Wellbeing In Australia Essay

The discourse of whiteness began at Colonisation when Indigenous Peoples were dehumanised. To legitimise the colonisation Moreton Robinson (2004) and Phillips (2005) state the traditional owners of the land needed to be ‘othered’, thus lacking innately human characteristics and, therefore, of unequal civil status. Othering of Indigenous Peoples enabled Australia to be defined as ‘Terra Nullius’, and according to McGrath (1995) and Crowley (1980), the myth of Terra Nullius is central to the discourse of whiteness and the white epistemology of Australia. The invasion and subsequent Colonisation

The Australian Indigenous community hold extremely significant corrections to the land of Australia, of which they refer to as ‘Country.’ Indigenous people acquire deep meaning from the land, sea and the countless resources derived from them. This special relationship has formed for many centuries. To them ‘Country’ is paramount for overall wellbeing; the strong, significant, spiritual bonds embody their entire existence. Knowledge is continually passed down to create an unbroken connection of past,

Buchan and Heath argue that the term terra nullius was used to create a false construct of Australia and it’s Aboriginal people. Terra Nullius resulted in Britain justifying illegal colonisation of Aboriginal land and denigrating Aboriginal Australians by ignoring their sovereignty despite failing to either conquer or form treaties with Aboriginal Australia people.

Aboriginal spirituality is a celebration of connectedness. The relationships which the Indigenous people form with their environment reflects that their spirituality is far more complex than a religion, rather, it is an identity. For theses ancient people there is no separation between the people, flora and fauna, and the land (Korff, What is Aboriginal Spirituality?, 2017). All of these elements are profoundly connected through song, dance, sacred stories and art, which are the pillars of Aboriginal spirituality. These traditions also allow the Indigenous people to connect with and understand the earth, therefor understanding ancestor spirits who are ever present within the land. Ancestors may have come to rest within specific land forms (Australian Museum, 2015). These connections create an inextricable relationship with the land; not only in a spiritual sense, but also as a way of understanding one’s history. “The land is our food, our culture, our spirit and identity” (Korff, What is Aboriginal Spirituality?, 2017). This report will explore the connection between Indigenous spirituality, land rights, European settlement and the impact colonisation had on the Australian Aboriginal peoples.

The ‘colonisation' of Australia by Europeans has caused a lot of problem for the local Aborigines. It drastically reduced their population, damaged ancient family ties, and removed thousands of Aboriginal people from the land they had lived on for centuries. In many cases, the loss of land can mean more than just physical displacement. Because land is so much connected to history and spirituality, the loss of it can lead to a loss of identity. This paper will examine the works of Tim Rowse and Jeremy Beckett as well as other symbols of identity that are available to modern Aborigines in post colonial Australia.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have had many impacts on their culture since European settlement in Australia. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders were seen to be savages with no civilisation and as such Australia was seen as ‘Terra Nullius’. With European settlement Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders saw a loss of their land and culture, labour exploitation, introduced diseases, change of diet and a loss in their rights as a citizen and as a human being. Many laws and policies were introduced which controlled an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders life, many things for which we take for granted today. Things such as residence, employment, marriage, social and daily life were all restricted. Most notably was the laws introduced that allowed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children to be forcibly removed from their families.

A third consideration in regard with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is the meaning of sovereignty. The discourse on sovereignty is obscure and non-reflexive. It situates itself somewhere between moral axiology, social ideology and political and legal authority. The link between sovereignty and politics within the public discourse often mask oppressive power relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people (Prokhovnik, 2015). Furthermore, the mainstream political discourse undoubtedly takes sovereignty “as though it really were an uncontested foundation”, which erases the significance of the Indigenous as the first nations (Prokhovnik, 2015, p. 415). For the settlers, perhaps their self-importance as imperialists was more valued than embracing new notions of nationalism (Ward, 2001). For them, the establishment of colonies represented the expression of the external power of sovereign European states, even if only possible as a result of conquest, and their colonies “were considered sufficient justification for the imposition of sovereign power” (Patton, 1996, p. 149). Unfortunately, this unresolved ambivalence about the colonisation of Australia has also left the peoples of this country with an ambivalent identity (Connors, 2001).

