Bringing Them Home Report: Aboriginal Australians

Conducted in a predominantly Aboriginal community, the former Prime Minister of Australia, Paul Keating addresses a controversial topic in celebration of

The Dreaming gives the Aboriginal people a way to explain on how the world came to be.

Aboriginal Australian peoples have been placed in unfair situations that have resulted in disconnections from society due to bias in culture, racism and because of previous historical events such as colonisation that led to colonialism and horrible events such as The Stolen Generation. These events act like a scar to the Aboriginal Australian peoples and their culture, those previously mentioned historical events symbolises the cut, the immense pain that was caused in that moment is still a factor and the pain from it is still prevalent and is symbolised by the scar. The scar also represents the factors that still manage to affect the Aboriginal Australians today, such as racism and lack of quality and access to education, money and health care.. The Indigenous peoples are also affected by various other factors such as limited access to health care that may be of poor quality, such resources may also bring fear to the Indigenous peoples because practitioners are not always sensitive or respectful to

The speech was made as the prime minister had some concerns about the daily challenges that the Indigenous people had to tackle. It was made to capture the harsh truths about Australian history, and to use them as a beginning for building trust in the government’s motives among Indigenous Australians. The speech was created not only to help those Indigenous to help the civil rights movement but also to challenge what it would be like if those average white Australians experienced such injustices. It had been an historical event because it was the first time an Australian Prime minister had widely spoken about Indigenous discriminations that they have or had been experiencing. “Recognition that it was we who did the dispossessing. We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional life. We bought the diseases. The alcohol. We committed the murders. We took the children from their mothers. We practiced discrimination and exclusion." These words were some they never thought would come out of an Australian prime ministers mouth. It was a general development on the track to resolution by recognizing the Australians past and changing the Australia civil rights movement for the

Ever since the first settlers arrived in Australia right up to the end of the 20th century indigenous Australians had limited rights compared to whit Australians. One of the biggest problems was that there were different laws and treatment of aboriginals depending on what state they resided in. The year of 1967 was a big year for indigenous rights as a referendum was held to give the federal government the power to make laws for all aboriginals. Many factors and events influenced the overwhelming success of 1967 Referendum but the Freedom Rides of 1965 was the most important of these events in making the referendum the most successful in Australia’s history.

However, there is still hope. While the injustices of the Stolen generation, massacres and centuries of mistreatment against Indigenous Australians can never be erased, we can create future in which these atrocities never occur again. These atrocities emerge from ignorance and fear, so working to understand Indigenous culture must surely be the only path to removing the racism that plagues Australia. We have so must to learn from the rich cultural history of Indigenous Australians, particularly in their spiritual relationship with the land they have lived on for thousands of years. If we embrace this incredible knowledge, not only will we eliminate the barriers preventing equality in our society, we will also be stronger as a nation in both environmental and social relations. Ultimately, we have the potential to become an example to the world of the way a nation’s people can overcome their past mistakes and pave a future of cultural sharing for the benefit of all

The government deemed this necessary after alleged wide spread sexual and physical abuse of children was accruing within these Aboriginal communities. This is commonly known as the stolen generation. By 1950, every state of Australia had embraced this Act. Repression of Aboriginal language, culture and beliefs continued and in 1961, The Australian Government declared "The Policy of Assimilation, which stated all Aboriginals will inevitably be expected to adopt the superior Anglo-Saxon ways, language, beliefs, and culture. This policy was a government attempt to take the last thing the Aboriginal people had, their identity. Regrettably, the impacts of colonisation have had detrimental effects on the Indigenous cultures remaining within Australia, being effected largely by media stereotypes and false accusations. Understandably, a mistrust for the government has developed throughout generations within Aboriginal communities, as years of slavery, pain, grief, depression and sorrow were caused by the Australian

Being an aborigine in a white dominated society is a complicated identity. Australia, one of the white governed nations, also owns many aboriginal tribes. They lived harmonious lives in the early period. But European colonization has made a profound effect on the lives of Aboriginals in Australia, which led to the total demolition of their native culture, identity and history. As a result the new generation Aboriginals have lost their Aboriginal heritage and have been accepted neither by Aboriginals nor by whites. This state of being part aboriginals has driven their identity in crisis. Indeed they have possessed a unique Aboriginal consciousness that have made them to reclaim their lost voice. Their literature has been used as a platform

