Tanderum: an aboriginal dreamtime ceremony which welcomes people with dancing, songs and large feasts. When the first fleet landed at Sydney Cove on the East side of Australia, in 1788, they were welcomed with this ceremony. Tanderum is basically used as a way to greet foreigners and the aboriginals expect these foreigners to leave after the ceremony has finished. But the Europeans didn’t leave and started to build their colony of sacred ground. This angered the aborigines and created fights. Many aborigines died in the 146 years which these battles raged on while a much smaller number of Europeans were killed. As the Europeans began to explore other places of Australia more fights broke out and they kept on happening until late 1934 when the battles finally stopped. The indigenous Australian’s lost many people because of the massacres caused by Europeans wanting land to build new colonies. As previously stated the Aborigines welcomed the Europeans who bore gifts but because of their language barrier they could not communicate. The Europeans handed the gifts to the aboriginals and did not or could not explain why they were giving them over. This gave the aboriginals the idea they could take these items whenever they wanted. Many other misunderstandings took place because they could not communicate properly. Some of these lead to death, angering both the aboriginal tribes and the governor of the new colony. When …show more content…
The fighting which took place between 1788 and 1934 was to claim aboriginal land in the name of the King of England to set up a new colony. This has created ongoing problems between the modern day aboriginals and the government. In the mid twentieth century aboriginals had to work very hard to be accepted as people living in this country and be included in the constitution. Even today there are people who work to get aboriginals fully recognised as the first people of
There have been constant disputes over land privileges and the discrimination that Aboriginal people have faced
Eddie Mabo, full name Edward Koiki Sambo, devoted a great deal of time in his life to fight for the land rights of his people. He is now a central figure and household name for advocating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land rights and traditional ownership, but the story of his success, and how it changed Australia, has many heroes. Along with Mabo, plaintiffs Flo Kennedy and David Passi were geared up to launch a test case in the courts to dispute the doctrine of terra nullius; the existing law that stated Australia was officially considered empty land before British settlement. However the process of carrying out a test case proved to be difficult and compelled some of the plaintiff’s to withdraw. Later in the year of 1989, Mabo and James Rice was the only plaintiff’s left
Impact of Colonisation: Colonisation affected Aboriginal and Torres Straight islanders because they weren’t acknowledged upon colonisation as a civilized people. In 1788 the British , wrongly believed that the indigenous peoples did not have a system of land law deserving of recognition by the common law. Because of this, the English crown clamed both sovereignty and ownership of Australia (Terra Nullis- which means no ones land) and did not recognise the land previously belonging to a people because they did not see them as having a system of laws and customs concerning the land. Impact of Colonisation on Contemporary Issues: • Mabo 1992:
After 10 long years Torres Strait Islander Eddie ‘Koiki’ Mabo has lead indigenous Australians to a victory over the Queensland government. This win this case is a historical moment, as of yesterday, the indigenous Australians have been recognised as the owners of Murray Island. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are known to have resided in Australia, 40,000 to 60,000 years before the British arrived in 1788. When the British took over they decided to take all the land for themselves even though the indigenous Australians were here first. This court case recognises indigenous Australians unique connection to the land and acknowledges that they have the rights to the land.
On June 3 1992, the legal decision of the Mabo case was made by the High Court, the highest court in Australia’s legal system (Webb, 2008). For thousands of years before the arrival of the British in 1788, Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders have had their strong connection to the Australian Land. When the British arrived in 1788, it was declared that the country was terra nullius (land belonging to nobody), which resulted to the absence of recognition towards the connection between the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders and the Australian land. The declaration of terra nullius also resulted to the British taking land without agreement or payment towards the indigenous Australians (Webb, 2008).
An opposing piece to this, entitled ‘Advance Australia, fair!’ by Tristan Fairchild was published. In his piece, Fairchild uses his experience as a cultural liaison supervisor to persuade his audience that changing the date of Australia day can only be a good thing. Fairchild employed a authoritative and passionate tone to reason that celebrating a day that is viewed as an invasion is un-Australian and that we should rather be celebrating a rich and extensive culture. Joined to this article was a picture of an Aboriginal flag being raised, rather than the British flag, at Botany Bay by James Cook.
