The Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander communities are the indigenous inhabitants of Australia. The Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander communities have undergone discrimination, segregation and unequal representation in all sectors of the economy since the First Fleet in 1788 (Falls & Anderson, 2022). The Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders have shaped Australia’s face through a rich history. However, they have been socio-economically marginalised and neglected (Jones et al., 2020). Therefore, this report examines the impact of colonisation on First People in my local area by discussing their history and status on indicators such as health, education, employment, criminal justice and victimisation.
First People
My local area is the City of Casey, Australia. The original people that inhabited the City of Casey were the Aboriginals. For more than 60,000 years, two clans of the Aboriginal community occupied the Casey area (Casey Catch Up, 2023). The two clans were the Bunurong people and the Wurundjeri people. The identity of these clans was disrupted by British settlement in the 1780s.
Aboriginal Culture and Practices in Casey
The Aboriginal culture contained educational, socio-economic and health ties for the local communities before interruption by the First Fleet (AAPA, 2021). The educational culture was tied to gender roles and life skills (Altman & Fogarty, 2017). The socio-economic culture of the Aboriginal community was art and craftsmanship. The art and craftsmanship practised were weaving and visual arts (Vanessa, 2011). However, the British settlement in Australia modified arts to incorporate Western traits and culture. Music culture practised by the Aboriginal community was the folklore, sang and danced using the didgeridoo (Queensland, 2020).
Another cultural aspect that has been modified is health. The Aboriginals treated the sick using herbal medicines administered by traditional healers (Al-Yaman, 2017). However, with time aboriginal healthcare systems have been phased out with modern medicine and newer diagnostic techniques. Finally, conflicts were solved by community elders through special sittings governed by customary law. Crime and offences were punished by elders (Cunneen, 2020). Casey is now an administrative area governed by the Australian Constitution and used in court to solve conflicts and crimes.
Current Status
A disparity exists in all sectors for the Aboriginals and Strait Islander communities, as highlighted in the study “Closing the Gap” (Rudd, 2008). The First Peoples have been neglected with minute opportunities in health, education, employment, victimisation and the criminal justice system.
Health and Mortality
The Aboriginal and Strait Islander communities have been subject to declining health status and increased mortality because of preventable conditions. The decline in health is associated with the Aboriginal belief that health is governed by physical, social, cultural and spiritual factors (Salmon et al., 2018). The non-indigenous population is healthy because they practise Western medicine based on symptomatology. Treatment of symptomatology has led to Aboriginals and Strait Islander communities seeing Western medicine as an infringement on their cultural identity. Hence, a decline in health status and an increase in mortality rates. According to Panaretto et al. (2014), the Australian Government implemented the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service Sector (ACCHS) that integrates Aboriginal and Strait Islander community cultures in healthcare services.
Education and Employment
The First People’s education has been based on apprenticeship, novice, and real-life experience. This education modality often aligns with cultural and gender roles within the communities, with boys and girls being taught various responsibilities (Perry & Holt, 2018). On the other hand, the non-indigenous practice in-class context teaching focuses on scientific, mathematical and theoretical principles. The differences in educational systems have led to a knowledge gap between the First Peoples and the non-indigenous (Dillon et al., 2020). The gap is exhibited because most of the skills learned in the Aboriginal context cannot be used in modern forms of employment in the digital era, such as operating computers.
Employment disparities exist in Casey. Most people employed are non-indigenous because their job profiles demand in-class teachings and conceptual frameworks absent in the Aboriginal educational culture. Additionally, the First People’s training level needs to meet the standards for employment in most jobs (Finlayson, 2018). To bridge the gap, the Australian Government has introduced learning and teaching of Aboriginal and Strait Islander culture in schools (Harrison et al., 2019). The introduction targets an all-inclusive curriculum to ensure Aboriginals and Strait Islander communities get the same skill levels as the non-indigenous. This change was incorporated in the “Closing the Gap” framework.
Victimisation and Offending
The incidences of victimisation and offending are typical for the First People compared to the non-indigenous. According to Bryant and Willis (2022), the First People are subject to victimisation and offending rates resulting from home-based violence such as assault. Western Australian Aboriginal Child Health Survey (2012) argues that, on average, 49% of the First People have been subject to some form of victimisation and offence before 25 years. Non-indigenous rates of victimisation and offending are low in Australia because of laws that govern and prohibit victimisation. The primary reason the rates of victimisation are high amongst the First People is their low socio-economic status (Bryant & Willis, 2022). The Non-indigenous have fewer victimisation rates because of better social status, education and health systems.
