The Vestey: The Colonization Policy

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.

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,

During the Frontier period, Indigenous peoples resisted the non-Indigenous settlement of Australia, throughout 1770-1890. During approximately throughout the 1890’s to 1970’s, the non-Indigenous retaliations occurred, resulting in protection, segregation and the stolen generations. Which initiated an ongoing impact on Indigenous communities.

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.

The term terra nullius means “nobody's land” and was what the British colonists declared Australian territory was when they landed on the shores in 1788 (Hollinsworth 2006). Colonists saw upon arrival that Australia was inhabited by Indigenous people, however because of lack of cultivation and societal systems like Europeans had established, they concluded that the land was now ‘owned’ by them and hence no treaty or conquest was required before they could ‘lawfully’ reside on the land.

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

This certificate gave Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people the opportunity to become ‘normal’ people if they follow government orders. The orders included the people were not allowed to live on the reserves, therefore not allowed to be with their families, and not allowed to socialize with non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. This leaves the exempted Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders lonely and without any proper life. The exempted Aboriginal and Torres

of the Act as the rights and interests of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders observed under

“The status of Indigenous health in contemporary Australia is a result of historic factors as well as contemporary socio-economic issues” (Hampton & Toombs, 2013, p. 1).

The Yirrkala Bark Petition of 1963 was a result of Governments giving native Aboriginal land to mining companies on a mining lease. The Aboriginals claimed that their land was being taken away from them without compensation. The aim of this particular protest was to gain back the land that had been given away through the mining lease and be apologised to by the Australian government. These aims are summarised in the aborigine’s simple desire to be accepted into the Australian community and to be granted rights as well as acknowledgment that they have ties to the land. The local Yirrkala elders signed an ornate and artistic petition to have the mining lease revoked. As a result, the government set up a committee to oversee the decision made and to mediate future decision on similar matters. Despite the lease going ahead, it was acknowledged that there were Aboriginal sacred sites on the land where the lease was valid and it was agreed that those sites would be protected. This decision alone didn’t have a great effect however it showed the Aboriginals that the Australian government acknowledged there ties to the land and it showed the Australian government that the Aboriginals did have rights to regions throughout Australia even if those rights were not to be recognised for almost 30 years.

The European invasion of Australia in 1780 impacted upon the lives of all the Aboriginal people that lived in and around the invaded areas. When Captain Cook landed in Australia, he declared it as Terra Nullius, and this alone gives a significant insight as to the mentality of the British and their willingness to acknowledge the Aboriginal people and the importance that the land played in their daily lives. As the invaders brought with them their laws, ideals, diseases, livestock and people, the need for land increased and settlers began to venture outwards from the main settlements, the frontier broadened and the Aboriginal population began to shrink. The encroachment upon the land meant that many Aboriginal people were now being forced

They are discriminated against by immigrants from all aspects. From the beginning, justice for the aborigines did not exist. Therefore, in the following two centuries, all kinds of violence and discrimination against the indigenous people persisted. Although the Australian government has improved its policy on aboriginal people, the previous colonial government and the nineteenth-century Australian government have left indelible influence on the aborigines, such as reduced population, racial discrimination and cultural loss. This essay is going to argue that policies of past Australian Government led to irreversible damage to indigenous people in cultural identity，human rights and health.

In 1770, the British discovered the land of Indigenous and then they disgorged people who was socially excluded and brought along with their culture, knowledge, social order, nation of poverty and most important, their racial prejudice(Miller 1985, p7). The construction of race started with the claim of Terra-Nullius, the land was ‘waste and unoccupied’ (Reynolds 2003). By recognising the land as Terra-Nullius mean that they not considered Indigenous as a ‘fully human’, not recognised their culture, the ownership of land at that time. They failed to attempt to deal with the native, and start the invasion of the land. During the time, the Indigenous society was completely disrupted by the invasion and dispossession, and illness and death on Indigenous society started due to the lack of immunity of European disease (Stanner 1977).

In 1788 the first Fleet arrived in Australia bringing European soldierse, convicts and settlers. This bought aboriginals in contact with white people for the first time. Some aboriginal groups tried to resist this occupation and they used violence and force the archive it. This essay will explain why that resistance was justified by examining the causes, identifying some examples of Indigenous resistance and will assess short and long term effects of this conflict.

In the twentieth century, Broome outlines briefly how the Aboriginal people in ‘settled’ Australia were controlled. Broome discusses two ways in which Aboriginal people were controlled. This was done by firstly controlling the Aboriginal boards under legislation that imprisoned the aboriginal people on reserves and contradicted them civil rights. Secondly Broome outlines how the discrimination of Aboriginal skin colour was controlled by a customary discrimination known as the ‘caste barrier’ (Broome, 2010).