The Aborigines

The Aboriginal Flag

I've been promising this post for the longest time! Finally done! I've been thinking a lot about the Aboriginal culture over the past couple of weeks. We've been talking about it in my Contemporary Australia class. I thought that it was a bit of a heavy topic to start the semester with at first, but I'm actually glad that we did. It kind of pulled me into the class a bit more. So I figure I would blog a little about what I've learned. Read more after the jump.

The indigenous people of Australia, for those who may not know, are the original Australians, the ones who were first in the land. There are two distinct indigenous people, the Aboriginals and the Torres Straight Islanders. In class, we spoke a lot about how the British came to Australia and took over the land. This concept of terra nullius, meaning No Man's Land, was believed in terms of the indigenous. Australia was said to be empty; however, the settlers knew that other people were living in the land. They felt it didn't matter because there were no signs of civilization to them. They felt that they could take it over because the indigenous people were "primitive."

I'm not going to run you down with dates and facts. The story in a short blog formate is that British settlers basically forced the indigenous to adapt to their own culture. It was thought to be best for them, since they were "reaping the benefits" of white society. They were told to adapt, but were not given the same treatment and opportunities as others. Though Australia officially became a federation in 1901, the Aboriginals were excluded from citizenship rights until around the 1960s. They were excluded from a lot of Australia's history, even though they were the original inhabitants of the land. Aboriginal children were taken from their homes (The "Stolen Generation") and, again, told to adapt without really being given the chance to. Sound kind of familiar? The first thought that came to my mind when I was reading the pages our class was assigned was that this was a reflection of the Native Americans as well. It was a sad and angry thought for me. Because some people felt entitled to a land, an entire culture was thrown basically to the back burner.

Now the Aboriginals did fight back and establish rights for themselves, but they still have a long way to go. Seems to be that way with many minority groups. There was a formal apology from then Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd in 2008 that asked for forgiveness for the Stolen Generations as well as past treatment I remember one guy in my tutorial for this class saying something along the lines of, "It might not be fair, but it's kind of necessary that the indigenous learn to adapt to the culture that they are apart of. Present generations are being blamed for something Accept the apology and try to move forward." I agreed that present non-Aboriginal generations are being held accountable for something that wasn't their fault, and that's not right. But I mostly disagreed. My first thought was, "Why should they just accept a simple apology like everything's okay?" Actions speak a whole lot more than words. I said, "You couldn't just say sorry to me like you accidentally stepped on my shoe or something." That's what I felt like it was, because there hasn't been any action on working toward better conditions for the Aboriginals. The people are poverty-stricken, and do not all have access to basic services like health care and education. They are not equal to non-Aboriginals, not from what I'm hearing. Australia is said to be this egalitarian society, but I, along with many Australians themselves, disagree. Maybe there needs to be some acceptance of the apology and  but work HAS to happen between Aboriginals and non-Aboriginals to better their circumstances.

I also disagreed that the Aboriginals should have just been forced to adapt to the British culture. It wasn't their area. The indigenous people were in Australia way before the British probably even thought about coming. And then they had to be forced into another culture, and toss aside their own. It's not fair, and it's not acceptable to me.

Like I said, I don't have all of the dates and facts that one might want. Just thoughts that I finally got to put to the blog. For reading, I would suggest buying David Carter's Dispossession, Dreams and Diversity (2006), the book we're using for the class. There's a lot of interesting facts about Australian culture, discussing the Aboriginals, egalitarian ideals, climate change, allies, etc. We're discussing climate change this week. I might do a post about that...Until next time,

PEACE.