Australian Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islanders Research Paper

The injustice of stereotypes begins with depictions of diverse groups as uniform. For Indigenous Australian stereotypes, there are prevailing negative views of laziness, welfare abuse, substance abuse, and criminality (Perkins, 2014). Initial negative stereotypes of Indigenous Australians were based on social-Darwinist theories (Harrison & Sellwood, 2016). However, contemporary stereotypes might be attributed to ignorance of Australia’s past paternalistic colonialism on contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Stereotypes negatively impact the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This is clear in constructing identity, and the expectations others have of Indigenous Australians.

Similarly the cultural value of the aboriginal also puts a heavy emphasis upon the social power system through family relationship structure known as Kinship (aboriginal culture 2015). It governs the behaviour, marriages and action of everyday life of an aboriginal (Indigenous Australia 2015) and provide moral and action guidelines. Elders of the aboriginal community regardless if they are a tribe, totemic groups or clans, are treated with respect for they teach skills, knowledge and personal experiences (Australian Museum 2015). Although through the rapid economic development of Australia and the introduction of technology into the aboriginal communities, some elders are undermined or even ignored by the tribes, particularly young members, in some tribes, elders still held a great amount of power in the daily life amongst the life of tribe members (Korff 2015).

In each instance the individual has been separated from family, it also means a fracturing of their identity. The Identity of Aboriginal people links family and land. The land connection is like a bond to family in a parental capacity; the land is our mother and deserves our respect. Separation from family is also separation from cultural belonging. The family is there to reiterate identity and culture.

Aboriginal women face disproportionate challenges throughout their incarceration which impacts their successful community reintegration. Over the last ten years, inmate assaults involving Aboriginal women have exponentially grown, almost doubling, while use of force incidents have more than tripled. Rates of self-injury involving incarcerated Aboriginal women are seventeen times higher than that of non-Aboriginal women. To agree with Baldry, Carlton, and Cunneen, using Indigenous women as a focus point is beneficial because their "experiences embody and exemplify the intersections between colonial and neocolonial oppression and the multiple sites of gender and disadvantage and inequality that stem from patriarchal domination." Cunneen highlights that Indigenous women actually live in "many prisons"; the prison of misunderstanding; the prison of misogyny; and the prison of disempowerment. Patricia Monture insists that one way women can resist oppression and facilitate social change is by telling their own stories. The Task Force for Federally Sentenced Women developed a report called Creating Choices, which attempted to relocate the power to make choices in womens' lives out of the hands of prison officials and back to the women themselves because, according to the findings of the Task Force, it is only when people are treated with respect and when they are empowered can they take responsibility for their actions and make meaningful decisions. Monture-Okanee reflects on the irony of the final report

Aboriginal laws differ very differently from traditional Australian legal system; the aboriginal laws are not passed through legal systems from documents such as constitutions. Judges and parliament’s decisions make these laws that then allow for laws to be made. However, aboriginal customary laws are made by traditions and are not in writing or des not proceed from past legal decisions and arguments. Their laws are created differently compared and are more difficult to comprehend. Their laws are passed through generation to generation by speaking, and interaction. “Aboriginal law stems from an oral tradition-the substance of which is passed from generation to generation” (Law Reform Commission of Australia, 2005, p.50). This statement helps

Aboriginal relationships are governed by a complex and intricate system of rules, known as “the classificatory system of kinship, and is essential to physical, psychological and emotional survival in traditional Aboriginal society” (Fryer-Smith, 2008, p. 47). It organizes social and economic relationships, all of which are of “vital importance” in Aboriginal societies (Edwards, 1998, p. 85).

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have faced disadvantages in various areas, particularly housing. The disadvantages these people face now are the result of policies introduced by the European settlers, then the government. The policies introduced were protection, assimilation, integration and self-determination. It is hard to understand the housing disadvantages faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people if their history is not known.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are the Indigenous people of Australia who have lived on this land for thousands of years. They have a strong spiritual belief that closely ties them to their homeland of Australia. As Europeans settled in Australia and started to gain control over the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, they started to view the Indigenous through the lense of scientific racism and Social Darwinism, which gathered an opinion for them to either accustom in the white community or to die out. This outlook towards the Indigenous communities resulted in families being torn apart as children were taken away and put into missions that would teach them behaviours acceptable in the white society which had a great impact on

The kinship is a system that enables people to know precisely where they stand in relation to every person and a group. It is the heart of Aboriginal culture, and controls all facets of social behaviours. The Kinship system has been around for tens of thousands of years and is still used today. (Nations, clans, family groups, 2016). It is a system that determines how people interact with others and how people become related. Thus, controls who can get married and who supports who. Because there are over 500 Aboriginal nations across Australia the system is helpful because it simplifies the different clans and groups that share common kinship and language. (Nations, clans, family groups, 2016)

(Colonisation) The Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have lived on the Australian continent and Torres Strat Islands for thousands of years, they have ancestral roots dating back between fifty-two and sixty-one thousand years ago (Monroe, 2017), these peoples have such a strong bound with the lands they live on. The Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have been living within the boundaries of the land they live on and have adjusted themselves to be better suited to the environment around them with no real foreign interference for thousands of years, no other cultures have done so well as Indigenous Australians (Denham, 1978). Since the colonisation of Europeans, many Australian Aboriginal and Torres

There are Tjakamarras and Jaburullas and Duburungas like me, and so on all over the country,” (Chatwin, 290). This means that they identify as their tribe and not the name that is put on them by white Australians. However, despite this, all the tribes follow the same religious beliefs. They all go on Walkabouts, they all sing the songs of the Ancestors, and they all have tjurungas that they view as sacred. Another aspect of their religion is that they have Kirda and Kutungurlu in each tribe. Kirda is “the 'owner ' or 'boss ' of the land,” while Kutungurlu is the “ 'manager ' or 'helper '” of the ‘boss’ (Chatwin, 98). The reason this binds the different tribes together is because the Kutungurlu has to be from “a different totemic clan and was a nephew” of the Kirda on his mother’s side (Ferry, 98). This ensures that the clans communicate and be at peace with each other, as they are interdependent on the other.

Over the past 230 years, Aboriginals have protested in many different ways to gain rights, which they believe they are deserving of. Through aims of what they wanted to achieve, the processes they went through brought them disappointment over the poor results of some actions and pleasure over the success of others. Over those years, very few periods of protest have been as revelational or effective as the protests occurring between 1938 and 1972. During this period many different groups of Aboriginals have fought for the common cause of being recognised as people rather than interferences caught in the midst of Australians expansion as a nation.

Aboriginals or indigenous Australians are the native people of Australia. Aboriginals were nomadic people who came to Australia about 40,000 – 60,000 years ago from Southeast Asia. Religion is a great part of Aboriginal culture. The essay answers these questions: What do Aboriginals belief? What is a Kinship system? What is Dreaming and Dreamtime? What rituals does Aboriginals have?

Aboriginal law had lasted for hundreds of years before white settlement of Australia in 1788. The laws were based from the Dreamtime and were formed by ancestors, spirits and Aboriginal beliefs. These laws were passed down by a word-of-mouth tradition and as there were many different tribes consisting of many clans spread out over a large area, separate laws were adapted to specific tribes and areas. Aboriginal customary laws were developed and based on the aboriginal relationship to the land as well as the view that property (land) and individual belongings were owned by the community as a whole. All items were collectively used and land was not owned by a particular tribe.

It’s the system of law governing social interaction, particularly marriage, in traditional Australian Aboriginal culture.