Discrimination Against Aboriginal People in Australia Essay

Reparations for the Aboriginal People Rewrite The Aboriginal people were one of the many natives that were imperialized by the British in the 1700’s. Like the other natives that were imperialized, they were treated terribly, and without mercy. Recently the proposed an appeal to receive a reparation for all the children that were stolen during the time of imperialism, “The Stolen Generation”. They do deserve this reparation, because they had their national and basic human rights violated, as well as suffered many physical, mental, and emotional harms, and that exceeds all guidelines set by the UN.

Indigenous Australians have faced many changes to their original life style, with numerous policies being brought in. These policies had an incredible affect on how the indigenous Australians lived. The policies inflicted on the indigenous Australians varied widely and had numerous impacts. The policies of assimilation, protection and integration had mainly negative impacts on the community, causing loss of identity, language and religion. The policies of self-determination and reconciliation, had mostly positive effects to the indigenous Australian community, creating a stronger bond between black and white Australians, encouraging the concept of closing the gap between indigenous Australians and non-indigenous Australians. These

Adam Goodes is an Indigenous Australian famous for being a player for the Sydney Swans team in the Australian Football League (AFL). Being a well-known AFL player and also winning Australian of the year for his charity work with indigenous youth, Adam Goodes can be considered as a high profile Indigenous person. Throughout his career, he has used his status as a platform to address racial discrimination towards indigenous peoples within Australia, as he himself has received public discriminatory racial slurs. Through sport and community work – Adam Goodes has transformed indigenous culture, by challenging its race relations and empowering the next generation of Indigenous role models. Indigenous Australians continue to have an ongoing resistance to the processes of colonisation and also of emphasizing an indigenous presence within Australia.

Being born on Australian soil for the Indigenous was regarded very important culturally, if a baby was born on the land, they were considered traditional owners of the land. Australian Indigenous women birthing was renowned traditionally as “Women’s Business”. The birthing process involved preparing a hole in the ground, covering the hole with soft leaves and grass as well as red, soft sand. The midwives that assisted the mothers in labour were grandmothers and other women in the community who could offer physical and emotional support that alleviated the discomfort, pain and fear of the birthing process (Jones 2012). Pre-colonisation evidence suggests that Aboriginal women very rarely had medical complaints during pregnancy, the diet women had was very strict and would consist of

The injustice of stereotypes begins with depictions of diverse groups as uniform. For Indigenous Australian stereotypes, there are prevailing negative views of laziness, welfare abuse, substance abuse, and criminality (Perkins, 2014). Initial negative stereotypes of Indigenous Australians were based on social-Darwinist theories (Harrison & Sellwood, 2016). However, contemporary stereotypes might be attributed to ignorance of Australia’s past paternalistic colonialism on contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Stereotypes negatively impact the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This is clear in constructing identity, and the expectations others have of Indigenous Australians.

The rights and freedoms of Aboriginals have improved drastically since 1945 with many changes to government policy, cultural views and legal rules to bring about a change from oppression to equality. Unfortunately on the other hand, some rights and freedoms have not improved at all or have even worsened.

Throughout history, women have been the victims of oppression in society. In specific, Aboriginal women have suffered through racism, sexism, domestic violence, and over-representation. Through the implementation of the Indian Act, Aboriginal women have been forced to abandon their culture in order to assimilate into Canadian society. The effects of colonization has changed the way Aboriginal women are treated; emotionally and physically, and therefore are the source of oppression today.

Australia is considered one of the safest and best countries to live (OECD, 2016). For instance, Australia exhibits higher life expectancies (80.3 years for males and 84.5 years for females), lower mortality rates (5.4 per 1000 live births), high-quality education and health practices and many employment opportunities (ABS, 2015). However, there are wide disparities in life expectancy, mortality rates, heath outcomes, education and employment for indigenous people (Holland, 2014).For example, life expectancy at birth for indigenous population is 10.6 years lower than that of the non-indigenous male population and 9.5 years for females (ABS, 2015). The mortality rate for the indigenous

Research an aspect of Australian history (e.g. policy, practice) and outline the ways in which this aspect has impacted on Aboriginal people and Aboriginal education.

Terra Nullius was once apparent in Australian society, but has now been nullified with the turn of the century. With the political changes in our society, and the apology to Indigenous Australians, society is now witnessing an increase in aboriginals gaining a voice in today’s society. Described by Pat Dodson (2006) as a seminal moment in Australia’s history, Rudd’s apology was expressed in the true spirit of reconciliation opening a new chapter in the history of Australia. Considerable debate has arisen within society as to whether aboriginals have a right to land that is of cultural significance and whether current land owners will be able to keep their land.

Misrepresentation of Indigenous Australians in the media, as seen in the Courier Mail (Article A) and the Koori Mail (Article B), shows a different side of Tony Abbott’s comments. Each with their own biases and by comparing the two articles it shows that good representations in the media still have a long way to go.

The representation of Indigenous Australians in fiction and nonfiction texts are influenced by a range of factors. In the contemporary world of multicultural Australia, there has been a variety of ways groups of people are represented in texts. The Indigenous population is often portrayed in ways that strengthen harmful stereotypes. However, there are also a variety of positive outlooks and portrayals expressing their strength and achievements. In texts studied in year 8 English, the representation of Indigenous Australians in Crow country are characterized as outcasts and reflect cultural distinction. Newspaper articles regarding “Adam Goodes” demonstrates how preconceived thoughts from many Australians destroys sporting stars outlook upon

INDENT is a culturally aware organisation that prides itself on working across cultural barriers. INDENT recognises the challenges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are faced with and acknowledges the impact past government Australian policy has affected our Nation’s Indigenous people. We do this by: • Working with community Elders to implement and help guide us with our programs, community Elders are encouraged to attend our programs and interact with children • Our programs are based on promoting positive Aboriginal identity • Zero tolerance policy in regards to racism, stereotyping or biased behaviour or comments • Work with Interpreters to overcome language limitations.

Both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal had valuable and reasonable arguments against the federal government’s decision. The technique the federal government should have used instead was to keep the rule that Aboriginal people have a right to fish when they wanted without a license and keep the fishing industry continuing their success. Since the fishing industry has been running for hundreds of years and Aboriginals come from a family of survival and fishing, then why not both work with each other in the same industry. This means that Aboriginals will still have a right to fish when they want and the fishing industry will still be running, therefore Aboriginals would find more employment.

Recognition of Aboriginals in the Constitution to the Prime Minister, there has been growing momentum in the campaign for the referendum on this issue.