Injustice In Australia Essay

759 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Impact of discrimination on aboriginal people

Throughout the world, in history and in present day, injustice has affected all of us. Whether it is racial, sexist, discriminatory, being left disadvantaged or worse, injustice surrounds us. Australia is a country that has been plagued by injustice since the day our British ancestors first set foot on Australian soil and claimed the land as theirs. We’ve killed off many of the Indigenous Aboriginal people, and also took Aboriginal children away from their families; this is known as the stolen generation. On the day Australia became a federation in 1901, the first Prime Minister of Australia, Edmund Barton, created the White Australia Policy. This only let people of white skin colour migrate to the country. Even though Australia was the first country to let women vote, women didn’t stand in Parliament until 1943 as many of us didn’t support female candidates, this was 40 years after they passed the law in Australian Parliament for women to stand in elections. After the events of World War Two, we have made an effort to make a stop to these issues here in Australia. We as Australians are completely unaware of all the suffering, sorrow and sadness we’ve placed upon the Aboriginal people since we set foot on their land. We’ve killed them in cold blood as we’ve had several disagreements with the Aboriginal people. Evidence even shows that all Tasmanian Aboriginals were killed and become completely extinct. We’ve given them diseases which they never used to contract and have wiped out the majority of their people and we even took Aboriginal children away from their own biological parents. The idea behind this was so they would then breed with other Australians which would rid of their full-tribal blood, making them become extinct. Thes... ... middle of paper ... ...at these several events in our nation’s history have demoralised our reputation to other countries globally. To make us known as a better country to other nations, we’ve completely abolished the White Australia Policy, gave back the aborigines their freedoms and we were also the first country in the world to give women rights. Australia today in present day is now one of the most multicultural societies on Earth, and we definitely follow our values of mateship, acceptance and freedom. Throughout our rich history, we have overcome these issues by making great changes in our country by promoting multiculturalism and giving everyone a fair go which means giving everyone chance to live a healthy and prosperous life. But, even with these changes, Australia once was plagued with injustice. Australia now has a good reputation, but our horrid past will never be forgotten.

Show More
Related

  • Post World War Two Racism, in Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal Australian Communities

    1867 Words  | 4 Pages

    Over the years Australia has had many different problems with racism and racism affecting peoples’ lives. Many racial groups have been affected, most significantly the Aboriginals. The end of world war two in 1945 marked a huge change in types of racism. Australia went from the ‘superior’ white Australians dominating over immigrants and aboriginals. To a relatively multicultural and accepting society that is present today.

    Read More

  • Australian Values Statement

    2266 Words  | 5 Pages

    • Australian society values equality of opportunity for individuals, regardless of their race, religion or ethnic background

    Read More

  • Australian Civil Rights Movement In The 1960's

    1473 Words  | 3 Pages

    In 1901, the Indigenous gained their voting rights back after being taken away from them in the 1800s. One of major break throughs was the success of the Aboriginal’s gaining their land rights back due to the ‘Mabo’ case, which was an on-going 10 year protest to achieve recognition that Indigenous people did exist and live in Australia before the European Settlement. As well as this, in 1967 a referendum for Aboriginal Census rights was ran through a vote to the whole of Australia with the good results of 91% of voters approving the change that Indigenous people now had the right to an Australian Citizenship. This was a major turning point for Australian, as it opened the eyes of many Australian’s to see how the Indigenous had a place in Australian society. This realisation led to the end of the social segregation the Indigenous people were receiving. As for the ‘Stolen Generation’, Prime Minister of 2008, Keven Rudd, apologised to the Australian Indigenous people who had been mistreated and involved in the stolen generation where families were torn

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of Ania Walwicz's Poetry

    366 Words  | 1 Pages

    ‘Displaced person in your own country, lonely in teeming city crowds, last of your tribe’. Has anyone here ever been forcibly abducted from your home? Or have had your children literally pried out of your arms and stolen from you? Or have you had your parents murdered right in front of you? Australia’s indigenous people and rightful owners of the land have been permanently segregated from the Australian society having been faced with extreme adversity, torture and catastrophe. Consequently, Indigenous Australians were made outsiders in their own home. Yet, The Australian Government and communities have accepted all of you here today with open arms and officially entitled you as Australian citizens. As can be expected, this is even stated in the Australian National Anthem, ‘For those who’ve come across the seas we’ve boundless plains to share’. With no reference to the Aboriginals and Australia’s true history as well as disreguarding them in the verse ‘For we are young and free’. Good morning, I, a fellow immigrant and Australian am here today to oppose Australia’s values of acceptance and freedom. How can we be truly accepted

    Read More

  • Australia Multicultural Society Analysis

    1257 Words  | 3 Pages

    Therefore, during these period time in Australia was that, multiculturalism was not a successful between other societies, some minorities were accepted and some were not accepted, which this caused all people from different races, religions and cultures to treat each other unequally in Australia. The white Australia policy died out as an official policy in the 1960s, where Australia was accepting other minorities which the government celebrated the diversity of Australia for becoming a multicultural society and accepting other

    Read More

  • Essay On Australian Identity

    721 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hopefully, there can be no doubt that Australia is a richly culturally diverse nation, and that a major contribution to this has been the encouragement by successive governments over the past half-century to newcomers to Australia to participate fully in the life of their new nation, respecting the values and the institutions of their new nation

    Read More

  • Cultural Influence Of Culture

    1410 Words  | 3 Pages

    The mistrust and fear of difference which often stem from isolation from other cultures can be overcome by fostering cultural understanding and by highlighting the common interests that all Australians share. Working together, Australians can achieve a more equal and fairer society that respects and values its diversity.

