The Indigenous People Of Australia

Australia is known as the land of opportunity where all people are considered equal and freedom is enjoyed. However, for the Indigenous people of Australian this has not always been the case. In the past Indigenous and non-Indigenous people have not always shared the same rights. Land, cultural and basic human rights were taken away from Indigenous Australians when the first settlers arrived as Aboriginals were seen as an inferior race (Lindqvist, 2007, p.4). The issue of Indigenous Australians gaining recognition for their rights has been going on for many years.

Consequently, the event of British colonisation, is described by many historians as the European invasion of Australia. Following the year 1788, the British continued seizing land and gave little thought into compensating the Indigenous Australians of which they displaced. The Aboriginal population lost access to sources of food and water which they had once been able to use freely, as well as their various sacred sites. The Aboriginal community found themselves living in a world ruled by inhabitants who believed that people with white skin were superior to those of other races. From mid nineteenth century onwards, the Australian governments began implementing various policies of ‘protection’ which in reality segregated the Aboriginal people from the Australian society, consuming their everyday lives.

The Child Welfare Act 1939 abandoned this policy and gave Indigenous parents the right to take their children back. But the children were moved far away, and even if they were found and returned, many of them were mistreated and didn’t return the same to their families. This had devastating effects on Indigenous parents, and many white Australians didn’t understand this impact at the time. In the 1960s, inspired by the Civil Rights movement in the US, Charles Perkins organized the Freedom Ride of 1965. The tour’s purpose was to study the race relations in Australia, and raise awareness of the lack of equality for Indigenous Australians.

This meant that they never stayed in the one place where they could extinguish the food sources. In some tribes particular beliefs were held about dangers that could threaten the life of animals or birds. One tribe (the Wiimbaio) were afraid of blood falling into lakes or rivers, incase storms or other disasters would result, and would kill the fish. Aboriginal beliefs are expressed in a number of ways, including their Dreamtime practices, such as stories, art and corroborees, and rituals, such as initiation, birth, marriage and death, as well as the Aboriginal lore. Such a complex and unique outlook on the universe and humans, and with the assistance of their ability to continue their practices through hundreds of generations, allowed the Aboriginal belief system to evolve to be one of, if not the, oldest surviving race in the world.

This essay is about the land rights of of Australia and how Eddie Marbo was not happy about his land been taken away from him. In May 1982 Eddie Marbo and four other people of the Murray Islands began to take action in the high court of Australia and confirming their land rights. Eddie Marbo was a torres islander who thought that the Australian laws were wrong and who went to fight and try and change them. He was born in 1936 on Mer which is known as Murray Island. The British Crown in the form of the colony of Queensland became of the sovereign of the islands when they were annexed in1978.

Therefore, the British began enforcing their laws to replace the traditional Aboriginal laws and customs which irrevocably damaged the local customs and culture. Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence details three half-caste girls’ journey and also shows the breakdown of the Aboriginal culture. The Aboriginal people were subject to the laws but not protected by them. For example, they were not safe from rape

Australian aboriginals are a group of people who are deemed to be the indigenous occupants of Australia. The Australian High Court appreciated them to share a common as well as biological ancestry as Australia's original occupants (de Plevitz, & Croft, 2003). There has however been a lot of ignorance with reference to this group of people more so from the Australians. This has mostly been due to ignorance of these people with most arguments and opinions based on myths (Morphy, & Morphy, 1984, p.459-478). Australia has enjoyed over a century since it gained its Federation status from its colonizers, having joined the Commonwealth in 1901 (Le Roy, & Saunders, 2005, pp.

Native Title Australia’s Indigenous people are thought to have reached the continent between 60 000 and 80 000 years ago. Over the thousands of years since then, a complex customary legal system have developed, strongly linked to the notion of kinship and based on oral tradition. The indigenous people were not seen as have a political culture or system for law. They were denied the access to basic human right e.g., the right to land ownership. Their cultural values of indigenous people became lost.

In Queensland in 1962, indigenous Australians could not enter into contracts, withdraw money from their bank accounts, start a business or make wills without official permission. In terms of their employment status under the law, Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders were not paid award wages and suffere... ... middle of paper ... ...ch lobbying and picketing that have been successful in recognising the needs of the indigenous population were the massive marches that took place when it came to demanding the government recognise the land rights of indigenous people. While land rights were really not officially won until 1992 with the Mabo vs. QLD case, the protests and lobbying gained the publics attention, and made non-indigenous Australians sit up and take notice of the situation – if they weren’t already aware of it. One of the things which made the land rights lobbying so successful was that, like when indigenous people were campaigning for their right to vote, it was not just indigenous people marching for their rights: non-indigenous Australians of all different socio-economic, racial, cultural and religious backgrounds marched with them.

The term Terra Nullius causes a lot of pain for Indigenous people as it can be translated to “A land that belongs to no-one” (“Terra Nullius defined,” 2013). This simply means that the British settlers completely disregard... ... middle of paper ... ...http;//search.proquest.com/docview/223162550?accountid=10675 Manne, R. (2001). In Denial: The stolen generations and the right. The Australian Quarterly Essay, 2001(1), p25. National Sorry Day Committee Inc. (2014).