Hey Lorina,
after reading the links you shared this is my answer so far. am i on the right track?
Task 2: Historical impact on families today
1) In one to two typed A4 pages of Arial font size 10, discuss the impact European settlement, and policies and practices since then, have had on Aboriginal and Torres Strait people and families in regards to:
A. Family Structure (ensure you discuss the short and long term effects of Stolen generation)
B. Health and well being
C. Self-determination
D. Loss of culture/ language/ land/ kinship
E. Education and employment
The European settlement had a huge devastating impact on Australia’s indigenous Australians. They were exposed to new diseases and violent conflict resulting in a very vast number of deaths. Even the small percentage of aboriginals that weren’t killed was still affected and so were their future generations forever and ever. The aboriginal people developed their own way of life true to their spiritual beliefs of the Dream-time. A native institute was set up in 1814 to educate aboriginal kids the European way. Aboriginals were forced to wear clothes and to attend church completely going against their beliefs, By 1930 Indigenous Australians were forced to have the same values and beliefs and to live the same way as white Australians, this was called Assimilation. This led to many children being taken away from their families and put into white foster homes; this was known as the stolen generation.
A. The traditional structure of Indigenous society is based on extended family groups, which follow a kinship system that sets out how all members are related and their position in the community. Traditional family structures are still evident in the organisation of modern, urban Indigenous families. Traditional Indigenous family groups follow the ‘hearth’ group system, where an extended family group shares the proceeds of a hunt and the same camp fire – in other words, an extended family lives together. Closest relatives are those related by blood or marriage, but a spiritual relationship or a connection with a language group may be acknowledged as part of the kinship structure.
Since European settlement, Indigenous people have married of non-Indigenous people but Indigenous beliefs, customs and kinship systems often remain as a strong part of the family’s life even if only one parent is Indigenous.
Short and long term effects of stolen generation include:
Lifelong search for their parents
Suicide.
Loneliness, Low self-esteem and feelings of worthlessness, Depression or other mental illnesses
Difficulties parenting or filling communal role
Violence, Criminal offenses, legal problems
Loss of cultural affiliation, Mistrusting everyone
Unhealthy lifestyle - shorter lifespan
Difficulties to find their religious beliefs, because often they have been brought to many different missions where they were exposed to various denominations. Others feel a strong indoctrination of the belief system they learned. Many traditionally oriented people don’t know their totems which govern many aspects of their lives, for example whom they can marry.
Internal guilt because Stolen Generation members often blame their mothers and fathers for not loving and caring for them, based on incorrect or sparse information supplied by foster parents and government institutions. Many ultimately find out that their parents never stopped trying to reunite with them.
Anguish of searching for their identity. For some, when they are reunited with a parent after many years (sometimes decades), the reunion turns into another perceived hurt and rejection when they find they cannot, or the parent does not want to, bond with them.
Short family tree: Many Aboriginal people in rural and urban areas can’t go further than two generations into their Aboriginal family tree.
Unable to manage relationships because they have never had a role model to learn from. Many relationships are violent and abusive (many abused become abusers).
Intergenerational traumas: Parents pass their traumas on to their children.
B. Before European settlement Indigenous people survived with good health for more than 60,000 years on a diet based on food hunted and gathered from the land, and by following their own health regimes. Food was minimally processed and western products, such as alcohol, were yet to arrive.
Since European settlement the Indigenous population has experienced considerable ill health, caused by introduced diseases, Western foods, drugs and alcohol. Now Indigenous people live (on average) 20 years less than other Australians. Infant deaths are four times higher; hospitalisation three times higher; and adult death rates four times higher.
Heart and liver diseases are more common and diabetes and hepatitis B are widespread. Indigenous babies are born smaller and have less chance of survival, and tend to have more health problems than other babies. The eye disease, glaucoma, is a serious health problem in many communities, and social diseases including alcoholism, petrol sniffing and drug abuse are threatening the physical, emotional, mental and social well-being of Indigenous people throughout the continent. Before European settlement, Indigenous people moved around the country to find food and were lean, tough, fit and free of disease.
C. The Australian Government’s policy of assimilation was not officially abandoned until the federal election in 1972, when, as a direct result of growing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander activism, it was officially replaced with a policy of self-determination – defined as the right of all peoples to ‘freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development’
( Article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights at the Australian Human Rights Commission:
http://www.hreoc.gov.au/racial_discrimi ... /atsi.html).
Despite these changes, social indicators for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, including health indicators, remain the lowest of all Australian groups. Although the impact of European colonisation on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of life is immense and longstanding, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have survived and the culture is alive and strong. In line with the concept of self-determination, the active involvement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in all decision making relating to health matters is fundamental.
D. Since colonisation, most of the original Indigenous languages have been lost. Many languages died when children were taken to missions or institutions and forbidden from speaking their language and made to speak English. The assimilation of Indigenous people into European society and the English language has also led to the loss of Indigenous language. Many Indigenous groups, particularly in regional areas, have developed their own Indigenous English that they use in addition to their group’s language.
The history of forced resettlement on reserves, the placing of many thousands of children in institutions, and the loss of land and culture are evident in the disadvantages still experienced by many Aboriginal people today. Even without forcible removal, Aborigines often had little choice but to ‘come in’ to the cities, rural centres or pastoral stations. The coming together in settlements and missions of many different groups with different languages and customs created new tensions. The availability of Western medical skills, education and technology increased the degree of contact with the outside world and Anglo-Australian ways. The increasing availability of television in rural areas and the advent of satellite communications have added further pressures. Alcohol continues to have a devastating effect. Payments of social service benefits cut across traditional kinship rules. Aborigines seeking education for their children may find that Western education tends to undermine traditional lifestyles and social structures.
In recent times efforts have been made to rectify this and now the beliefs of Indigenous people are respected through government action to return land and sites to their original inhabitants. Heritage and culture make people who they are – how they live, what they believe in and what makes one group of people different from others. Culture develops over time, as it is handed down through the generations over hundreds or thousands of years.
Indigenous people can ensure their culture is kept alive and is passed on to future generations by maintaining traditional practices and beliefs. A range of social, cultural, community services and heritage laws, provided by Local, State and Commonwealth governments, help the wider community preserve and acknowledge Indigenous culture.
I need help for education and employment **
References:
http://pals.daa.wa.gov.au/en/Resources/
https://whitesettlement.wikispaces.com/ ... boriginals
http://www.snaicc.org.au/_uploads/rsfil/02497.pdf
,
Charina