Criminal Justice System
The First People in Casey are arrested regularly because of involvement in crime rates. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2018), most prisoners are First People, accounting for approximately 28% of prisoners. The Aboriginals are involved in criminal activities through reiteration for colonisation, as explained in Stolen Generations (National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services, 2023). Additionally, high poverty rates among the First People make them involved in criminal activities. The non-indigenous are less involved in criminal activities because they understand the repercussions, unlike the First People. Also, involvement in criminal activities has been attributed to ontological, ethical theories evidenced in Aboriginal and Strait Islander culture.
How First People’s Experience in My Area Been Impacted by Colonisation
The educational experience for the First People in Casey has been affected by colonisation. Morgan (2019) argues that the First Fleet brought new education to Australia, leading to a decline in the First People’s educational culture. The advocacy for including Aboriginal and First Islander teaching in the curriculum has been met by adopting First People teaching conceptualised in the colonialist view and not the local communities’ view (Kennedy et al., 2019). The impact has been the inclusion of some Aboriginal and First Islander teaching and the exclusion of some, which lead to the omission of vital educational cultures (Markwick et al., 2019). Moreover, the current educational system needs to pay more attention to vital First People teaching, such as hands-on skills, and focus on fixed lessons that limit exploration. The First People’s educational culture focussed on exploratory skills to ensure socio-economic reprieve and upholding values. Therefore, this experience of omission of some First People teaching from the curriculum as non-essential has created a disconnect (Bodkin-Andrews & Carlson, 2014). Disconnection from the educational system has led to low employment rates for the First People in Australia because they need to meet the minimum employment criterion.
The healthcare experience of First People from colonisation has affected the delivery of healthcare services in Australia. The First People are concerned that modern health does not embrace their cultural multi-dimensional view of disease and the healing process (Dossetor et al., 2019). The First People see non-indigenous people delivering healthcare services in Australia as needing to understand their needs and culture because they came as colonisers. As a result, they tend to avoid seeking health, leading to deteriorating health status and high mortality rates (Kingsley et al., 2018). Moreover, the ethnocentrism concept has affected health delivery in Casey because non-indigenous view themselves as having superior beliefs to the Aboriginals and First Islander communities (Değer, 2018). This experience has led to a decline in health status.
Finally, colonisation has led to an increase in victimisation, offences, and crimes in Casey. Involvement in crime and victimisation has been associated with low socio-economic status (Douglas & Fitzgerald, 2018). The First People believed that colonisation took away their resources. Therefore, they engage in crime, victimisation, and offence is reiterating, especially in the suburbs of Casey (Tatz, 2017). Moreover, the invasion of the First Fleet was met with resistance from the First People. The First People that resisted were subjected to a brutal force that included exiling and purging the locals. Therefore, this tendency leads to high crime levels, victimisation and offences amongst the Aboriginals and First Islander communities.
Conclusion
The First Fleet in Australia led to the colonisation of the First People leading to discrimination, segregation and unequal representation in all sectors. The First People hold strong beliefs about their cultural ties, such as land rites, socio-economic, conflict resolution, medicine, and music. The First Fleet disrupted their culture, leading to health, education, employment, victimisation, offences, and crime imbalances against non-indigenous. The Australian Government has tried bridging the gap between the First and non-indigenous people through the “Closing the Gap” framework. Although these efforts are working, significant work must be done to ensure equal opportunities for the First People.
References
AAPA. (2020). Protecting Sacred Sites Across the Territory. Northern Territory Government. https://www.aapant.org.au/sacred-site.
Altman, J., & Fogarty, B. (2017). Indigenous Australians as ‘No Gaps’ Subjects Education and Development in Remote Australia. The Australian National University. https://www.studocu.com/en-us/document/university-of-queensland/indigenous-australian-issues-past-present-future/aboriginal-5-indigenous-australian-issues-past-present-future-this-course-is-a-multidisciplinary/1948327/download/aboriginal-5-indigenous-australian-issues-past-present-future-this-course-is-a-multidisciplinary.pdf.
Al-Yaman, F. (2017). The Australian Burden of Disease Study: Impact and causes of illness and death in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, 2011. Public Health Research & Practice, 27(4). https://apo.org.au/node/113726.
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2019). National and state information about adult prisoners and community-based corrections, including legal status, custody type, Indigenous status, and sex. Corrective Services, Australia. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/crime-and-justice/corrective-services-australia/latest-release.
Bodkin-Andrews, G., & Carlson, B. (2014). The Legacy of Racism and Indigenous Australian Identity within Education. Race Ethnicity and Education, 19(4), 784–807. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2014.969224.
Bryant, C., & Willis, M. (2022). Risk factors in Indigenous violent victimisation. Australian Government. Australian Institute of Criminology. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/30686597.pdf.
Butler, R., & Ben, J. (2021). Centring settler colonialism in rural Australian multicultural: race, place and local identities. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 47(9), 2179-2197. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2020.1800447.
