From the start of colonisation, Indigenous Australian populations were demolished due to the introduced diseases, the loss of land and livelihood. Nothing was done to provide health services despite loss of life and widespread disease. The crises currently occurring in Indigenous health is due to generations of mistreatment, failure to provide adequate resources and lack of understanding. Up until 1967 Indigenous Australians has no right to healthcare services and had little power to change this due to the policy decisions set in place that restricted them from making their own decisions. (REFFERENCE)
Until 1967 the Australian governments only intention was to wipe out Indigenous Australians and create a white Australian culture. To do this the government changed the protection policy was changed by Paul Hasluck who was the Federal Minster for Terriroties to the Assimilation Policy. (Refference) This policy proposed that “full blood” Indigenous Australians die out through natural causes, while “half blood” be allowed to integrate into the “white” community. Through doing this Indigenous Australians were forced to give up their traditional ways of life and live on the reserves and missions that the government provided if they wanted to retain a degree of freedom. However the
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The long-term effects of these traumatic experiences are complex and are experienced differently by each person that went through them. However it has being found that the effects of these experiences are all continual, multiple and profoundly disabling so much that it has left several generations on Indigenous Australians suffering from this trauma their whole lives. Factors that mainly affect them are loss of identity, spirituality, cultural heritage, family, contact with land, and the loss of dignity and self-respect from the years of domination.