The Indigenous People Of Australia

Indigenous Australians are probably descendants of the first modern humans to migrate out of Africa to Asia, roughly 70,000 years ago, arriving in Australia around 50,000 years ago.

It is a commonly known issue in Australia that as a minority group, the people of Indigenous Australian ethnicity have always been treated, or at least perceived, differently to those of non-Indigenous disposition. This can be applied to different contexts such as social, economic, education, or in relation to this essay – legal contexts. Generally, Indigenous Australians face issues such as less opportunity for formal education, less access to sufficient income, more health issues, and higher rates of imprisonment (Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service

Othering, as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary is, “the perception or representation of a person or a group of people as fundamentally alien from another, frequently more powerful, group.” (“Home: Oxford English Dictionary,” 2017). Therefore, in my opinion, the practice of Othering in this article is the exclusion of persons who do not fit the norm of the social group [African descent].

When European colonists settled in Australia they treated the Aboriginal people extremely different to that of their fellow white men. The Aboriginals were not seen as first class citizens through the European eye and as a result were victims of extreme oppressions and had nearly no rights or freedoms. Since then Aboriginal people have fought to be treated equally to the white men through various different ways. I will discuss the previous struggles faced by the Aboriginals, the Australian strife for equality and finally the level of success and degree of rights and freedoms given to Aboriginals in modern Australia.

Over the past 230 years, Aboriginals have protested in many different ways to gain rights, which they believe they are deserving of. Through aims of what they wanted to achieve, the processes they went through brought them disappointment over the poor results of some actions and pleasure over the success of others. Over those years, very few periods of protest have been as revelational or effective as the protests occurring between 1938 and 1972. During this period many different groups of Aboriginals have fought for the common cause of being recognised as people rather than interferences caught in the midst of Australians expansion as a nation.

In the last 60,000 years Australian indigenous knowledge has advanced through generations. Unlike western culture where knowledge becomes known through written text 's,Indigenous knowledge is developed by images, words, patterns, sounds, smells and tastes on different canvases such as sand, soil, the body and rocks (Blair 2008). Furthermore, Since British colonisation in 1788 threats to traditional indigenous knowledge existed then and more now in modern society. Main threats include agricultural and industrial developments, territorial pressures including deforestation, social and economic pressures including assimilation, poverty, education, loss of languages,political pressures,the recognition and standing of indigenous traditional knowledge including involvement in policy and legislative development, cultural integrity and globalisation. It is important that these threats are resolved and Indigenous knowledge is contexulizised into our education systems as it can bring a better understanding to Australian indigenous history.It is important that teachers incorporate indiginoues knowledge into classroom as It can also give students the ability to think comprehensively when exploring social problems in the environment and the awareness of the relationship that people share with their environment and also increase understanding and respect of other cultures (Rahman,2013)

The indigenous people of Japan and Russia are called Ainu. Ainu is also referred as Aino, Aynu and Ezo in ancient text. The history showed that they spoke Ainu language and other varieties of languages. They lived mostly in Hokkaido, the Kuril Islands, and Sakhalin. The people who still called them Ainu live in those regions. The exact number of the population of Ainu is still unknown. There are confusing and conflicting issues with Ainu due to mixed heritages, which result in hiding their identities. There is much intermarriage in Japan, which causes the loss of identities of real Ainu. The official estimates of the population of Ainu are

Human rights are the rights of humans, regardless of nationality, gender, race, or religion. We should all have this in common as we are all part of humanity. However, Indigenous people did not always have these rights (Ag.gov.au, 2015). Aside from basic human rights, Indigenous people also have their own rights specific to their culture. Before 1967, Indigenous people had different rights in different states and the Australian federal government did not have any jurisdiction over Aboriginal affairs until Australia’s constitution was amended for this purpose in 1967 (Moadoph.gov.au, 2015). Between 1900 and the present time, there have been significant changes to the rights of Indigenous Australians. The effects of the European Settlement on the Indigenous people of Australia have been devastating. When white people began arriving in Australia, the Aboriginal people believed them to be ghosts of ancestor spirits. However, once they realised the settlers were invading their land, the Aborigines became, understandably, hostile (Slater & Parish, 1999, pp.8-11). In 1788, the total Indigenous population was believed to be between 750,000 and one million. By 1888, the Indigenous population was reduced to around 80,000 Australia wide (Korff, 2014). The three main reasons for this dramatic decline were the introduction of new diseases, violent conflicts with the colonisers, and settlers acquiring Indigenous land (Digital, 2015). In 1848, the Board of National Education stated that it

One of the great untold truths of Australian history has been the courageous contribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to the Australian Defence Force. For decades this contribution was unacknowledged and their sacrifices were unmentioned at official ceremonies.” Alistair Nicholson, Reconciliation Australia (2014).

Aboriginals or indigenous Australians are the native people of Australia. Aboriginals were nomadic people who came to Australia about 40,000 – 60,000 years ago from Southeast Asia. Religion is a great part of Aboriginal culture. The essay answers these questions: What do Aboriginals belief? What is a Kinship system? What is Dreaming and Dreamtime? What rituals does Aboriginals have?

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).

Race socially is a sensitive category with deep historical significance presenting many issues arising from the past. The Indigenous population inhabited Australia for over 50,000 years. However, upon British settlement and colonisation of Australia in 1788, dominance and control over the Indigenous population was established creating issues that shaped their native rights and title as traditional landowners. Upon colonisation within Australia, the British created a sum of sanctions of social jurisdiction disrupting the Indigenous population notion of ownership of origins and race. Cultural conformity to these guidelines constricted and ensured Indigenous groups adhered to these sanctions. Hence, Indigenous culture became constricted through

The Aboriginal community includes a number of communities and extended family networks. It is widely acknowledged that past practices have not had a positive effect on Aboriginal people. Current health and welfare policies acknowledge the impact of past policies and seek to work collaboratively for a better future. Best Start promotes collaborative practice.

During the early stages of settlement in Australia there was competition for land causing conflict between the Indigenous Australians and the new European settlers, this is what stared the discrimination against the Aboriginals. Throughout the years Europeans have distanced themselves from the Indigenous which meant discrimination within laws and policies. Over the course of Australia’s settlement three different policies arose, the Policy of Protection, the Policy of Assimilation and the current Policy of Integration. Majority of these policies prevented Indigenous Australians from having human rights, all because of the colour of their skin.

Indigenous people are those that are native to an area. Throughout the world, there are many groups or tribes of people that have been taken over by the Europeans in their early conquests throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, by immigrating groups of individuals, and by greedy corporate businesses trying to take their land. The people indigenous to Australia, Brazil and South America, and Hawaii are currently fighting for their rights as people: the rights to own land, to be free from prejudice, and to have their lands protected from society.