Land is considered mother earth to Indigenous Australians, the source of all creation, yielding all the necessities of life- food, clothing and shelter dated back since over 40,000 years ago when Aborigines first came to Australia. In present period, Indigenous still are spiritually linked to the land rights of this country, which will be further discussed and analysed throughout this ethnographic report. Shortly after the arrival of the Indigenous, the white settlement invaded on the 26th January 1788. Although the white settlement almost created the extinction of indigenous, still in the 21st century their culture and traditions are practiced and recognised. The indigenous have a different connection with the land, a more spiritual connection

Throughout the 20th Century Indigenous Australians rights have been detrimentally and unjustly affected by the frequent changing of governmental policies. This has been evidenced throughout the history of Australia, starting as early as the beginning of colonisation, to current time. In this time, Indigenous Australians have been forced from the land that they not only have used to sustain their physical needs, but is significant to their spiritual beliefs and Dreamtime. During the course of Australia’s shared history, there has been many different periods greatly dependant on the Government at the time and their beliefs when it come to the rights of the Indigenous people, discussed in this essay are the, Protection Policy, Assimilation Policy,

Indigenous Australian and Torres Strait Island cultures have the oldest living history in the world. They trace back at least 50,000 years and some argue closer to 65,000 years. Events, policies and attitudes of the past have impacted this rich and diverse culture. Through progressive movements and other agencies of social, cultural and political change, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have been inspired by hope for change to respond to challenges in ways that promote wellbeing, with varying degrees of success.

Since the beginning of European colonization in 1788, Aboriginal people have experienced displacement, have been the targets of genocidal policies and practices, and have had families destroyed through the forcible removal of children. Decades of colonial exploitation and a prolonged systematic attempt to destroy Aboriginal people and culture have led to legislations and policies that are punitive and restrictive towards Aboriginal people. Such legislation reflects the dominant society’s perceptions of Aboriginal people and how they ought to be

‘Aboriginalism’ is a term that could hold many different meanings to a variety of people, simply because there is a uneducated understanding, disregard and ignorance in the way that Contemporary Australians know and recognize Indigenous Australia. Having previously understood Aboriginalism to be an identity aboriginals themselves identify to, and being further educated upon the term, ‘aboriginalism’ is now clarified to be a theory of Edward Said’s, in which it describes non-aboriginal people’s perception of aboriginal people. This theory considers the Western Understanding placed on aboriginal knowledge, culture and traditions. An account that drew upon Said’s analysis of a complicity between the formation of colonial power in the discursive construction of radicalized others, claimed that ‘colonial representations of the supposedly savage condition of indigenous peoples have provided the basis upon which a now familiar account of colonial discourse has been elaborated’ (Anderson & Perrin, 2006, p. 147). Australian history and Bain Attwood’s (1992, p.14) contention of Said’s theory also reinforced Australia’s inclination to stereotype aboriginals as one. His argument focused on the ways Australia went about declaring aboriginal people as ‘others’ and how that was a cause to a hierarchical power relationship. Anderson & Perrin (2006, p.158) said that the Australian government was also invoking a hierarchy in a legal context, to support the argument that sovereignty over

The occupation of Australia involved an inventory of prejudiced and misguided policies against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples that manifested in the “dispossession, physical ill-treatment, social disruption, population decline, economic exploitation, codified discrimination and cultural devastation of the first people of this land” (Vos, Barker, Begg, Stanley & Lopez, 2008, p. 471). It is undisputed that compared with mainstream Australians, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are still experiencing significantly worse health, social and economic outcomes. This essay will investigate how the disadvantaged social status of the First Australians has impacted Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children’s health,

Sadly, our history with respect to the treatment of Aboriginal people is not something in which we can take pride. Attitudes of racial and cultural superiority led to a suppression of Aboriginal culture and values. As a country, we are burdened by past actions that resulted in weakening the identity of Aboriginal peoples, suppressing their languages and cultures, and outlawing spiritual practices. We must recognize the impact of these actions on the once self-sustaining nations that were disaggregated, disrupted, limited or even destroyed by the dispossession of traditional territory, by the relocation of Aboriginal people, and by some provisions of the Indian Act. We must acknowledge that the result of these actions was the erosion of the political, economic and social systems of Aboriginal people and nations.

The acknowledgement of country is very important as it recognises the first original owners of the land we now share; the original custodians of the land were the aboriginals. This shows the history and culture of Aboriginals and the hardship that they endured at that difficult time. The acknowledgement of country is used to bring both Indigenous Australians and other cultures together to share the land of their ancestors.