IND150 Colonising Australia

Question:

Write a major essay about the connection between colonisation and colonialism and the effects of colonialism on Indigenous people.

Instruction

Begin with a clear aim in the introduction. Then, start with a section that defines both concepts and explain what the relationship is between the two. Then, in the section called ‘discussion’ focus on colonialism and explain what colonialism looked like in the colonial period in Australia, then move to explaining what colonialism looks like in contemporary Australia. Answer the questions: Is there a difference? What are the implications of the effects of colonialism on Indigenous people in Australia today?

Answer:

Topic– Colonialism and the effect of colonialism on indigenous people

Introduction

Colonialism can be termed as a practice of domination and control by one power over another occupied territory in order to gain domination of the a particular area and it’s people (Dudgeon et al., 2014). Colonisation includes destruction of primitive and indigenous social, political as well as economic structure of a land, acquisition and degradation of land, emergence of racism and discrimination, violation of the basic human, deterioration of the health status and many more.

This essay aims to discuss about the colonialism history of Australia in brief  and largely on the effects of colonialism on the life of indigenous people.

Discussion

Before the British settled down in Australia, there were more than 500 hundred indigenous groups who resided in the continent of Australia. Their culture was as old as 60,000, which made the Indigenous Australians, the owners or the custodian of the world’s most ancient living culture. After the arrival of Captain Cook in the year 1770, the British tried to occupy the territory in order To alleviate the overcrowding (Dudgeon et al., 2014). It has been reported that within ten years after the colonisation, the Aboriginal population was reduced by almost 90 %. The prime reason for this dramatic decrease in the population included the introduction of new disease, the land acquisition of the indigenous lands and direct conflict with the colonies.

Effect of colonialism on the health of indigenous people

Today, the burden of illness, low socio-economic condition and severe disadvantages of the indigenous Australians is an evidence to the aboriginal history of colonization. The current health condition of the indigenous Australians are directly associated to the history of harmful policies. The health policies have not succeeded to improve the health status of the individuals. This is evidenced by an increased number of comorbidities that is being driven by chronic disease and depressive disorder and other booming fourth world clinical conditions such as otitis media, rheumatic fever heart diseases, trachoma and tuberculosis. Poverty is the predisposing factors for most of these diseases. Most of them are endemic and can be prevented  , but continue to stay even in the modern world due to the absence of proper political, social and any medical interventions about the disease. The policy of protectionism – that is a policy of limited rights and separating the indigenous people from the society for protecting the European interest (Sherwood, 2013). Protectionism directed a total authority over the aboriginals, limiting their place to live with enforced limitation on their movements, occupation, matrimony, schooling and nutrition (Sherwood, 2013). The public service and the bureaucracy have even absorbed the aboriginal wages and other entitled allowance problem continues to exist even today. The bureaucracy of Australia had also prohibited the purchasing of land as well as the growth of economic associations by ATSI people. This imposed poverty of the aboriginal people has made them prone to several diseases (Sherwood, 2013). There had been very little growth in lessening the gap in health between the aboriginal and the Torres Strait Islander and the non-indigenous Australians over a past few decades. There were almost 284 lost years due to untimely death or suffering from illness for every 1000 aboriginal people residing in the country. Chronic diseases accounts for almost two third of the total disease burden (AIHW, 2016). The poor health condition had been further aggravated by poor and crowded living conditions. These deplorable shelters have even increased the rate of morbidity among the aboriginals. Indigenous also do not get access to safe and clean drinking water, effective sewerage system that has increased the chance of communicable diseases among the aboriginal people. According to a data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, about 29 % of the aboriginal people over 15 years self-reported mental illness. Among those indigenous people residing in extreme remote communities have reported about 22 % cases (Nasir et al., 2016). Most of mental health illness included post-traumatic stress disorder, phobias and major depressive disorder, psychotic disorder and substance abuse disorder (Nasir et al., 2016). The predisposing factor for increased number of mental illness and subsequent trauma can be dated back to 1815, when the aboriginal children were removed from aboriginal parents that gave rise to the “lost generation”. These inhumane and irrational policies can be considered as genocidal act, that perpetuated injury trans –generationally. It is evident that constant discrimination in every aspect of life, poverty ill health led to the development of mental illness. “Closing the gap” initiative taken by the Australian government, since 2008 had been trying to improve the life expectancy of te aboriginals and to close the gap in various sectors of education, employment  and more. Since then, the government had failed to act on the poor health condition, substandard living conditions, inadequate insurance coverage, education system and employment for the aboriginals.

