...Prior to colonisation, the Australian Aboriginal people is believed to have enjoyed better health in 1788 than most of the people living in Europe. However, the effects of colonisation have been disadvantageous to the physical, social and psychological wellbeing of indigenous people. This essay will describe how colonisation has determined the health of the indigenous. This social disadvantage is directly related to dispossession and characterised by poverty and inability to thrive, are revealed in processes of education, employment, and income. Aboriginal health can be measured through three key health indicators; life expectancy, low birth rate and morbidity (rates of disease). Lifespan between indigenous and non- indigenous Australians in...
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...Tuesday, 12 August 2014 STRUCTUAL ! A lot of health services are not as accessible and user-friendly for Indigenous people as they are for non-Indigenous people, adding to higher levels of disadvantage. Sometimes this is because more Indigenous people than non-Indigenous live in remote locations and not all health services are offered outside of cities. Sometimes health services are not culturally appropriate (do not consider Indigenous culture and the specific needs of Indigenous people). Also, some Indigenous people may not be able to use some services because they are too expensive. (Slide show) Social and emotional wellbeing is a term used to talk about a person’s overall social, emotional, psychological (mental), spiritual, and cultural wellbeing. Factors that are important to social and emotional wellbeing include a person’s. (refer to slide show) Social and emotional wellbeing is often confused with mental health, but it is much broader: social and emotional wellbeing is concerned with the overall wellbeing of the person. On the other hand, mental health describes how a person thinks and feels, and how they cope with and take part in everyday life. It is often seen, incorrectly, as simply the absence of a mental illness. (Slide show) Important determinants of Indigenous health inequality in Australia include the lack of equal access to primary health care and the lower standard of health infrastructure in Indigenous communities (healthy housing, food, sanitation etc) compared...
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...conflict, which resulted in the death of a vast number of Aboriginal people. This colonisation also brought a lot of destruction to the native flora and fauna as they were building new houses and settlements on the sacred land of the aboriginal people, as well as many new introduced species to the australian environment. The impact of the white settlers changed the indigenous communities and the lives of the future generations forever. When settlers arrived in Australia they brought with them a number of European diseases so when contact was made with the aboriginals their immune system was unfamiliar to these diseases so their population decreased rapidly. The major cause of many of these diseases was when the convicts and settlers were ship transported this making it spread easily and due to the lack of education and knowledge of how the diseases are treated the aborigines had no way to cure their symptoms this then leading to death among tribes. when the europeans came to australia the main objective of the colonisation was to clear the lands of Aboriginal people to enable development of the land. Poisoned flour was distributed to Aboriginal people, and introduced diseases such as measles, chickenpox and influenza which had dramatic effects on people who did not have the immunity to such viruses common to Europeans. The impact of smallpox and other diseases on Indigenous populations was overwhelming. Many of the Aboriginal spiritual doctors and elders died, and many of the plants...
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...European settlement in Australia. 2) What were the consequences? The consequences of European settlement in Australia during 1788 thousands of Aborigines died from diseases that the colonists have spread. At first contact there were over 250,000 Aboriginals in Australia. 3) What period of time did it effect? European settlement effected Australia from 1770 till today. 4) How global was the consequence? European settlement/colonisation has not only happened in Australia but all over the world stretching out from the Americas to Asia, Africa New Zealand and the Pacific islands. 5) How has Hindsight history explained the event? Australian history is not taught properly, kids at schools learn more about the European colonisation side of Australia and how they developed the country rather than the Aboriginal side. Australian history should be taught about the ancestors and the original custodians of this land the dream time stories, the stolen generation and the wars they had also the culture and language. If kids at school learn about the ancestors of Australia they will understand what ‘Australia day’ really means, 6) Has History repeated itself? History has not repeated itself European colonisation has stopped to this day and era, but the opposite is happening immigrants from other countries that have had a past of invasion from European settlement are now doing the same to western countries. An increase number of foreigners in western countries...
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...Student: Josephat Magomo Assessment Task 1: Reflective Critique The European colonisation of Australia over the past two centuries has resulted in violent conflict, forced dispossession, displacement and protectionist policies that denied Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people basic rights, separated families and entrenched discrimination and inequalities. Over the past centuries there have been many changes in the attitudes and rights regarding the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Despite the efforts by Australian government’s initiatives of ‘Closing the Gap’ in an attempt to address the inequalities between indigenous and white Australians there are still vast gaps in terms of socio-economic status, health care and welfare services, life expectancy, education, employment, housing ownership, land tenure and land rights. However, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people still experience an ongoing prejudice and discrimination as a marginalised minority group. Therefore, there is still a great deal of negativity that needs addressing in our society. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people still experience ongoing prejudice and discrimination as a marginalised minority group (Pedersen, Beven, Walker & Griffiths, 2004). Despite efforts by the government to address the inequalities, some Australian research finds a relationship between racism against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the belief that such views are shared by the...
