Australia to close the gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people, all Australians must surrender previous beliefs and attitudes they hold of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. (Sarra,

Indigenous Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are not “living in difficult circumstances” or “ethnic minorities” (Magga, 2012), they are the traditional custodians of this land who for the long part have been excluded and discourage immensely. The covert racism hidden, accepted and ingrained throughout our society (Kessaris, 2006) towards our lands traditional peoples is both disgraceful and embarrassing. As Phillips and Lampert (2012) discuss, many of the everyday

Even though racism is highly illegal in Australia, it doesn’t stop people having racist thoughts or feelings. Over the past 30 years the Australian government, along with the state and territory governments, have introduced laws to protect people from racist discrimination. Despite Acts such as the Racial Discrimination Act of 1975 and the Australian Human Rights Commission Act of 1986, a study by an Australian organisation called ‘All Together Now’ shows that 1 in 5 Children endure racism every day. 1 in 5 sports people experience racism at sports events, and 33% of workers have had to face racism in the workplace.

Whilst all statutes pertaining to racial vilification; most infamously the white Australia policy, have been repealed, there is always an undertone of racial discrimination in most Australians, whether we are conscious of this or not.

In the movie version of South Pacific it portrays racism as something which is commonly done by Americans and which they have learned. The film shows this, and it comes across as if racism is something that is engraved in the American people and that they have learned from a young age to hate and have fear for other races. The book of the musical and the film have different ways to guide the reader to the question of race. The film accepts the native people of the island, and this is shown by Emile de Becque. But it becomes apparent that there is a sense of internalization of these feelings of racism when Nellie talks to Cable and discusses his feelings for Lait. She implicates in that conversation that she does not really belong between the