ipl-logo

Aboriginal Culture Poverty

1340 Words6 Pages

Introduction to Culture. Poverty is not only a critical problem that affects personal income, housing, or education, but it can even destroy an entire population if not solved. The Aboriginals of Australia are one of the many cultures that is currently losing its identity to impoverish conditions. Within the 50,000 years of existence in the Australian outback, the once prosperous clans of tribesman have dwindled from the reining populace on the continent, to less than a percent of Australians census. These people live by the lifestyle of the land, traditionally by nomadic hunting and gathering. Living by the way of the land, the Aboriginals held all the known land as sacred, and ancient, sacred sites are still held dearly to the natives (Indigenous …show more content…

Once the British naval officer James Cook landed on the continent, the population has been subject to massacres, disease, alcoholism, forced integration, and overall surrender. Lack of information into the Aboriginal culture has emerged until recent years. Nevertheless, the leading issues are more of development discourse and aid practice offshore generally focuses on failed states, problems of governance and policy failure, while excluding any focus on the indigenous population (Altman, 2007). This resulted in an impoverish state of the Aboriginals, with effects such as: inadequacy in a cash economy, lack of natural rights, poor education, low life expectancy, and impoverish living conditions; which have become key factors into the devastation of the native population from being once the oldest, greatest standing cultures in Australia, to a near extinct indigenous population. These factors are dependent on the position that the dominating culture as positioned the indigenous populations, under the poverty …show more content…

Australia is currently one of the richest countries in per capita and absolute terms, being a first world, capitalist economy (Finkel, 2013). While the Aboriginals did not originally rely any type of economy, they currently struggle with the issues that Britain, the dominating culture, introduced after colonization of Australia. Low income rates and subjugation of being under the poverty line are the main issues that Britain introduced (Taylor, n.d.). Poverty does not necessitate on a quantitative data of gross income, but by the data of other that are as a result of an impoverish state. The typical effects of poverty includes: unsatisfactory conditions in housing, health issues, and the inability to provide an adequate income for the market economy. Before the dominating culture, the Aboriginals sustained themselves in fairly isolated communities, where they lived off hunting and gathering, and living in inadequate, low cost housing. Nevertheless, ever since the arrival of the British, there has yet to be a formal, or informal, treaty with the Aboriginals or Torres Strait Islander population (United Nations Human Rights Indigenous Peoples, 2012). The British issued the terra nullius, which essentially established the indigenous population null and void in regards to law. This meant that any of civil rights, land rights, or even government protection ceased to exist, which over time lead to a

Show More
Related
1334 Words | 6 Pages

Eddie Mabo and the Mabo Decision As campaigns for improved human rights were gathering momentum across all of Australia (and indeed the globe) in the 1980s, five Torres Strait Islanders (Eddie Koiki Mabo, Sam Passi, Reverend Dave Passi, James Rice and Celuia Mapo Salee) began a long campaign for ‘Native Title’, forever changing the country’s views on Indigenous Australians and the impact of settlement. The notion of land rights was often misunderstood by Australian people who believed they would have their suburban lands taken off them. This meant non-Indigenous support for native title was rare. However, Mabo real aim was to receive legal recognition of their traditional lands in the Torres Strait – area that because of terra nullius was

Read More
754 Words | 4 Pages

2012) Colonisation has had an irrevocable impact on Aboriginal People’s connection to country. There is no Western concept similar in its understanding and attempts to liken it to ‘community’ disregards the Aboriginal peoples identity which is steeped in intergenerational understanding of their country and culture. It is now understood that “[f]or Indigenous Australians, there is a metaphysical connection between body, mind, land, and sea.” (Taylor et al, 2012, p

Read More
1307 Words | 6 Pages

In the early 1900s, Indigenous Australians lived in squalor and poverty, with limited access to employment and resources. However, if Aboriginals were

Read More
1831 Words | 8 Pages

Ceremonial Life  Aboriginal ceremonies are a communication of Aboriginal spirituality  The multifaceted and spiritual core of the Dreaming for each group is recognised and revered in ceremonial life, encompassing the expression of art, the passing down of stories, the performance of rituals and totemic

Read More
645 Words | 3 Pages

This term was used for land that was thought to be unoccupied despite the extricable link the Indigenous people share with it. The land is the physical place for Aboriginal people and their ancestral beings to connect. It holds tradition, cultural and ritual and is where the dreaming is based from. However, the continuing effect of being stripped from their land led to Aboriginal spirituality to fade. In source 1, the tie between ancestral beings and Aboriginal tribes is closely linked through the physical land.

Read More
904 Words | 4 Pages

From the British name ‘Terra nullis’, the stolen generation and the failure of the government to issue a formal apology for the Aboriginals.  (dhhds p.) The healthcare in Australia has a significant issue of institutional racism. Aboriginal healthcare is much more neglected than those of non-indigenous backgrounds and those in remote Aboriginal communities receive less Medicare and pharmaceutical Benefits, in contrast with a wealthy Sydney suburb, where people receive more of those that are non-indigenous (Aboriginal health care, p.). Leaving an unfair and lack of social and national identity for those targeted to this type of racism.

