Australia Indigenous studies Assignment Help
One of the significant characteristics of Australian Indigenous world views is a specific relationship to the land or ‘country’. Aboriginal people say, “The country needs it’s people. Healthy country means healthy people’. Discuss in relation to social and emotional wellbeing.’
Introduction :
It is very common among the humans that it holds a special feeling or interaction for the place where born and brought up. No doubt the place where born is his habitat, in which he develops many skills and gets knowledge for his living. He establishes his own values and beliefs, moreover, modifies the place according to his needs and comfort. In some occasions the same place is intruded by the aliens, challenging the values and beliefs of the natives. In such scenarios the traditions are always retained though there is a deep impact on the life style.
Australia was a ‘terra nullius’ an unknown and uncultivated wasteland, and the Indigenous inhabitants were considered inferior because they had not made productive use of the land (Nalla & Lewman, 2013). The Australian Indigenous were regarded as second citizen after the landing of Europeans in 1788, on Sydney shores. The European development pushed back the Indigenous population taking away their natural habitats.
Very less population in a huge land with bountiful availability of resources made it a peaceful society. The Indigenous possess a significant emotional interaction with their land. The Indigenous and land connection is defined by the Indigenous people as ‘healthy country, healthy people’. Moreover if you look after your country, the country will look after you (Griffiths and Kinnane 2010:iii, 3). Living in small family groups, each group was confined within the boundary of its own beliefs in relation to its habitat and families. These tribes of Indigenous Australians were not organized, thus creating a gap for the Europeans to penetrate in the Australian lands. The European invasion entailed land appropriation and murder which fractured Aboriginal ties with their spirit bodies (Swain, 1993).
Invasion of Australian lands by the Europeans and migration of different communities had made Australia a multi culture land, where the Indigenous cannot adjust. They can’t cope up with the new standards maintaining their traditional and family values nor they can go back into their original culture as their habitat has been modifies into a new western style living.
Back To the World of Indigenous Australians:
It is still not clear that how the Aborigines started their life on the Australian island. As stated by Vierow (2004) that Aborigines probably came to Australia from Southeast Asia about 50,000 years ago. There is an assumption that they might had migrated from South Asian or African lands in search of food or a better living. They live in small family groups of upto 30 or more members, formed into small tribes. Mostly these tribes were based along the shore of Sydney, depending on fish and land animal hunting. Each tribe had its own language and beliefs. As the food resource was ample and there was no scarcity of land, all the tribes were in good terms with each other. It was a nonviolent land until the arrival of the Europeans.
As stated by West (2009) that the Aboriginal Australians were not considered to have a “civilized culture”, and thus their inhabitation of the territory did not count. The Europeans regarded the Indigenous as a waste deprived them of their lands to which the Indigenous had spiritual and emotional attachments. They had an affection and respect for the land, which they did not exploit as Europeans did (Webb, 2003). The Indigenous claimed that they were from the land, it is the land that is providing them their livelihood. Whereas the Europeans wanted to use the land as a money generating machine. Forcing away from the long based habitat affected the population of Indigenous moreover a plaque brought in by the European sailors also became the reason for declining the Indigenous population to a considerable number. Since then the Indigenous people had gone through many dilemmas, and still they are held between their own ancient culture and the new developed western culture.
Indigenous Social issues:
The indigenous and non-Indigenous are mostly exposed to common issues. But on the part of Indigenous, they are also facing the dominating modern Western culture. There are many factors that individualize the Indigenous worldview. Among many factors that individualize the Indigenous worldview is the moral values. Influenced by the global culture the Indigenous are compelled to live keeping up with their culture but in different style relying upon their residing areas. The size of Indigenous communities cannot be compared with other communities being considerably small but within the community they are bonded with strong kinship relation. The globalized culture and colonization within the country badly affected the Indigenous culture resulting in the decline of Indigenous communities, thus affecting their moral and social values. Generally speaking indigenous people have poorer health, educational opportunities, life expectancy, employment options; moreover most of the Indigenous communities are based in remote areas.
Prior to 1967, ‘people of the aboriginal race’ were exempt from the Commonwealth Parliament’s power to make laws with respect to the people of any race, for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws (Brennan, 2012). Initially the Indigenous were not involved in any decision making processes. This not only enhanced their feeling of being neglected but also developed anxiety concerning their traditional land.
Indigenous differs from Non-Indigenous:
Indigenous identity is a structural and cultural fault line separating indigenous from non-indigenous citizens that consistently places indigenous citizens on the losing side in their relation with other members of the states within which they live (Volmert, 2010. P.55). The ancient culture of Indigenous people that clearly separates it from the new European culture is their emotional attachment with their sacred land. It is their belief that if they care for their land they will be protected; their love for the land will earn them blessings. Secondly their religious belief that some unknown creatures from inside the earth reshaped the land and it is the same creatures who paved the way for the mankind to appear on the land, differentiate the Indigenous culture from that of Western.