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...According to Wagnleitner (1994), cultural and social transference as a one-way street is mental coercion that the coloniser uses to expand its influence in the region. Based primarily on the colonising power, this metal assimilation ideology raised colonial injustices in the colony. As the fact that colonisation is irrevocable, the injustice between the aborigine and the colonist cannot be solved completely. In this circumstance, remedy colonial injustices is a priority which can efficiently improve the aborigine’s plight. To a large extent, the government is the protagonist in assisting remedy colonial injustice due to their authority and power. In this essay, I will state the remediation strategies for colonial injustice, especially in social...
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...culture, tradition and languages. * Balance rites – Aboriginal rituals that aim to make a supernatural connection with ancestral beings from the dreaming * Crown land – Public land owned by the commonwealth of Australia and managed by Australian government * Dispossession – The forced removal of aboriginal people from their native land. * Dreaming – Aboriginal spiritual beliefs about creation and existence. The dreaming establishes the rules governing relationships between people, land and all things for Aboriginal people. It links together the past, present and future. * Freehold title – Absolute and permanent ownership of the land. * Half-castes – An offensive term referring to a person of mixed decent or ethnicity. * Land rites – Property rights pertaining to land. * Meta-temporal – the trinity of the past, present and future. * Native title – Form of land title, which recognises aboriginal people as rightful owners of their traditional land. * Protection policy – official government policy stating in the late 19th century. Removed aboriginal people from unsuitable environments and placed them under the protection of the state. * Sacred sites – Places of spiritual significance to Aboriginal people as they are connected with ancestor beings from the dreaming, they are places where rituals such as initiation and balance rites are performed. * Stolen generations – Aboriginal children who were removed from their homes between 1900...
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...European colonisation of Australia, many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are wary of white institutions and social welfare’ (Chenoweth & McAuliffe 2012, p.274). Identify and discuss one or two of the historical events that have impacted on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and how the effects can be seen today. This paper aims to discuss how the assimilation policy and forced separation of Indigenous children from their families and culture has affected the mental health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. A significant undertone of the assimilation policy is racial discrimination (Haebich 2001), which is an additional theme explored in this discussion. Racial discrimination is built on a belief of superiority that one race is better than the other (Khalafzai 2009, p.10), which is relevant to the actions of the assimilation policy; the Aboriginal culture was devalued and considered barbaric and inappropriate to the modern colonist nation (Haebich 2001). Victims of the forced separation suffered severe psychological consequences (Petchkovsky et al. 2004), which to this day, haunt and affect the lives of many Indigenous Australians (Koolmatrie & Williams 2000). Furthermore, remnants of the past are still seen present time, through the discriminating treatment of Indigenous Australians, adversely impacting on their health, mentally and physically (Khalafzai 2009, pp.10-11). The forced removal of Aboriginal children...
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...For decades Aboriginals have been associated with stereotypes and prejudices claiming they are a culture of violent, lazy and unstructured primitives.However this is a false representation of the cultural group, and will be disproved through given insight to the Aboriginal cultural values, experiences and beliefs. The most common misconception concerning Aborigines is that they are abusive and excessively violent. Although this concept in itself is completely subject to specific individuals, the Aboriginal culture and the underlying rules directly shun any act of needless killing. The text 'Kill to Eat' written by Kath Walker and previously looked at by the class, indicates that this rule was and is "one of the strictest laws of the Aborigine". The short story exemplifies what happens when the rule is broken, there is no excuse for killing for the sake of killing, and resulted in the guilty party having no access to hunting. The strict law derived from the heart of the culture in no way promotes needless violence but on the contrary forbids it. This rule is specific to that of the animals, it is unquestioned that the rule and punishment will be far more weighted had the violence or killing be against of their own kind. Granted that violence among Aborigines was common it would be fair to say that it in no way sprung from their cultural beliefs but very likely from an outside source. The prominent misconception that they are violent and abusive is in no way a representation of...
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...The Mabo case was initially seen as a revolution in Australian Law, but its legal effects have turned out to be largely illusory. Discuss this statement The Mabo vs. Queensland case was the first major land title claim made by Indigenous Australians for their traditional lands. When the Mabo case was resolved it was seen as a landmark decision by the High Courts and was an was the start of other of cases native title claims to be made against the States and territories. This was evident with the Wik case that followed in the years after Mabo. In order to determine the effect that the Mabo case has had on Australian Law and subsequent cases we need to look into the details of the case, what judgement was made, and how that judgement came about. Then the details of the judgement can be used to look at other decisions like Wik, and how the legislations and proceeding acts have been introduced. Discussed also will be the potential effect that the Mabo case had, not only with land rights and native title issues, but also to help with the reconciliation of the displaced aboriginal people upon British settlement. As you will read later there was a lot of potential for the governments of the day to use these decisions, but there was great reluctance to protect themselves and other members Australia. We can begin by having a look in further details of firstly the Mabo vs. The State of Queensland case, then the Wik vs. The State of Queensland case. You will note that although...
