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Archaeological evidence suggests that human first occupied Australia (fig. 1) approximately 50000 years ago. (Dorey, 2011) Early ‘modern humans’ (homo sapiens) are believed to have migrated from the Asian continent to Australia using land bridges (fig. 2) (Ows.edb.utexas.edu, n.d.) Shortly after arriving in Australia it is thought that they (now known as Indigenous Australians) moved inland and rapidly spread throughout the country using the river systems of Queensland and Southern Australia. (Mayell, 2003) The Indigenous people began to appreciate the land and the resources that it offered. Their culture developed many spiritual relationships with the land and its natural resources; it was in their opinion, their responsibility to take care of the land. (Welch, n.d.) However, European settlers that colonised Australia viewed the country as a bountiful source of money and riches.
The Indigenous Australians have a deep and complicated connection with the land and its natural cycles. ‘Each group generally believes in a number of different deities, whose image is often depicted in some tangible, recognisable form. This form may be that of a particular landscape feature, an image in a rock art shelter, or in a plant or animal form.’ (Welch, n.d.) The Aboriginal Australians do not believe in animism, this is the belief that all natural objects possess a soul. For example – they do not believe that a rock possesses a soul, but they might believe that a deity created a rock outcrop in the creation period (dreamtime). (Welch, n.d.) This relationship with the land influences the way that they hunt and farm. A Stanford News article (Jordan, 2013) discusses the unusual methods that Indigenous Australians use to increase animal populations a...
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...they used to kill the indigenous people. Germs and diseases also played a large role in how the British people dominated, not long after the British arrived there were large ‘suspicious’ outbreaks of smallpox that managed to kill off many of the indigenous people. Both cultures managed the land and its resources differently and to their own advantage.
In conclusion, it can be seen that the British settlers wanted to use the Australian land for monetary and materialistic advances but the Indigenous Australians saw their relationship with the land as vital to its survival, so they did all they could to ensure that they worked and lived in harmony with it. Through this we can learn that in some cases proper consideration is not given to the decisions that are being made and this can have a detrimental effect on a cultural group or even in this case, an entire country.
According to Lambert (2012. pg13) Torres Islanders and Aboriginals ownership of land were classified ‘‘outside the “advanced” nations of Europe” as Aboriginals and Torres Islanders used land for “sustainability, cultural and spiritual terms”. (Lambert 2012 pg.13) Lambert suggests “affinity to the land was not recognised by Europeans because it did not conform to the manner and procedure of land ownership recording in Europe”. Jeff Lambert debates that Aboriginals lived in Australia before the European settlers.
Eddie Mabo is widely known for his plight to regain land rights for both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. In 1982, along with four other Meriam people from Murray Island, he initiated legal proceedings in the Queensland Supreme Court claiming customary ownership of their lands on Murray Island. This original claim was rejected by the Supreme Court, but rather than backing down Mabo chose to present his case to the High Court of Australia. The basis of his case explores how “’Australia’ is morally illegitimate to the extent that it is founded on European denial of the continent’s prior ownership by indigenous people…” (Rowse, 1994)
Indigenous People. In evaluating the Legal System’s response to Indigenous People and it’s achieving of justice, an outline of the history of Indigenous Australians - before and during settlement - as well as their status in Australian society today must be made. The dispossession of their land and culture has deprived Indigenous People of economic revenue that the land would have provided if not colonised, as well as their ... ... middle of paper ... ...
Aboriginals have inhabited Australia tens of thousands of years before any European powers had reached the land. Aboriginals lived simply lives and valued the lands which they lived on. Lifestyles of Aboriginals were threatened with the arrival of British colonizers in the late 1700s and early 1800s, who tried to integrate them into their society. The colonizers also saw the Aboriginals as a backwards, inferior people who were unable to develop. The notion that Aboriginals are inferior to whites may have caused the impacts Aboriginals have had in shaping modern Australia to be overlooked. This effect appears to be apparent in the development of Australian sport, however, Aboriginals have played a significant role in shaping Australian Rules
As European domination began, the way in which the European’s chose to deal with the Aborigines was through the policy of segregation. This policy included the establishment of a reserve system. The government reserves were set up to take aboriginals out of their known habitat and culture, while in turn, encouraging them to adapt the European way of life. The Aboriginal Protection Act of 1909 established strict controls for aborigines living on the reserves . In exchange for food, shelter and a little education, aborigines were subjected to the discipline of police and reserve managers. They had to follow the rules of the reserve and tolerate searchers of their homes and themselves. Their children could be taken away at any time and ‘apprenticed” out as cheap labour for Europeans. “The old ways of the Aborigines were attacked by regimented efforts to make them European” . Their identities were threatened by giving them European names and clothes, and by removing them from their tra...
