Imperialism

As the Aboriginal children waited at the station that took them away from their homeland, the British colonists screamed orders at them over the bustle of the trains. One can only imagine what these children were thinking, stripped away from their families while white people screamed at them. Through the abuse of children and the separation of families, colonization had a major effect Aboriginal society. The Aborigines’ sense of identity was slowly being taken away by the injustice of the colonists’ acts. The loss of control over their land and children was the outcome of colonization. Aborigines really struggled through this time.

A necessary component in the survival of Aboriginal life was the land of Australia. The Aborigines used many areas of Australia for different things. Certain areas were used for obtaining food, others were used as grounds for cultural and spiritual life. The Aborigines were hunter-gatherers and were self-sufficient in tools, weapons, and food. When the British colonists arrived at Australia, believing it to be uninhabited, the Aborigines became British subjects the moment they arrived. The colonists thought of the Aborigines as less than human. They thought this way because of the major differences between the Aboriginal ways of life and the Colonial ways of life. The Aborigines’ simple tools and lack of material items led to the colonists’ ignorance towards the economy and life style of the Aborigines’. Within a short amount of time, the population of Aborigines dropped by hundreds of thousands. Through the expansion of the British colonists, the Aborigines were no longer a free people and were pushed to fight for their liberty.

The British invasion of Australia led to many violent battles and ra...

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...able children and juvenile offenders.(Read 7) This act stated that any Aboriginal child could be removed without parental consent if the board considered it to be in the best interest of the child’s moral or physical welfare.(Read 8) It was up to the parents to show the child had a right to be with them. Many judges did not read or listen to what the parents had to say, they just took the kids. A common reason the colonists used for why the child was being taken was “for being Aboriginal.”

British imperialism had such a large effect Aborigines because the amount of change that was being forced on the Aborigines was immense. Family separation, loss of rights and children, and loss of, most importantly, identity was the outcome of British imperialism. The Aboriginal culture endured a very harsh life with the British and slowly disintegrated into a forgotten culture.