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Assimilation policy and aboriginals
Aboriginal history culture
Aboriginal history culture
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There have been many unanswered questions in Australia about Aboriginal history. One of these is which government policy towards indigenous people has had the largest impact on Indigenous Australians? Through research the Assimilation Policy had the largest impact upon Indigenous Australians and the three supporting arguments to prove this are the Aborigines losing their rights to freedom, Aboriginal children being removed from their families, and finally the loss of aboriginality. The Assimilation was a policy set by the government in 1937 and went to till 1964. This policy of Assimilation was set not just for Aborigines in Australia but for all foreign immigrants that were not European and white in colour. Having this policy set in place meant that Aborigines were forced to give up their heritage and adopt the culture of the British/Anglo Saxons. This law sent children away from their families to learn how to become and live like a white Australian, leaving all memories, beliefs, and traditions behind. Another major impact this had toward the Aborigines was they had no rights or freedoms and finally all culture, heritage, beliefs were left behind and made to start a new life living as a 'white fella’. The Assimilation Policy was only one of many policies put in place. Before the Assimilation Policy was laid down as a law in the 1930's there was a policy of Protection. This law was put in place to protect the Aborigines from disease and violence as the European settlers moved into their territory. The belief was that the Aboriginal race was gradually dying out. to become extinct in a short amount of years and that they were able to live their last few years in peace. As the Aboriginal race had not died out and were still ... ... middle of paper ... ...he Aboriginals lives would not have been affect as much as they have been in the 1900’s and the protection policy and all other policy’s following would not need to have taken place. Works Cited “We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians. We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country. For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry. To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry. And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.”
Assimilation comes from the Latin Word Assimilationem meaning ‘likeness’ or ‘similarity’. People of different backgrounds and beliefs undergo assimilation when, through living together, they come to see themselves as part of a larger community, or when a small group is absorbed into, and made part of, a bigger group (Assimilation, n.d). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were promised the same standard of living and advantages as non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as long as they accepted to live like other Australians. They were expected to follow their standards, accepting the same responsibilities, values, beliefs, and customs and become like and similar to other Australians.
Terra Nullius was once apparent in Australian society, but has now been nullified with the turn of the century. With the political changes in our society, and the apology to Indigenous Australians, society is now witnessing an increase in aboriginals gaining a voice in today’s society. Described by Pat Dodson (2006) as a seminal moment in Australia’s history, Rudd’s apology was expressed in the true spirit of reconciliation opening a new chapter in the history of Australia. Considerable debate has arisen within society as to whether aboriginals have a right to land that is of cultural significance and whether current land owners will be able to keep their land.
These are assimilation and protection. The policy of assimilation is where it expected is that Aborigines who were ‘not of full blood’ would conform/yield to the attitudes, customs and beliefs of the white majority, which led to the protection policy that segregated the Aboriginal people from the Australian society and became the means of controlling their lives. The whites never recognised us as proper and civilised humans like them just because of our colour. They took away our rights to vote, marry, have land and live freely. They took away our
The White Australia policy consisted of both official and unofficial discrimination in Australian history which created bias to favour white European migrants over other races. The origins of the policy can be traced back to mid 19th century but it wasn't until 1901 that the Immigration Restriction Act was passed by the Federal; Government as their first act. The new law created a strict control on who could immigrate to Australia and it was required that any person who identified as a 'prohibited immigrant' would need to undertake a dictation test in any European language, making it extremely hard for people of other backgrounds to immigrate. The policy was still in place when Irmtrau migrated but was completely abolished when the Racial Discrimination Act was passed in 1975.
The assimilation policy in the mid-20th century had given equal citizenship for both aboriginals and white Australians. The policy began during the 1940s. The policy didn’t allow the Aboriginals to live there traditional ways of life and also as the policy didn’t take into account the Aboriginal culture ways of life. It was rather to make the Aboriginals become white Australian and they were expected to leave their old ways of life.