Discussion Ancient Aboriginals were the first people to set foot on the Australian continent, over 40,000 years or more before colonization (Eckermann, 2010). They survived by hunting and gathering their food, worshipping the land to protect its resources, and ensuring their survival. The aboriginal community has adapted to the environment, building a strong framework of social, cultural, and spiritual beliefs (Eckermann, 2010). Colonisation of Australia began in 1788, when Englishman Captain Cook claimed the land as an empty, uninhabited, continent giving it the classification Terra Nullius and leaving it open to colonization. Eckermann (2010), stated that the English failed to recognise the aboriginal tribes as civilized, co-inhibiters of the land, feeling they had no right to a claim.
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.
The connection Indigenous Australians have with the land was established, and maintained, by The Dreamings, passed down through generations binding Indigenous Australians to the land (National Film & Sound Archive, 2015). National Film & Sound Archive (2015), highlight that land and being can not be separated for Indigenous Australians as they form part of the land and are accountable for the preservation of the land. Indigenous Australian land rights originated from an intricate social process constructed on traditional core values; where the rights of the land were established on principles of descendants, kinship and marriage (Dodds, 1998). However, despite this, the British colonisation of Australia in 1788 brought about change when the land was declared Terra Nullius (Short, 2007). Short (2007) stated that as a result of Australia being declared Terra Nullius, Indigenous Australians had no legitimate claim to their land. Hence, British colonisers dispossessing Indigenous Australians of their land rights as the customs established by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were not recognised or taken into consideration by the British Government (Short,
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 ...
Land- Indigenous people don’t think of their land as soil, rock and dirt but for Indigenous Australians it is all about how the land is spiritual (Australian Indigenous Culture Heritage 2015).
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.
Assimilation caused a drastic change to aboriginal lives. In the beginning half of the twentieth century, up until the 1960’s, the Government of Australia wanted to create a single, white Australian culture. They sought to do this through assimilation policies, which had disturbing effects on the Indigenous communities. This essay examines the policies of Aboriginal assimilation between 1930 and 1960, and highlights the changes that these policies had on Aboriginal lives. These policies were supported by racist conventions and settler nationalist laws. One of the constant motivations for assimilation back in the first half of the twentieth century came from the nationalist message of white Australia. The way this essay will tackle this question
The indigenous people of Australia, called the Aborigines, are the oldest culture found on Earth. Studies show that the Aboriginal genome can be traced back seventy-five thousand years to when this community first migrated from Africa to Australia. As the oldest known continuous culture, their traditions and rituals have thrived even though the world around them has changed so drastically. In this paper I’d like to talk about the history of Aboriginal cultures in Australia, their cultural rituals and how their culture has been so heavily influenced and changed over the last few decades.
Almost upon arrival in Australia, colonial governments began to grant, lease, and sell land to free settlers. The Europeans did not recognise the aboriginals’ views on land and therefore viewed any land in Australia unoccupied by the European people to be land belonging to the crown. As squatters began to claim more and more unoccupied land, they began to encroach on not only aboriginal land but indigenous sacred sites too, ignoring the spiritual connection that the aboriginals had to the land. Because of the aboriginals’ nomadic lifestyles, the Europeans assumed that they in fact just had no homes, and thus happy to move on to new land if it were to be claimed. But,
Australian Aboriginal people have traditionally had a very close relationship with nature. This is a direct result of Australia’s climatic variation and ‘harsh conditions’ (Diamond 1997). In response, complex systems have been established to control the natural resources. One such system involves periodically moving from place to another whist managing ecological impact. This is achievable through employing various techniques such as burning the landscape of a site before leaving (Diamond 1...