Indigenous Australians have faced many changes to their original life style, with numerous policies being brought in. These policies had an incredible affect on how the indigenous Australians lived. The policies inflicted on the indigenous Australians varied widely and had numerous impacts. The policies of assimilation, protection and integration had mainly negative impacts on the community, causing loss of identity, language and religion. The policies of self-determination and reconciliation, had mostly positive effects to the indigenous Australian community, creating a stronger bond between black and white Australians, encouraging the concept of closing the gap between indigenous Australians and non-indigenous Australians. These policies had an incredible influence on the indigenous Australians life, changing many ways they lived. The policies changed the path of history for all Australians.
The protection policy the first policy and had serious affects on the aboriginals of Australia. Violence against aboriginal people had been at a high rate, the white Australians felt it their duty to protect the aboriginals, the policy aimed to separate aboriginals from white Australians. They were removed and put into government reserves and church missions, where they were forced to become Christians. The aim of the policy and missions was to eradicate all aboriginals’ languages, religions and spirituality, In 1883 a protection board was set up to run the missions. The missions and camps had a paternalistic approach, treating the aboriginals the way a parent would treat a small child. The impact from this policy was horrific, with the mission being similar to a prison. Aboriginals lost their independence and became extremely reliant o...
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... community and live along side white Australians, while other aboriginals happily moved in to the community and came to live a more civilised life.
The next policy brought in was the policy of self determination this, was very welcomed by the aboriginal community, as it gave the aboriginals back some of their rights. As the relationship between non-indigenous Australians and indigenous Australians improved, there was a high demand for reconciliation. With many opinions including why the people of today should say sorry for the past Australians injustices. The affects from reconciliation were caused by the controversial approach; there have been numerous speeches, activities and ‘sorry days’. The affects from all the policies varied greatly, due to the differences in the policies. The affects caused change the path of history and have gotten us where we are today.
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Show MoreWhat is the connection between official education policies and key events in Aboriginal Australian history? How have Aboriginal people responded to these policies?
...because of the restrictions on welfare. This intervention should be viewed as very ethnocentric because it sets up laws specifically for Aboriginal people which shows how Australia still does not regard Aboriginal people to be the same as Non-Aboriginal people. Also how taking away their culture is Non-Aboriginal Australia’s answer Aboriginal problems.
Major settlements occurred after the nineteenth century. The British had quickly out-numbered the Aboriginal community, leaving them powerless to the changes or the invasion. The belief systems of the Europeans overpowered the aboriginal’s way of life, pressuring them to conform to the...
The power structure between aboriginal and non-aboriginal people always plays some role to impede a kind of equal dialogue between them. Non-aboriginal people on average are more affluent than aboriginals. Also, the social infrastructures in some off-reserve major metropolitan cities are much more mature than on-reserve areas. The inequality between aboriginals and non-aboriginals makes non-aboriginal policy makers be inclined to bring their own sense of superiority to the analysis of aboriginal issues, which could likely lead to policies with biases and prejudices. Perhaps an effective conversation between aboriginal and government can lead to a better outcome because aboriginals’ own voice would be heard. In this essay, I will demonstrate why, when compared with Flanagan’s assimilationist proposal, Cairns’ concept of “citizen plus” is more persuasive as an effective approach to aboriginal policy. Firstly, I would outline the debate between Thomas Flanagan and Alan Cairns on aboriginal policy. A brief compare and contrast between their opinions will be made. Secondly, with some other academic sources in my mind, I would state the reasons why I stand aside with Cairns more than with Flanagan. Some advisable
This policy was abandoned as land was taken from the natives without thought. Captain Cook termed the Australian land terra nullius, or owned by no one, when he landed and rediscovered the continent (9:9), and that was to be the rule for centuries. Later, European convict settlements started to bring more white men to Australia. Europeans used the Aborigines to track escaped convicts and told the convicts that the Aborigines were savages and would kill them if they escaped. As a result, Aboriginal peoples started distrusting the settlers, and the settlers started to fear and dislike the Aborigines (6:1-2). The Aboriginal population shrunk from an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 people throughout 500 different tribes in 1788, ...
The Stolen Generation has had a profound impact on every aspect of the lives of Indigenous communities. It has jeopardised their very survival. It has impoverished their capacity to control and direct their future development. The Stolen Generation has corrupted, devastated and destroyed the souls, hopes and beliefs of many Australian lives through damaging assimilation policies established in an attempt to make a ‘White Australia’ possible. Discrimination, racism and prejudice are some of the many permanent scars upon Indigenous life that will never be repaired. However, recently Rudd and the Australian public have sincerely apologised for the detrimental effects the Stolen Generation had caused. The Stolen Generation has dramatically shaped Australian history and culture.