An important difference between indigenous Australians and non-indigenous Australians is that it is difficult for indigenous Australians to think of themselves as individuals separate from their community (Lavarch & Stacy, 1999). Family moral is one of the main elements of Indigenous Australians ancient culture, which is still being pursued. Kinship systems linked by language and cultural practices remain an integral part of communities identity and relationship (Heath, et al, p.3). The kinship system in Indigenous Australians is also the base of its community system. On the other hand there is no such concept like kinship in non-indigenous Australians. Within the Indigenous community families are inter-linked with each other by marriages, blood and religious belief.
Lavarch & Stacy (1999) argues that the priority given to the family and community over the individuals by indigenous people affects their understanding of justice and their ability to use the system effectively. Though among the Australian Indigenous people there is language, customs and mode of living is varied according to their locations but they are more concerned about each other and gives priority to people within their community. This is the point where indigenous people failed to cope up with the Australian legal system, the roots of which are the British legal system. Also it could be one of many reason of not being a part of any law making process in the past.
Australian indigenous relation with their land:
Indigenous Australian’s belief that ‘the land is the law’ and ‘you are not alone in the world’ (Graham, 2008), highlights their spiritual relation with the land and their kinship system. It is their faith that the land is the main source from where all mankind came into existence. The divine values of Indigenous Australian’s land restricts any commercial use of the same. For Indigenous people, the natural world, land or ‘country’, has a far deeper significance than is imagined in the industrialized West (Ife, 2013). Indigenous people believe that their land is the main resource of their life and there surroundings.
The kinship system in traditional Aboriginal society is based on the fact that the Aboriginal people look at the whole group as being family (Crawford & Tantiprasut, 2003). Although the same system is still being followed by the Indigenous but westernization has dominated the kinship system and now it is not the same as we know through the history.
Each tribe or family group has its own belief regarding the land. Though there are different myths of the Indigenous lands but the basic concept is the same. As stated by Hooley (2009) that the Indigenous people of Australia accept that they did not come from anywhere else, but along with the plants, animals and geological forms, where created by the spirit people from Mother Earth as they moved across the land.
The main theme of the myth that signifies the land priority for Indigenous Australians is, that some unknown creatures emerged from inside the surface re-shaped the land created plants, trees and large animals. Whereas, before their emergence it was a bare land. The land formation and creature’s activities caused the the humans coming to life.. These humans were trained to maintain their land, given knowledge for a better living and rules of kinship, by the same unknown creatures. Upon completion of their job the creatures again submerged in the land. The area where the creatures had likely to be returned are still considered as sacred sites. Even today the possession of land is still regarded as an important issue. By repossessing their ancestral land, Indigenous people are of view that they can re-establish their culture. Applying for their own land Indigenous has to face many hurdles, they have to prove many things.
The spiritual and emotional value of the land is one factor that makes Indigenous world view different from that of modern multi cultured.
Indigenous people were the first to enter Australian lands and the neighboring islands. There generations were born and brought up in Australian lands before the British colonization. There emotional attachment with their land is natural. An emotional attachment to the land was part of their lived experience, reflected in songs, poetry and myth (Galligan & Roberts, 2004).
Harvest of food and other sources adds economic dimensions to Indigenous relationships to country that are often neglected in Australia; considerably greater attention has been paid to cultural and spiritual relationships in Australian land claims and agreements than to these economic relationships (Hill, et al, 2013, p.14). Maintaining the health of land and water is the core element of Indigenous culture.
Non-Indigenous consider land as a property, asset or something from which they can make profit. There concept is that they own the land. Whereas the concept is entirely different in Indigenous perception, it is the land that owns the people and every facet of their lives is linked to it. Therefore, the Indigenous possess a great pious respect for their land.
Accepting the importance of Indigenous:
Since the European colonization Indigenous people are compelled to spend an underprivileged life. Today the Indigenous population is 2% of the total Australian population, since few years the Government and the community are pertaining to thought about the living conditions of the Indigenous population. Acknowledging the continuing relationship of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with their traditional lands and waters (Brenan, 2012, p.46).
Unfortunately in the past, the Aborigines and Torres Islanders were unable to get justice in asserting their rights for their ancestor’s land due to the complexity in the law system and the British influenced Government. Some theorists argues that indigenous people retain today the rights to property and self determination that they held before the illegitimate expropriation of indigenous lands and the forced incorporation of indigenous peoples within settlers state (Volmert, 2010. P. 53).
Serious concern remains at the extent of the continuing discrimination faced by indigenous Australians in the enjoyment of their economic, social and cultural rights (Chakma & Jensen, 2011). The deprivation of Indigenous people throughout the world has received increasing attention, particularly in the more developed countries, and particularly over the last 30 years or so (Cary, Lindenmayer & Dovers, 2003).
Australia’s government has proclaimed the upsurge of violence, child abuse and alcoholism among Aborigines a national emergency (Trofimov, 2009). The newly modified government policies and awareness among the community and human rights concern around the globe has to some extent released the Indigenous community from the distress of being neglected.
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