Western Australian Aborigines: A Cultural Analysis

“Many Aborigines removed from their families complained of harsh conditions, denial of parental contact and cultural heritage, harsh punishment and physical and sexual abuse” (Buti), the ruthless encounters the australian aborigines faced were just as violent as the Canadian aborigines. The teachers in the Australian schools were also taught to instil the christian religion and strip the children of any aboriginal cultural identity. The children explain their experience in these schools and describe the authority that is supposed to be taking care of

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

At the turn of the twentieth century the systematic forced removal of Aboriginal children from their mothers, families and cultural heritage was commonplace. There were several reasons that the government and white society used to justify the separation but the prevailing ideology of nationalism and maintaining Australia for the ‘whites’ was the over-riding motivation and justification for their actions[1]. Progressive sciences such as anthropology espoused such theories as eugenics, miscegenation, biological absorption and assimilation which legitimated governmental policies relating to Aboriginal affairs[2]. It was

Authorities were able to remove Aboriginal children it was thought that through assimilation into the European communities would improve the lives of these children. Children were considered ‘easier’ to assimilate as they couldn’t just return home, in particular ‘half-caste’ children of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous heritage. Assimilation claimed to benefit the lives of Indigenous Australians, but it failed as white societies refused to accept Indigenous people as equals, despite being forced to live as white people. Although it is undeniable that stealing Indigenous children violated basic human rights and caused extreme trauma and suffering to individuals, families, and communities, however non-Indigenous Australians wanted to ‘breed-out’ Indigenous Australians,

As the English population began to increase, Aboriginal people were moved into missions in 1810, so the population could be manages and they were taught the European ways so they could be used as low paid labours, border lining slaves (Creative Spirits, 2002). When the Aboriginal people failed to move to Christianity and ‘civilised’ life, the Europeans thought it was due to the lack of intellectual ability because they didn’t understand the “complexity and holding power of the traditional culture and religion” to the Aboriginals (Psychology and Indigenous Australians, Foundations of Cultural Competence, 2009, pp. 77). The separation of Aboriginals from the community into missions was known as segregation. In the early 20th century, the Indigenous Australians all throughout the nation were exposed to the ‘protection legislation’ which in turn, denied them of their basic human rights as well as the freedom that was demanded by every other Australian. Aboriginals were increasingly moved of farms where they worked like slaves and put into government or church controlled reserves where they were expected to die out (Psychology and Indigenous Australians, Foundations of Cultural Competence, 2009, pp. 79). On the Australian census at this time, Aboriginals were still considered as

Throughout the early 20th century, the Australian public was led to believe that Aboriginal children were disadvantaged in their communities, and that there was a high risk of physical and sexual abuse. Aboriginal children were being removed in order to be exposed to ‘Anglo values’ and ‘work habits’ with a view to them being employed by colonial settlers, and to stop their parents, families and communities from passing on their culture, language and identity

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.

Throughout Australian history, Aboriginal people have been displaced and mistreated through the course of time, through the separation from their from kinship groups, land and the stolen generation. This has resulted in the connection to their dreaming lost, misconnection and loss of their sacred sites and traditional food from their land. As a consequence of the stolen generation, many aboriginal children were deprived of their parents, families, spirituality, language from their land and their cultural identity. All of these aspects contribute to the continuing effect of dispossession on Aboriginal spiritualities.

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)

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?

Introduction of new temptations into Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people’s lives such as alcohol, drugs, processed foods or un-natural to their culture, technology (more in the 20th century plus), clustered living environments, un-organization (within the community, family), money and greed

From the early twentieth century, many in Australia generally began to view that the Aborigines were a “dying out” race which the notion was supported by the theory of Social Darwinism. The term ‘Stolen Generation’ was used during the late 20th century where the past Australian Federal, State and Territory government and church missions forcibly removed many Aboriginal children from their families (Read, 1981) under the white Australia policy. Read’s also adds that the Stolen Generation is evident as assimilation and genocide. Read’s article being written by a scholar with academic credentials can be considered as a reliable account of the invention of the term the Stolen Generations when corroborated by Sally Morgan’s biography, a primary source from an Aboriginal perspective, explicitly stating, “There’s so much the white fellas don’t understand. They want us to be assimilated into the white, but we don’t want to be” (Morgan 1998). The Stolen Generation’s immediate purpose were either: assimilation that could be potentially be genocide (Wilson, 1937) or for the care and protection of young children (Aborigines Protection Act, 1909). Many historians, such as Ronald Wilson, who argues that genocide was an element in the Stolen Generation that cannot be overlooked. As a historian with a black armband view, this source is biased however reliable in representing motives of White Australia during that time period. The beliefs, attitudes and values, which underpinned the White Australia Policy, were such things as social Darwinism and feelings of racial superiority (Bulletin, 1901). As a published national article, this primary source is significant in revealing the motives of white Australia at the time. "We must keep the breed pure. The half-caste usually inherits the vices of both races and

The Australian Aboriginal beliefs outline the nature of dreaming in relation to the origins of the universe. Australian Aboriginals have many stories about how the land became the way it is. They claim that there is not much support with where things actually came from. They tell stories about them walking and doing other things but since they can’t recall what ever happened when the universe began they don’t tell many stories about that. They do, however, tell stories about how the universe existed in some form but they don’t have an explanation for everything that has ever been created. Australian Aboriginals did not have a written calendar so it was up to scientists to find out how far back the Australian Aboriginal civilisation went,

Australian Aborigines are thought to have the longest continuous cultural history in the world. Yet, within a hundred years, the near extinction of the Aboriginal culture almost occurred. This single event, the invasion of the Australian continent by European settlers, changed the lifestyle, the culture, and the fate of Australian Aborigines. Their entire lives were essentially taken away and they were forced into a white, European world where the lifestyle change could not have been any different. Aborigines in Australia today are struggling to deal with a past in which they lost touch with their culture and now are trying to regain some of that cultural identity.

Australia’s Aborigines are often hailed as the world’s longest surviving culture, easily dating back 60,000 years, existing long before many ancient societies such as the Greeks and Romans. Since they are such an old culture many people wonder how they were able to remain in existence for so long while of culture perished around them. The answer can be found in their adaptive nature; having such a close bound with the land around them, taught the aboriginals the importance of change and adapting (Australia.gov.au). While it might be debatable that Australia’s natives are the longest surviving culture, there is no doubt that the Aborigines’ animistic religion is the oldest existing. Their religion is ripe with multiple different gods, often represented in the forms of animals or notable landscape features. There is no one central god, instead many deities were spread across the continent of Australia, each spirit fulfilling their role in the world. Creation beings were involved in the creation of the world, ancestral beings taught humans how to hunt and make weapons, totemic beings were the original form of animals. Being a culture that places high emphasize on their religion, many of the “dot art,” a form of painting or drawing that involves creating hundreds of small dots to create the overall picture, is often found in caves or the sides of rocks, the some