    Read More

  • Social Inequality In Australia

    988 Words  | 2 Pages

    ‘Multiculturalism’ has been an organising principle of Australian policy ever since the early 1970s. A brief look over the many statements of multiculturalism over the past twenty-five years have come to reveal three common themes: the value of preserving cultural identity, and the importance of attaining social equality and maintaining social cohesion (Greig, A, Lewins, F & White, K 2003, pp. 113 – 114).

    Read More

  • Multiculturalism: The Changing Faces of Australia

    607 Words  | 2 Pages

    But we have not always celebrated difference. Built on oppression and institutionalised racism, Australia has a dark history, one that cannot be hidden away nor forgotten. The lives and deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, South Sea Islanders and migrants are woven into Australia’s history; the people whose blood, sweat and tears built our country.

    Read More

  • Australia Day, January 26th. Do we need to reconsider?

    802 Words  | 2 Pages

    Australia Day is annually celebrated on the 26th of January; the date recognises the initiation of British sovereignty over Australia in 1788. The nation’s achievements since then are nothing short of outstanding. As regarded as a considerably young nation, we have realized extraordinary growth, expansion, development, stature and respect across the globe; and deemed our greatest achievement, our multiculturalism. Yet despite these momentous attributes and reason to celebrate, we choose to commemorate it on a day that for the vast majority of the population has no real significance whatsoever. Worse yet, for the indigenous population the day only serves to remind them, of their subjugation, their overthrow and their suppression. Moreover, is it time to introduce reforms to our nation’s day?

    Read More

  • “Why we as Australians shouldn’t be so opposed to asylum seekers.”

    809 Words  | 2 Pages

    Australia has committed 143 human rights violations, and has started to ruin our national reputation. Nobody wants to be called a racist. Unfortunately, many people worldwide are calling Australians exactly that. If one looks at Australian history, they will see that our white ancestors weren’t really racially tolerant at all, which left us with a bad reputation as racists. We’ve worked for many years to change how the world sees us as a country, but now we’ve undone all of that hard work by deciding to turn back the boats. However, by doing this, we’ve not only been called racists, but we’ve also broken international human rights laws that we swore not to break with the UN, severed relations with other countries, and pushed many of these innocent asylum seekers to the brink of suicide.

    Read More

  • Protectionist Policies

    1922 Words  | 4 Pages

    Historians argue whether the intention of the protectionist policies that allowed Aboriginal children to be removed was done with the purpose of killing off all Aborigines (Read 1981) as a group of people, seen of little value by the “white colonists” or whether it was indeed done for the protection and betterment of the children(Windschuttle, Why There Were No Stolen Generations 2010). Whatever the intention the systematic removal of the children from the late 1800’s till 1972 undermined the whole Aboriginal community, Marjorie Woodrow, who over 60 years ago was removed from her family says, “Little did they know they ripped our souls to pieces” (Woodrow 2001). As Australians read through the testimonies of the “Stolen Generations” we begin to have a sense of how the forced removal of Aboriginal children impacted on and continues to on Aboriginal families and communities today.

    Read More

  • The History Of The Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander People

    610 Words  | 2 Pages

    Given the history of the European colonisation of Australia, many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are wary of white institutions and social welfare’ ( Chenoweth & McAuliffe 2012, p.274). Identify and discuss one or two of the historical events that have impacted on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and how the effects are seen today.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of A Multicultural Society

    732 Words  | 2 Pages

    Obtaining multicultural as a part of the identity of the country has successfully made Australia a multicultural society. One of the examples to demonstrate multicultural is a part of Australian identity is the cancellation

    Read More

  • Personal Experience: Australia´s National Identity

    859 Words  | 2 Pages

    For countless years the entire world has visualised Australians as a pack of outback country bogans, with a limited education and a strange addiction to vegemite and beer. Australians are a strange collection of people who only ever greet each other by using phrases such as ‘G’day Mate’ and ‘How ya goin’, whilst also throwing in as many strange and unintelligent phrases an possible. This is definitely not the natural approach Australians take to greeting fellow Australians out in the street or over the phone, nor does the vocabulary of an average Australian majorly consist of slang and cuss words. People from other cultures all over the world have seemingly taken on a number of stereotypes about both Australians and their country. Australia’s national identity needs to change from supporting the stereotype of the outback Australian bogan, to supporting the modern reality of its people whom are actually well educated and a part of the middle class.

    Read More

More about Injustice In Australia Essay

Open Document