Indigenous Australians

After many years of European settlement in Australia, many Aboriginal people had been removed from their families and placed into schools with white Australians. This was due to the ‘protection policy’ laws that encouraged the removal of Indigenous children. Because fewer indigenous children were able to learn about their own culture, there was a slow decline in the culture of the indigenous people. As a result of this, there were continued tensions between the free settlers and Indigenous people as they had no roles in the government and couldn’t vote. This made them feel as if they were excluded from greater society and had long term negative impacts upon their sense of belonging to the new

The case not only recognized the rights of Indigenous peoples but also set a foundation for future legal developments aimed at rectifying historical injustices and promoting reconciliation efforts within the Australian political and legal

Australian federation was a main turning point in Australia’s history, not so much for it’s camaraderie and sprit, but to legislate and retaliate against three main concerns that had arose in our developing nation; Australia’s defence, immigration and trade. With the introduction of Federation to Australia, all three problems were fixed, and much more.

Unique, and hopefully historic, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Retreat is perhaps the first meeting of its kind, focused on the hard politics of renegotiating the federation, since the 1899 ‘secret’ premiers conference which cleared the final path to union itself.

The Mabo decision of 1992 was hailed as a landmark case in the history of indigenous-white relations in Australia. Overturning centuries of injustice, as well as the myth of right by ‘terra nullius’, the case prompted the passing of the Native Title Act of 1993, which affirmed native title and asserted that native Australians possessed their land under common law, and in doing so ushered in a new era of equality in Australian society. However, though correctly lauded as a milestone in recognition of aboriginals as valid legal entities, the act was not without its problems, and in truth has had little impact on Australian society as a whole. As we shall see, the trend of positive reform existent in the act was not supported in practice, and aboriginal Australians remain at the mercy of Western courts when it comes to their land. Though the Mabo decision and the subsequent Native Title Act went some way to correcting past injustices, its actual impact on Australian society has been negligible.

Gough Whitlam gave land back to the Aboriginals and said “ We will legislate to give aboriginals land rights - not just because their case is beyond argument, but because all of us as Australians are diminished while the aborigines are denied their rightful place in this nation.”

This meeting was the culmination of ten years’ action by new south wales aboriginals agonist the policies of the aborigines protection board.

The efficacy and implementation of the Northern Territory Intervention has received wide spread criticism due to the lack of prior consultation with the Indigenous Community leaders as well as the questionable reforms subsequently implemented. Amongst these reforms were the suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA) (Korff, J, 2016) and forceful leasing of Indigenous land to the commonwealth as documented in The Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act, 2007 (Cth). The Northern Territory Intervention consequently has had numerous negative impacts on the community, “The intervention has had consequences that will have repercussions for generations” (Dodson, 2016)

The goals and visions behind my reconciliation action plan was to bring the two sides of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians together in equality and harmony. Since the colonisation of Australia there has been a vast divide between the two sides that has caused many serious outcomes for Aboriginal people. My way of contributing to this is to create a better understanding, restore trust and eradicate racism as a positive way to help close the gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australia’s.

Reconciliation is the process of building respectful relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and the wider Australian community. It is about understanding and respecting their culture and heritage and signifies ‘coming together’ to become one nation without racism and with equality for all. There are still vast differences in health, education, employment, and standards of living of the Indigenous peoples as compared to their non-Indigenous counterparts. Even today Indigenous peoples have a significantly lower life expectancy, up to 11.5 years for men and 9.7 years for women . The infant mortality rate for the Indigenous peoples is double the rate for non-Aboriginal Australians. Understanding these inequalities is the first step to reconciling the differences. Policies such as the stolen generation and assimilation policy destroyed Indigenous identity and culture and justified the dispossession of Indigenous people and the removal of Indigenous children from their parents. We can’t change the past but we can make a better future by understanding and learning from the mistakes of the past, reconciliation is about that. Many practical and symbolic strategies have been implemented over the last 50 years to achieve reconciliation such as ATSIC, Northern Territory Intervention and the Mabo decision. However, the most significant ones are the 1967 Referendum, Closing the Gap framework in 2008 and the ‘Sorry speech’. The aim is to improve the five dimensions of reconciliation: race relations, equality and equity, institutional integrity, unity, and historical acceptance.

The evidence for legal changes in the indigenous people’s rights and freedom was the result of the 1967 referendum. The referendum was held to change the Australian Constitution to count the Aboriginal people in census as a part of the Australian population and allow the Commonwealth government make laws to help improve conditions for Aboriginal people no matter where they lived in Australia. As indicated in Source B the white population insisted to vote yes in the referendum and acknowledge indigenous Australians. A change in the law was needed to equalize indigenous Australians and therefore consider them as part of our society. The powers given to the Federal government by this referendum enabled Gough Whitlam to introduce reforms such as indigenous land rights and equality of women.

The complex history of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people causes a great deal of mistrust in the other cultures who now live and existing in Australia, a mistrust of the systems in place. After European colonisation and the impact of the Stolen Generations, asking the original land owners of Australia to trust the policies and procedures in place in today’s society is a big ask, considering it was the policies and procedures of our government that resulted in the Stolen Generation in the first place. It is also difficult for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to prosper in mainstream culture of Australia, as there are a great many barriers preventing them from understanding the processes for everyday things such as medical appointments and assistance, education and employment. According to a the National Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage Report as quoted in a piece of writing entitled The Social Cultural and Historical Context of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians ‘Indigenous people are the

Aboriginal people struggled to uphold their traditional customs and rituals as they did not have the rights and access to their own land prior to and post federation in 1901. Healey ed. (2002), experienced editor and author states, when the British settlers arrived they overlooked the fact that Aboriginal people claimed and were sustaining the land of Australia. Britain had declared Terra Nullius despite their knowledge of the inhabitants of the land, the traditional owners. Throughout settlement, policies were put in place by the colonists to minimise land used for spiritual reasons by Aboriginal Australians (Korff, 2016). Hillman (2001), educator and author, infers that with this their culture was dramastically changed. Aboriginal people fought back for their rightful land, but their protests were insignificant

After this time, many atrocities occurred, such as the fact that Aboriginals were often killed for sport, and massacres such as Myall Creek were occurring, where 28 Aboriginal men, women and children were murdered near Myall Creek Station in 1838. There was also the problem of the Stolen Generation, when Aboriginal children were forcibly taken from their homes to be raised as though they were white. It was only recently in 2008, that Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister of Australia at the time, apologised for the actions that the government had undertaken. In another apologetic move, Prime Minister Paul Keating delivered a powerful speech regarding the fact that Aboriginal Communities were still segregated despite the fact that laws had been changed a number of years ago. This shows that the idea of atonement by Australia is quite a new topic. Does this prove the challenges that Aboriginal’s faced nearly 200 years ago are still present in today’s society? It was enough to force the Aboriginal men, women and children to begin act in support of their rights.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have consistently struggled to have their rights recognised and acknowledged by the Australian people and government. Although there is still aspects of empowerment toward Indigenous Australians a lot has been done to protect and ensure equality is achieved and to safeguard historic events from being repeated. For example since 1992 when The high court heard the Mabo case, all views about traditional law and custom where changed and the Australian courts finally accepted that traditional law and custom could be a basis for claiming land ownership by aboriginal and Torres strait islander Australians. We have also seen a major change in education of Indigenous Australians since the 1967 referendum highlighting the concerns for improvement to access to education and the aim to help improve attendance and retention rates. We have also seen the government funding Indigenous employment programs and tribute days such as the bringing them home national sorry day to acknowledge the impact of Australia’s stolen generations.