Racism and colonisation

Today the Aboriginals continue to face relational as well as institutional racism that builds and withstands the lower socio-economic status by excluding them from various economic the opportunities and the ownership of land. The socio-demographic factor that has been linked with experiences of racism includes sex, rurality and age. Males have been found to be more subjected to racism and discrimination. Racism has also been linked with socio-economic status. In a study by Markwick et al., (2019), it has been found that living in a household with annual income less than $40,000  , not being educated and not being in the labour force, has been associated tom lower prevalence to racism. Adults who are unemployed are more likely to suffer from racism. Indigenous people are at the disadvantages side in terms of several social indicators like life expectancy, rates of disability, labour force participation, school retention, household and individual income, homelessness, victim rates for antisocial activities, imprisonment and juvenile detention activities.   The aboriginals are most likely to avoid schools that contains children from other cultures and non-indigenous students. Racism had always been a hidden barrier to educational success. As a part of colonialism, schools become an official centers of racist aggressions, discrimination and exclusion where the aboriginal students faces discrimination. It has been reported that aboriginal students might feel ashamed of their names of surname and can even stop to wear their clothes and avoid their own culture in fear of racism and discrimination. Indigenous people are likely to face various forms of racism including bullying, name calling, delayed or almost no promotion or appraisal. They are likely to receive small increments when compared to other non-aboriginal employees. Locational disadvantages had been another important factor. Indigenous employment is probably lower in the urban areas than that in the rural areas. But the high prevalence of indigenous unemployment is not only confined to rural and remote areas, but is an overall condition throughout Australia. Again due to lower literacy rates owing to the colonization rates, aboriginals are less likely to get employment. They often lack the skills that are needed in urban based jobs (Ferdinand, Paradies, Perry & Kelaher, 2014).

The aboriginals had been the victims of discrimination not only in terms of education and employment, but also in terms of access to health care services. According to a public health survey, the aboriginals are twice as likely to receive poor health care services or have to stand in long cue as that of the non-aboriginal counterparts (Ferdinand, Paradies, Perry & Kelaher, 2014). Although several initiatives have been adopted from the government to reduce the gap of health inequality, but it continues to stay with time.

Owing to overall lack of literacy, the health literacy of the aboriginals residing in the remote regions of Australia have lesser health literacy than that of the non-indigenous Australians (Rheault, Coyer, Jones & Bonner, 2019). People with low health literacy have less knowledge about the current health issues that they had been facing and also do not have no idea about one’s right as health care consumers. They have lesser knowledge about how to self-manage their diseases , have lower interest in health care screenings, lower percentages  of engagement in health promoting behaviour (Rheault, Coyer, Jones & Bonner, 2019).

Effect of colonialism on aboriginal people’s culture and traditions

The aboriginal people were not money-minded and put more emphasis on social, religious and spiritual activities. The environment was regulated by spiritual rather than economic means, as their religion was deeply embedded in the land. They highly maintained their spirituality and culture in every areas of life (Dudgeon et al., 2014). The British colonies in Australia destroyed the spirituality of aboriginal beliefs and the culture that were there for thousands of years. They have lost their sense of identity and continues to feel the same till now since the time they were being snatched from the land and all the aboriginal sacred sited were mostly destroyed (Dudgeon et al., 2014).

Conclusion

In conclusion, it can be said that the aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islanders had long been facing the consequences of colonisation in terms of unequal access to healthcare services, loss of culture and traditions, racism and discrimination in health care, education and employment. Although government has adopted several policies in order to address the inequalities, some comprehensive policies needs to be formulated.

References

AIHW, (2016). Australian Burden of Disease Study: impact and causes of illness and death in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people 2011. Access date: 29.5.2020. Retrieved from: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/burden-of-disease/australian-bod-study-2011-indigenous-australians/contents/summary

Axelsson, P., Kukutai, T., & Kippen, R. (2016). The field of Indigenous health and the role of colonisation and history. Journal of Population Research, 33(1), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12546-016-9163-2

Dudgeon, W., Wright, M., Paradies, Y., Garvey, D., & Walker, I. (2014). Aboriginal social, cultural and historical contexts. In Working together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and wellbeing principles and practice (pp. 3-24). Commonwealth Department of Health. https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/59825

Fast, E., & Collin-Vézina, D. (2019). Historical trauma, race-based trauma, and resilience of indigenous peoples: A literature review. First Peoples Child & Family Review, 14(1), 166-181. Retrieved from https://fpcfr.com/index.php/FPCFR/article/view/379

Ferdinand, A. S., Paradies, Y., Perry, R., & Kelaher, M. (2014). Aboriginal health promotion through addressing employment discrimination. Australian journal of primary health, 20(4), 384-388. https://doi.org/10.1071/PY14035

Lázaro, A. M. S., & Cotí, R. H. L. (2017). Racism and Education. A Discussion Pending Task. The Case of the Original People of Guatemala. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 237, 823-828.

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), 309. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-6614-7

Nasir, B. F., Toombs, M. R., Kondalsamy-Chennakesavan, S., Kisely, S., Gill, N. S., Black, E., … & Nicholson, G. C. (2018). Common mental disorders among Indigenous people living in regional, remote and metropolitan Australia: a cross-sectional study. BMJ open, 8(6), e020196. https://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-020196

Paradies, Y. (2016). Colonisation, racism and indigenous health. Journal of Population Research, 33(1), 83-96. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12546-016-9162-3.

Rheault, H., Coyer, F., Jones, L., & Bonner, A. (2019). Health literacy in Indigenous people with chronic disease living in remote Australia. BMC health services research, 19(1), 523. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-019-4335-3

Sherwood, J. (2013). Colonisation–It’s bad for your health: The context of Aboriginal health. Contemporary Nurse, 46(1), 28-40. https://doi.org/10.5172/conu.2013.46.1.28