History continues to impact Aboriginal / Torres Strait islander people today. There has been some improvements over the years but not enough when compared to other Australians. They have the highest growth rate, birth rate, death rate, the worst health and housing and the lowest educational, occupational, economic, social & legal status of any identifiable section of the Australian
The Euro- Canadian majority wanted to assimilate the aboriginal culture by taking away a tradition. A more intense form of assimilation was seen through Residential Schools as this system used the process of assimilation to systematically strip aboriginal peoples of their culture while forcing Euro- Canadian culture upon them. This was the “most draconian assimilation scheme [that] the government imposed” (Ray 235) on the Aboriginal community. The concept of civilization and assimilation work parallel to each other. The process of assimilation works under the concept of civilization. The overruling majority felt as though their way of life would be much preferred by the rest of society and as a result led to the Native community to be aggressively forced to practice the more preferred Euro- Canadian
This policy was regarded as being the major factor of “Australia being insulated from the geographical region during the 1880’s” (Jupp, 1995, p. 207) and even having lasting effects up to the 1960’s when the Policy was being dismantled. Not only was it detrimental to numerous relations to Asians, but also to any other non European societies as it only limited the scope of immigration to maintaining a white and European society, by alienating newly independent Asian states (Jupp, 1995, p. 209), limiting population growth which in turn grew new fears that Australia would be an easy target to invade, especially by Asian
The government wished to transfer all groups to receive the white culture and integrate into white society. The eventual aim for them was to stable their governance and political position. As the key part during the assimilation, children are the primary group for American government to take measures, they were forced to be educated the white culture in the school and forgot their own Indian
The Aborigines and British settlers were in a huge conflict that still applies to modern times. There were different perspectives on whether the British invaded or peacefully settled on the Aborigines land however it is certain for most that what they did was brutal, rude and very disrespectful to the Aborigines. The British took a lot away from the Aborigines including land, food, people and also tradition. Whether the slavery and removal of Aborigines improved modern Australia was debatable however it certainly lowered the respect for the British and they definitely owed the Aborigines an apology.
The lives and experiences of the Stolen Generations were greatly affected due to the policy of Assimilation. The Policy of Assimilation was the act of forcing Australian and Torres Strait Islander people to conform to the practises and ideals of white society and, although it was not officially adopted as a policy until 1951, the ideas behind it were being implemented well before then. From the time period of 1945 onwards, the policy has had various social effects on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, causing trauma on the individuals that were taken due to the neglect and physiological, physical and sexual abuse. Although the policy
Since the British settled in Australia, Indigenous Australians have had cultural conflict. The Europeans believed that Aboriginal people were lower than the settlers and that their culture was more primitive to the culture of the British settlers. An example of this is how the Aboriginal people had a very strong spiritual connection to the land. Land could not be owned by a single person but had to be looked after by all of the community. When British settlers saw that the land had no fences they took the land for themselves to be used for farming. Many Aboriginals were losing their land. It made it worse when the Aboriginal believed that to make it fair the Europeans shared their products made from the farm. The Aboriginals then took food from the farm without consulting the British which resulted in violent conflicts between the two. Over time the government began to give the Aboriginals more rights, although still not many. They were given a certain amount of land but were not allowed to leave without permission.
The history of colonialism and assimilation can still be seen within Canada with the Indian Act, which still places the Aboriginal community at a disadvantage. Under section 18, the land on reserves does not belong to the Aboriginals but they belong to the Crown. As a result, under section 89, any Aboriginal citizens living on the reserves are prohibited from using the land as any type of collateral. These sections prevent the development of Aboriginal sovereignty and allow for the state to continue staying in power. It’s an unfortunate reality that these sections will likely not change anytime in the future as it would mean the state has to willingly to give up its power and
The sustained focus upon assimilation of real natives that govern the conditions of entry of the welfare system includes eligibility criteria, compliance and non-compliance. The welfare conditions are developed and implemented by the dominant group from the logic of their standpoint to govern and maintain their embedded privilege over indigenous people and abolishing the ‘irrelevant’ culture (Stanford & Taylor 2013, p.488). The government implemented new assimilation policy in mid of the twentieth century to include Aboriginals as citizens of the land. In order to receive welfare benefits, they had to certify their rights backed by citizenship. The sweet-coated notion of welfare inclusion was required certain conditions to oblige. The hidden agenda of the concept was to end of indigenous identity which means a full spectrum of change from traditional Aboriginal culture to European culture (Murphy 2013). It has been determined the conditional inclusion to assimilation policy which gives attention to the eradication of colour(white prejudice) and assimilation through socio-cultural alteration and centring on the inculcation of Western norms and values rather than interacting between indigenous and non-indigenous cultural system. The concept means the biological language of blood and caste was shrunken and was overtaken by the socio-cultural language of behaviour and culture (Murphy 2013, p.209). The authority had developed classificatory regulations for eligibility for of the policy in getting welfare for the indigenous population. The eligibility criteria include the complete change of behaviour and compliance to certain behavioural patterns suggested by the dominant culture. The obligation are as follows; the requirements of living according to European standards, having personal and civic qualities of ‘character’ and ‘development’, possessing and being known by a ‘surname’, a
Since the 1880’s the Aboriginal Protection Board had been trying to protect Aboriginal rights but was over powered by the assimilation policy a few decades later. The policy had two main reasons behind it, one of the reasons behind taking the children away was so they could grow up to be more