However, once policy makers realized that not all Indigenous Australians wished to conform to their ways of being, policies began to shift. In 1967, a national referendum granted citizenship to Aboriginal Australians. Despite this referendum, the Aboriginal Australians sought to establish their own identity outside of European notions of Aboriginality. In looking at how the Indigenous Australians have come to define themselves, the author describes two modes of Aboriginal identity: local and pan-Aboriginal. According to European classifications, Indigenous populations were seen as a homogenous group. However, defining the Indigenous Australians in this way diminishes geographic, linguistic, and cultural diversity that existed among these populations. According to Tonkinson, “despite many cultural similarities between groups, it is the differences that are most conspicuous and significant from the Aboriginal viewpoint…[Aboriginal] people often invoke their uniqueness of language, traditional territory, and kinship in asserting their [local] identity” (193). Pan-Aboriginality, is the “construction of a common culture out of a situation of cultural diversity,” and this, according to Tonkinson, is “essential in building solidarity among a minority population and endowing it with a political force in the Australian nation” (215). In uniting themselves under a common struggle, Aboriginals have
Indigenous Australians have been subjected to many forms of disadvantage since the European invasion in 1788, including racial discrimination, oppression, and inequality. The attempted ethnocide perpetrated against the Aboriginals has
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 British settlers, the ‘Australians’, did commit genocide on the native Aboriginal population - through assimilation, “the killing of so many Aborigines by disease, loss of access to land and food, and by armed conflict.” Some historians may argue that by the definition of genocide (“the systematic killing of all or part of a racial, ethnic, religious or national group”) the situation in Australia was not a genocide, because it wasn’t systematic, it merely happened without methodical planning. This essay will look at the impact/different actions of Australians and in what ways they were genocidal.
It supported the removal of Aboriginal children from their families. It was thought at the time that children would be more easily assimilated into white society. Unfortunately it was founded on the assumption of black inferiority and white superiority. As such this legislation was aimed at allowing the Indigenous people to “die out” through a process of natural elimination, or to integrate where possible into the white community. These children became the stolen generations. Over 100,000 children were forcibly taken from their families and communities and place in a white societies. Many grew up never knowing their parents, heritage, language and culture. There are still many families that suffer from the devastating events of the past
The constitution was changed in 1967 with a 90 per cent of population voting yes in the referendum (Griffiths, 2006). Thus changes in the referendum deemed that commonwealth was responsible for Indigenous affairs and for the first time the Indigenous population were to be counted in the census (Attwood & Markus, 2007). Therefore with changes to constitution the federal government could now have greater involvement in Indigenous affairs (Attwood & Markus, 2008). Hence in 1972 when the Whitlam government was elected into power they replaced the assimilation policy with the policy of self-determination which is still in effect today (Chesterman, 2005). The self-determination policy came as a reaction to problematic assimilation policy, which saw the displacement of many Indigenous people. The policies of self-determination argued that government policies should accommodate for the indigenous culture (Kowal, 2008). Additionally the self-determination policy viewed that the Indigenous people should have involvement in decisions that affect their lives (McIntyre & McKeich, 2010) Furthermore, the outcomes of the self-determination policy saw the end to the forcibly removing mixed descent children from their families and communities (Young, 1998). In addition self-determination policies saw for the first time a separate government department to address Indigenous affairs (Neil, 2002). As well as saw the start of community services and government organisations that address specific Indigenous issues, such as Link Up an organisation the assist members of the stolen generation find lost family members (Sullivan, 2011). What’s more self-determination policy saw the start of providing funding by the government to address the high rates of children that had been removed as part of the assimilation policy (Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, 1997). However,
The stolen generations of Aboriginal children were taken away from their families by the government, churches and welfare bodies so they could be brought up in institutions or fostered out into white families with the hope that these children would be integrated into white society. Beginning in the 1830’s and ending in the early 1970’s, many children were taken from their families in an attempt to eradicate the Aboriginal race and culture. The Australian government’s policy and practice of removing the Aboriginal children from their families was violently enforced during that time period, unfortunately this official government policy was in effect until 1969. During my research it appears that the practice of mistreating Aboriginal
Indigenous people have had a long hard struggled to gain equal rights - the rights to citizenship, land and equality. Whilst some issues of inequality are still current today the last century was a particularly significant period for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights . Significant driving forces bringing about change for indigenous rights in Australia included the Australian Aboriginal Progressive Association (AAPA), the Freedom Rides and Eddie Mabo. These influences were instrumental in advancing the rights of indigenous people in Australia.
Aboriginal people have been living in Australia between 50,00 to 120,000 years ago and their population size was about 300,000 when the British arrived in 1788 (Commonwealth of Australia, 1998). They are known to be non-materialistic and lived in small family groups which survived on food from the land (hunter-gatherer people) hence their deep connection to their land. Each small family group have their own history and culture, membership to each group is determined by birthright, shared language and cultural obligations and responsibilities. They place great importance to their social, religious and spiritual activities hence their belief that the physical environment is controlled by spiritual rather than physical means. They also believed