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...Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are significantly exposed to new cultural, social environment and life style in the past few decades. They also affect from a colonisation process that destroyed their culture, tradition, language, politics and economy (Holland, Dudgeon & Milroy, 2013). Their life has been changed suddenly and has devastating effect on their mental and health well-being. This essay will elaborate the reasons including social and cultural factors contributing significantly higher rate of mental illness and suicidal behaviour and mental health plans that the government has adopted to prevent self-harm and increase mental awareness. There have been a few researches conducted about Aboriginal people’s suicidal behaviour and self-harm. The definition of mental illness has been updated and a few times for the last 50 years on a regular basis (Parker &Milroy, 2014). Mental illness is also known as mental health disorder and it is very common in Australia. Mental disorders as defined by WHO (2016) is “comprise a broad range of problems, with different symptoms. However they are generally characterized by some combination of abnormal thoughts, emotions, behaviour and relationship with others. Examples are schizophrenia, depression, intellectual disabilities and disorders due to drug abuse.” Almost relatively half of the population in Australia suffered affective or substance use disorder and anxiety between the age from 16 to 85 in some stage of...
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...ASSESSMENT 1: ESSAY PLAN AND ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY Essay Plan and Annotated Bibliography Essay Plan (250 words) Submit a plan for an essay on one of the following topics. 1. With reference to either the Charity Organization Societies or the Settlement Movement (Chenoweth & McAuliffe 2015, p.34) discuss the relevance of their underpinning ideas to the development of human services in Australia. 2. "Given the history of the European colonisation of Australia, many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are wary of white institutions and social welfare’ (Chenoweth & McAuliffe 2015, p.268). Identify and discuss one or two policies or pieces of legislation that have impacted on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and how the effects can be seen today. Your plan should include: An introduction, written in paragraph form, setting out the key argument of your essay. An outline of the essay structure. This must be written using the opening sentence of each of the paragraphs in the body of the essay. A reference list, including the 5 resources used for the annotated bibliography. The reference list does not count towards the total word count for this assessment. The UniSA Harvard referencing system must be used. Annotated Bibliography (250 words) Identify 5 academic resources that are relevant to your topic. No more than 3 resources can be taken from the e-readings supplied in the Reference list or on the Course Homepage. For each resource...
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...Brett Burt SWK-414 International Social Development Session 3 2010. APA Date submitted: 17th December 2010. via EASTS I, Brett Burt, have read and understood the Charles Sturt University Plagiarism Policy. I declare that this assignment is my own original work and represents my intellectual property. It does not contain the work of others without appropriate reference being made. Essay Question ‘Critically discuss the meaning of international social work and social development and demonstrate your understanding of the integrated perspectives approach by analysing and applying to an issue such as local level development, poverty, post conflict reconstructions, forced displacement.’ International social work seems to mean different things to different people in different communities, across the globe. Even the term ‘social work’ is often hard to pin down in the Western tradition. The first ‘constant’ seems to be the history of the development of social work in Britain after the Industrial Revolution and then across the western world predominantly in the United States. Second, social work as a profession arose as the result of the issues thrown up by the Industrial Revolution, such as mass movements away from rural based living, agricultural jobs reduced, with massive technological innovations commencing as far back as the development of the steam engine. Third, social work as a profession is united by its values which are social justice and a need to...
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...The prevailing conservative government did not want Australia’s history of ‘peaceful settlement’ to be tarnished with the ‘black armband’ view (Howard, 1996). From an Aboriginal perspective, they label this as the ‘white blindfold’ view of ‘Invasion day’ and talk of the genocide that occurred thereafter. The biggest form of racism is the continued denial on an individual basis by the average Australian of what really happened in the process of colonisation. Prominent sovereignty campaigner Michael Anderson states...
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...data answer the following questions: Using current statistical information, discuss the inequality between Indigenous and non-Indigenous mortality rates in Australia Whilst the overall health of Australians is amongst the top third of Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2010) here is a clear disparity between Indigenous and non-indigenous health when one considers that even in this day and age of modern medicine, Indigenous Australians are expected to live twelve years less than their non-indigenous counterparts for males, and ten years less for females (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2010) Despite significant improvements over the past decade Aboriginal infant mortality is still approximately three times that of non-Aborigines. For ATSI, the reduced overall impact of the communicable diseases has been balanced by a worsening of the "lifestyle" diseases, particularly cardiovascular disease and diabetes which are the biggest single killers of Indigenous peoples and an area where the Indigenous and non-Indigenous health equality gap is most apparent. (Australian Bureau of Statistics,2013) Where in 2012, death in coronary heart disease was number one; Indigenous:non-Indigenous rate ratios was 2:1,and second leading disease was diabetes was 7:0. The third leading cause of death was suicide for Indigenous males and chronic lower respiratory diseases for Indigenous females.(AGDHA,2013) These...
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