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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have faced disadvantages
in various areas, particularly housing. The disadvantages these people
face now are the result of policies introduced by the European
settlers, then the government. The policies introduced were
protection, assimilation, integration and self-determination. It is
hard to understand the housing disadvantages faced by Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander people if their history is not known.
In 1788 when the European settlers “colonised” Australia, the
Australian land was known as “terra nullius” which means “land
belonging to no-one”. This decision set the stage for the problems and
disadvantages faced by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people for 216 years.
The protection policy was meant to disperse tribes and force
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people off their traditional
land so the “white Australian’s” could have more control. The
protection policy enforced by the British colonies drove the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander onto reserves. These reserves
were run by religious missionaries and supervised by the Aboriginal
Protection Board from 1883. The protection policy was reinforced by
the Aborigines Protection Act (NSW) 1909. This Act was in force until
1969. The Act allowed police to withhold rations to pressure the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to move and expelled
whole clans from specific districts.
Conditions were extremely poor on the reserves. There was little to no
hygiene facilities. Often the “houses” were actually tin shacks with
dirt floors. The police issued ...
... middle of paper ...
... housing for Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander people under the “Housing for Aborigines
Program”.
The actions of the State and Federal Government(s) have being
questionable over the centuries since the ‘colonization’ of Australia,
but as Australia becomes more of a multicultural and multi-racial
society
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people acceptance is rising. The
disadvantages Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people face is
decreasing slowly by the government as introduce legislation and form
commissions. There will always be problems for Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander people in relation to housing, but the Australia is
heading in the right direction to correct this problem and provide a
much better future for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
and the whole of Australia.
“Indigenous Australian peoples are people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent, who are accepted as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person in the community in which they live, or have lived” (Queensland Government, Australia, n.d). Indigenous Australians have made considerable contributions in the field of arts, media, sport, education, politics/government, and history. One of the famous Indigenous person is Evonne Fay Goolagong-Cawley, who has gained name and fame for Australia in the field of tennis on world level. Evonne Goolagong-Cowley’s life, opportunities, achievements and contributions and the ability to rise out of the cultural barriers gave her a unique place in Australian society.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have some of the worst health outcomes in comparison to any other indigenous community in the world (AIHW, 2011). According to United Nations official Anand Grover, Aboriginal health conditions are even worse than some Third World countries (Arup & Sharp, 2009), which is astonishing, considering Australia is one of the worlds wealthiest countries. Thoroughly identifying the causes and analysing every aspect behind poor health of indigenous Australians, and Australian health in general, is near impossible due to the complexity and abundant layers of this issue. Even within the category of social determinants, it is hard to distinguish just one factor, due to so many which interrelate and correspond with each other. The aim of this essay is to firstly identify and analyse components of the social determinants of health that impact the wellbeing of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders, and demonstrate how they overlap with each other. By analysing the inequalities in health of Aboriginal and non-indigenous Australians, positive health interventions will then be addressed. Racism and the consequences it has on Indigenous health and wellbeing will be discussed, followed by an analysis of how and why social class and status is considered a determining factor when studying the health of the Aboriginal population. The issue relating ...
The over-representation of Aboriginal children in the Canadian Child Welfare system is a growing and multifaceted issue rooted in a pervasive history of racism and colonization in Canada. Residential schools were established with the intent to force assimilation of Aboriginal people in Canada into European-Canadian society (Reimer, 2010, p. 22). Many Aboriginal children’s lives have been changed adversely by the development of residential schools, even for those who did not attend them. It is estimated that Aboriginal children “are 6-8 times more likely to be placed in foster care than non-Aboriginal children (Saskatchewan Child Welfare Review Panel, 2010, p. 2).” Reports have also indicated that First Nations registered Indian children make up the largest proportion of Aboriginal children entering child welfare care across Canada (Saskatchewan Child Welfare Review Panel, p. 2). Consequently, this has negatively impacted Aboriginal communities experience of and relationship with child welfare services across the country. It is visible that the over-representation of Aboriginal children in the child welfare system in Canada lies in the impact of the Canadian policy for Indian residential schools, which will be described throughout this paper.
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.
Within Australia, beginning from approximately the time of European settlement to late 1969, the Aboriginal population of Australia experienced the detrimental effects of the stolen generation. A majority of the abducted children were ’half-castes’, in which they had one white parent and the other of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent. Following the government policies, the European police and government continued the assimilation of Aboriginal children into ‘white’ society. Oblivious to the destruction and devastation they were causing, the British had believed that they were doing this for “their [Aborigines] own good”, that they were “protecting” them as their families and culture were deemed unfit to raise them. These beliefs caused ...