Read More
974 Words | 4 Pages

This sudden change still has an enormous effect on today’s Indigenous population. How is it fair that the oldest population of people die a decade younger than non-Indigenous Australians? The perpetuation of racism which is manifested in our society has left many Indigenous Australians in a disadvantaged position. Including through, limited access to education with adult literacy rates of just 30 percent and literacy rates of children under 15 more than 48 percent lower than non-Indigenous Australians, consequently means lower educational achievement rates and higher unemployment rates of 17.2 percent compared to 5.5 percent for non-Indigenous Australians (Australian Bureau of Statistics , 2013 ). These facts must be recognised to ensure real equality and a fair-go for Indigenous people.

Read More
1190 Words | 5 Pages

Abstract Being an aborigine in a white dominated society is a complicated identity. Australia, one of the white governed nations, also owns many aboriginal tribes. They lived harmonious lives in the early period. But European colonization has made a profound effect on the lives of Aboriginals in Australia, which led to the total demolition of their native culture, identity and history. As a result the new generation Aboriginals have lost their Aboriginal heritage and have been accepted neither by Aboriginals nor by whites.

Read More
416 Words | 2 Pages

One Australian minority group that has been effected drastically is that of Indigenous Australians. Indigenous Australians are the traditional custodians of the land and have living in Australia for over 40,000 years. Since the arrival of white settlers in the late 18th century, their culture has been subject to a high degree scrutiny. Using the Australian ethnocentrism scale, it has been concluded that white Australians held negative attitudes towards Indigenous Australians (Beswick, Hills 1972). A popular negative attitude that can be viewed in today’s society is that

Read More
1861 Words | 8 Pages

Disadvantage and marginalisation of indigenous Australian 's began with the dispossession of land, displacement of their people, and separation of families. Indigenous Australian 's have difficulty in gaining access, to the same degree, to what white Australian 's have ready access such as housing, employment and general services. Indigenous Australian 's are one of the most disadvantaged groups in this country in social and economic areas such as employment, housing, income, and health. The burden of poor health among aborigines is of particular concern. The health disadvantage of indigenous people begins in infancy and continues throughout their life.

Read More
1789 Words | 8 Pages

Before the arrival of the British invaders in the 18th century, the estimated population of Australia’s Aboriginal people was up to 1.5 million. By the next century, the Aboriginal population had dropped to an estimated 150,000, caused by a series of violent engagements and massacres, disease and land encroachment. During this period known as the Colonial Frontier, despite the heavy casualties of Aboriginal people, it saw Aboriginal resistance to the British occupation and takeover of their lands across Australia. Word count 79

Read More
776 Words | 4 Pages

Title: Part A Reflective Journals Student Name: Hannah Warren Student ID Number: 17759577 Email Address: Hannah.warren@student.curtin.edu.au School/Department: Unit: Indigenous Cultures and Health INDH1000 Tutor Name: Due Date: Monday 30th March, 2015 by 11.55pm Declaration: I declare that this assignment is my own work and has not been submitted in any form for another unit, degree or diploma at any university or other institute of tertiary education.

Read More
1579 Words | 7 Pages

Marginalisation is still majorly effecting the indigenous youth of Australia by asserting indigenous Australians to become relegated. Since the colonisation of Australia which begun around 1788, many Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander communities still experience marginalisation. Aboriginal communities lost their land, were put into deprived areas, lost their source of profits, and were omitted from the employment market. Additionally, they were forced into segregation which meant that indigenous communities had lost their culture, values and their rights in society, therefore impacting on their identities. Many indigenous communities remain marginalised from society as a result of the growth of policies

Read More
1633 Words | 7 Pages

A person's ability to support themselves financially is crucial in daily life since it serves as both a key social indicator and a fundamental need for survival (Markham & Biddle, 2016). This is especially common among Indigenous Australian households because, in comparison to non-Indigenous households, individuals with lower incomes spend a larger percentage of their incomes on basics of life (Markham & Biddle, 2016). The employment rates of Indigenous Australians are significantly lower than those of non-Indigenous Australians, which provides further evidence of how income disparity links to race (Borland & Coelli, 2016). Due to their poorer socioeconomic level and worse health, Indigenous Australians live in places with fewer work prospects and have lower educational attainment (Borland & Coelli, 2016). Further evaluation of this occurs in the employment market, where Indigenous Australians do poorer than non-Indigenous Australians for a variety of reasons, resulting in a wider wage disparity in society (Birch & Marshall, 2017).

Read More
1176 Words | 5 Pages

With that said, the British went through with the plan of establishing a penal colony in New South Wales and in 1788, the First Fleet led by Captain Arthur Phillip arrived in Sydney Cove. This essay will focus on the effects of racism towards the Aboriginal population of Australia in the past and today. Between 1788 and 1900, a large part of Australia’s indigenous population has lost their lives due to miscellaneous diseases. Aboriginal people were introduced to illnesses like smallpox, measles or tuberculosis, which were brought by the British convicts. Indigenous Australians had no immunity to these sicknesses, which led to the diseases spreading at a rapid speed and eradicating a large part of Australia’s indigenous population.

Read More

More about Aboriginal Culture Poverty

Related Topics

Open Document