Casey Catch Up. (2023). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities in Casey. The City of Casey. https://www.casey.vic.gov.au/aboriginal-torres-strait-islander-communities-casey.
Cunneen, C. (2020). Conflict, politics and crime: Aboriginal communities and the police. Routledge.
Değer, V. B. (2018). Transcultural Nursing. Nursing. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.74990. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-019-4605-0.
Dillon, A., Craven, R. G., Kaur, G., & Yeung, A. S. (2020). Support for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australian students’ wellbeing at school. International Journal of Educational Research, p. 99, 101520. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2019.101520.
Dossetor, P. J., Thorburn, K., Oscar, J., Carter, M., Fitzpatrick, J., Bower, C., … & Martiniuk, A. L. (2019). A review of Aboriginal child health services in remote Western Australia identifies challenges and informs solutions. BMC health services research, 19(1), 1-15.
Douglas, H., & Fitzgerald, R. (2018). The domestic violence protection order system is entry to the criminal justice system for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people—International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 7(3), 41. DOI:10.5204/ijcjsd.v7i3.499.
Falls, T., & Anderson, J. (2022). Attitudes towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia: a systematic review. Australian Journal of Psychology, 74(1), 2039043. https://doi.org/10.1080/00049530.2022.203904.
Finlayson, J. (2018). Aboriginal employment, native title and regionalism. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/145518.
Fogarty, W., Riddle, S., Lovell, M., & Wilson, B. (2018). Indigenous education and literacy policy in Australia: Bringing learning back to the debate. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 47(2), 185–197. doi:10.1017/jie.2017.18.
Harrison, N., Tennent, C., Vass, G., Guenther, J., Lowe, K., & Moodie, N. (2019). A systematic review of curriculum and learning in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education. The Australian Educational Researcher, 46, 233-251. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-019-00311-9.
Jones, B., Heslop, D., & Harrison, R. (2020). Seldom heard voices: A meta-narrative systematic review of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples healthcare experiences. International Journal for Equity in Health, 19(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-020-01334-.
Kennedy, J., Thomas, L., Percy, A., Dean, B., Delahunty, J., Harden-Thew, K., & de Laat, M. (2019). An Aboriginal way towards curriculum reconciliation. International Journal for Academic Development, 24(2), 148–162. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360144X.2019.1593172.
Kingsley, J., Munro-Harrison, E., Jenkins, A., & Thorpe, A. (2018). “Here we are part of a living culture”: understanding the cultural determinants of health in Aboriginal gathering places in Victoria, Australia. Health & Place, pp. 54, 210–220. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2018.10.001.
Markwick, A., Ansari, Z., Clinch, D., & McNeil, J. (2019). Experiences of racism among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults living in the Australian state of Victoria: a cross-sectional population-based study. BMC Public Health, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-6614-7
Morgan, B. (2019). Beyond the guest paradigm: Eurocentric education and aboriginal peoples in NSW. Handbook of Indigenous education, pp. 111–128. https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%252F978-981-10-3899-0.pdf#page=137.
National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Legal Services. (2023). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander experience of law enforcement and justice services. Australian Government. https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Finance_and_Public_Administration/Legalassistanceservices/Report/c05.
Panaretto, K. S., Wenitong, M., Button, S., & Ring, I. T. (2014). Aboriginal community controlled health services: leading the way in primary care. The Medical Journal of Australia, 200(11), 649–652. https://doi.org/10.5694/mja13.00005.
Perry, L., & Holt, L. (2018). Searching for the Songlines of Aboriginal education and culture within Australian higher education. The Australian Educational Researcher, pp. 45, 343–361. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-017-0251-x.
Queensland. (2020). Aboriginal Ceremonies. Queensland Government and Queensland Studies Authority. Perspectives: Res008. https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/downloads/approach2/indigenous_res010_0802.pdf.
Rudd, K. (2008). ‘Apology to Australia’s Indigenous Peoples’. House of Representatives, Parliament House, Canberra. Speech as Prime Minister of Australia, 13 February. Accessed 20 October 2009. Available from: http://www.pm.gov.au/media/speech/2008/speech_0073.cfm.
Salmon, M., Doery, K., Dance, P., Chapman, J., Gilbert, R., Williams, R., & Lovett, R. (2018). Defining the indefinable: Descriptors of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ cultures and their links to health and wellbeing. https://doi.org/10.25911/5bdbcdf5c89a7.
Tatz, C. (2017). The destruction of Aboriginal society in Australia. In Genocide of Indigenous peoples (pp. 87–115). Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203790830/genocide-indigenous-peoples?refId=bc77284e-80ed-45eb-896b-f8734debbcac&context=ubx.
Vanessa, M. (2011). Weaving magical baskets and sharing Aboriginal knowledge. ABC Local. https://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/07/21/3274981.htm.
write