For the first two weeks of my class, I had no idea where I was headed in terms of my learning experience but I soon found out. During the first week we had to define “indigenous identity” which by the way was a foreign language to me. After I determined the meaning of it (because there were so many choices) I settled on the meaning “that what connects a person or people by their culture, race, beliefs and way of life”. I never considered or included myself a part of that definition because I thought it only pertained to people of other nations or countries. Eventually my thoughts and understanding changed. As I stated before my reading “Thinking Like an Anthropologist” Chapter Five, “What was This Practice or Idea Like in the past - The Temporal Question (2008, Omohundro, J.T. ), will be an excellent and informative guide for my research (in which it was). Also having to use Syncretism as a tool allowed me the opportunity to not only research the past but present rituals, beliefs, etc. of African Americans and how much they have changed over the years. Looking through this research as a critic allowed me to broaden my horizons not only about my culture but other cultures that are included in this identity. We were first introduced to two articles: The “Gebusi” and “Body Ritual of the Nacerima”. And I thought their rituals and beliefs were somewhat extreme, but then I realized if they looked at our society and our practices, they could consider the same thing about us. Having said that I decided that as an African-American woman, I was prepared to take that journey into the unknown, to investigate my culture, our accomplishments, and therefore have the ability to share my findings and observations with others. Week after week we w...
According to the Métis Elder, Tom McCallum, “The more we listen to other people’s views, the more our vision will open up and we will start to…be able to see from all perspectives and respect those perspectives. That is what creates our wholeness, to walk in balance and harmony, to respect other people’s way, their journey of life, their way of interpreting, to treat each other with much more kindness and respect.” This quote explains the idea that, because all people have different experiences, we all see the world differently. People of similar communities or groups, however, may have similar views because they have similar experiences. Although it can be easy to dismiss someone else’s thoughts if we do not understand them, we must listen to the opinions and views of people of other communities so that we can gain insight a
Many factors, such as our personal experiences, can influence how we establish a nurse-person therapeutic relationship. In order to achieve this relationship one must have understanding of the various issues Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people face within the healthcare system. As a second year nursing student my understanding and experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture is limited. My current understanding is that substantial inequalities exist between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and non-Indigenous Australians, particularly in relation to access to safe and quality healthcare. But in regards to their culture I have limited knowledge and understanding. Due to my little knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have been the first nations, which represented the whole Australian population, for centuries. However, the continuous European colonization has severely affected these peoples and, over the decades, their unique values and cultures, which enriched the life of Australian nation and communities, were not respected and discriminated by numerous restrictive policies. As a result, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have turned into the voiceless minority of the Australian population. Fortunately, in recent years, these issues became the concern of the Australian government, promoting a slight improvement in the well being of native Australians. Nowadays, there are numerous social work
My understanding is that- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander refers to people who are accepted as they are by the community in which they live. They have their own cultural beliefs which enables them to have a very strong blood relationship with their own kinship related families. They give significance to land, water and sea. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are different from other cultural groups they have beliefs and values, that are different from non- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
The terms Aboriginal, American People, Indian, Indigenous Peoples, First Nations and Native Americans we originally used when the first settlers arrived to North and South America. The term American Indian was used to refer to native people of the Western Hemisphere and in the name Indian was used when Christopher Columbus thought he had reached the Indies when he was in search of South Asia. In 1507 a German cartographer named Martin Waldeemuller had named the Western Hemisphere as America around 1507. So, the name American Indian took affect to differentiate the people from South Asia. In the United States and Canada in the 1960s the name American Indian was under scrutiny because it was sometimes called racist and so the
They say they want to be treated as equals yet they are happy to claim every benefit thrown at them. The Aboriginal people of Australia get so many more benefits than the average white bloke and yet they have the Gaul to complain they don’t get enough.
British colonization of Australia had many long term and immediate effects on Aboriginal people. Disease was prevalent in the colonial period and without modern medicine, or in the case of Aboriginal people having access even to the medicine of the time, many people would often die from disease. In 1789, 50% of all Aboriginals in the Sydney area, died as a result of a small pox epidemic. Disease was even more prevalent in the Aboriginal communities as Aboriginal women were used as a sex resource by the British colonial men. These diseases were new for Aboriginal people and therefore they did not have the same tolerance for it, as the settlers did. Disease wasn’t the only thing that the colonies brought which impacted upon Aboriginal people,
But when it did get cold in the winter they slept and lived in shelters. These shelters were made of a frame work of branches and sticks then they were covered with leaves and branches. Or the aboriginals slept next a camp fire.
Reading into which architecture and sites our society and government decides to conserve and protect for future generations reflects our very own beliefs and values. Recently history shows that indigenous sacred sites have not been protected by the heritage conservation act causing much distress and outcry from the indigenous communities. In 2014, burials and sacred sites were desecrated for Whitehaven’s Maules Creek Mine, in New South Wales. The Gomeroi Traditional Custodians believed that Whitehaven Coal Mine destroyed 4000 acres of “Culturally significant forest, artefacts and cultural values,” and instead of the government addressing and assessing the elders concerns, they were “ignored and silenced by bureaucracy.” To this indigenous