Australia was settled by the British in 1788 as a convict colony but without the Aboriginal contact and consequences, experience of non-Europeans, the gold rushes and their political, social and economical impact on the nation, the Depression in the 1890’s and living and working conditions all contributed to what our nation is today. Within 120 years as a result of aboriginal contact with Europeans the experience of non-Europeans, the social, political and economical impacts of the gold rushes of the 1850’s, the depression in the 1890’s and the living and working all contributed to what Australia became in 1914. As the colony of the nation expanded, some settlers came into conflict with the aboriginal people. The aboriginal people reacted
Introduction: Australia Day. For most Aussies it is a day off work, a reason to whip out the Barbie and have a few too many beers on the beach. It’s a day where communities across the nation come together in celebration, watch the glorious fireworks, and play a few rounds of backyard cricket on the blistering asphalt. But for many Indigenous Australians, January 26 does not represent this supposed ‘Australian Dream,’ but rather the recollection of a nightmare. Australia Day to them marks the beginning of a harrowing 229 years of slaughtering, criminalisation, and torture of thousands of their people.
The Tent Embassy was one of the most significant protests that shaped land rights and equality for the Aboriginal people. In this process four men set up a tent outside the parliament house and represented the Aboriginals rights. The embassy was formed on the basis that all people are equal and that no person should be discriminated by their skin color. The tent embassy protest changed the motives of Aboriginals and the government, changed the actions and methods of the Aboriginals involved and as a result this protest impacted Indigenous rights and freedom.
Australia had been arguing over the rules that the government is the U.S were making, soon after that they realised that Australia had the same rules in the government which were treating black people without respect or being polite to them. The white people thought they were better than the black people so they had them as slaves and bashed/killing. Australian finally realised that it was unfair that black people weren’t getting treated equally so a man named Charles Perkins changed the law of Australia and equalised the country completely. Charles Perkins is famous soccer player, he was an aboriginal but he to good to not have him on the teams. Charles Perkins had a group of university students that toured in NSW to stop Racial Equality and then later on it happened to the whole
The Australian Constitution written in the 1890s has recognised the position of Indigenous Australians in a discriminatory and racist manner. “Indigenous Australians” is an inclusive term used when referring to both Aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders, also known as the “first peoples”. They are the people who were living on this continent for 125 000 years before the beginning of the British colonisation pre 1788.
After 1788 Aboriginals became outcasts to their own lands. The European settlers tried to change and destroy Indigenous ways of life, however they did not succeed. Aboriginals survived and tried to fight back for their rights to their land. There are many stories in this long fight for justice. Charles Perkins and the Freedom Ride is one of the most famous stories in Australia’s history.
In Ahn Do's, 'The Happiest Refugee' and the film, 'Bran Nue Dae' directed by Rachel Perkins, marginalisation is shown throughout both the memoir and film in the form of racial/cultural and asylum seeker/refugee differences. Being marginalised can deeply affect an individual's self esteem and not only cause society to look at the individual differently, but also the person affected to look at themselves differently. Marginalisation for aboriginals began right back during the British invasion where they were evicted from their own country, the stolen generation occurred and their health care, education, employment and housing was severely limited. Aboriginals generally STILL live in poor conditions and even though aboriginal people represent
Since colonisation in 1788 Europeans believed the Aboriginal peoples to be a primitive race with no societal structures in place because their system did not resemble one that was recognizable or fit within it did not resemble a system that was recognizable by white settlers. National identity is believed to be a general concept that referred to a broad set of codes with a shared understanding within a nation, and the sense of belonging that is reinforced through myths, symbols, media activities, and everyday practices (Carter, 2006, p. 7; Van Krieken et al., 2017, pp. 234-244). Australia is now regarded as a diverse country with an identity that has evolved over time and will continue to do so. For Indigenous Australians to conform to this national identity, they had to assimilate and give up their values, beliefs, and cultural rights to become more like white Australia.
The Aboriginals spoke their own language, had their own laws and customs, and mostly a strong connection with the country’s land. The British arrived to the shores and declared Australia ‘terra nullius’ meaning empty land that belongs to no body. The land clearly wasn’t uninhabited but the Indigenous people no longer had the right to use the land as they please freely. Under international law Australia was now British land. As a result, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders occupation of and unique connection with the land weren’t recognised and the British took the land without agreement or payment.