In a recovery-focused mental health system, challenging pre-conceived notions that underpin these these calls for a widespread change in society’s understanding of Indigenous mental health, and the bridging of the gap that structural discrimination creates based on cultural identity. Addressing both social and economic barriers that exist for Aboriginal people that can be the result of stigma and discrimination is consequently a step towards social inclusion, which Closing the Gap (Department of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, 2015; 2017) reports have consistently targeted as a key area by underlining the importance of higher education and employment rates of Aboriginal people. This can be considered first-order change, however, because the proposal to bridge these gaps and the action that will be taken to do so still occurs within the current disadvantaging system, and does not fully act on the ways current systems are inappropriately equipped to provide Aboriginal people with culturally-competent pathways to success. Adding to that, the aim of targeting education and employment outcomes is mainly to utilise the possible contribution that the Aboriginal workforce can provide for the Australian economy (Department of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, 2015). It is important to note that throughout the years, as well, that in the reports

‘Stolen Generation’ is the systematic forcible removal of Indigenous children from their families to be brought in institutions and training homes from the period of 1910 until the mid-1970. These created

Today, our society live freely by following our right and freedom, our rights to do and our freedom to say. However, Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders suffered and are still suffering through a long journey to be accepted in Australia as one. Different events occurred during the 90s to today, such as the Mabo decision, referendums and protests. The Bringing Them Home report was a significant event for the civil rights of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander people. The Bringing Them Home report was the result of a national inquiry that includes 680 pages created in 1997. The report is dedicated to those who were affected by the forcible removal from Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander families. It had positively impacted the civil rights movement in Australia in two major ways through the Stolen

With the past conflict surrounding the stolen generation, most commonly known as the 50,000(Rudd’s apology speech, pg.4) children who were forcibly taken from their homes, separated from there families and raised in the hands of the government. In 2008, Kevin Rudd formally apologised on the behalf of Australia; Mentioning the mistreatment of all the children, the families and anyone who had to endure the “blemished’’ chapter in our nation 's history. Rudd apologising about this chapter in Australia’s history so we can all hopefully move on from this historical disturbance.

The way that society sees you should not depend on the colour of your skin. Even today, in the 21st century, people in our society judge other human beings by their colour or race. One of the main racism issues is the discrimination towards our Indigenous people. National data from the Challenging Racism Project reveals that 27% of Aboriginal people over the age of 15 experience racism more than once in their life. Racism towards Indigenous Australians includes mostly verbal abuse such as name-calling and insulting language. Exclusion from workplaces and social events also plays a major part in the racial discrimination. Do we really want Australia to be seen as such a racist and prejudiced nation? What can we as individuals do to stop this racial hate from going on? All of this is happening because we stole the Aboriginal people’s land. If we had

The rationale behind these polices was to protect children, a though that aboriginal people would die out and the belief that aboriginal people frowned up miscegenation. Other claims suggest that this was part of the attempt to whiten Australia. The horrific irony here is that there are few if any aboriginal families which have not been impacted by these child removals. It has created an array of psychological issues, an increased risk and exposure to sexual abuse, a taught rejection of their culture, a loss of links to the land, an inability to participate in cultural and spiritual life with their communities and not being able to have a native title. Quite often the intuitions and families in which these children were placed with were more damaging and detrimental to their health and wellbeing that if they had remained with their families. These events have left a long term festering wound on a severely disadvantage proportion of the country. Which has gone way past call the question of justification but rather what compensation is needed and what reconciliation can be done. With postcolonial theory it challenges the dominate and submissive expectation that comes with a colonising and colonised population and reflects the results of a forced

Throughout human history, racial discrimination has been a persistent and prevalent issue. Australia has had a particularly violent and dark history of mistreatment against its indigenous population, which was often overlooked and ignored until recent times. However, increased awareness and education have slowly led to the acknowledgement of these issues and attempts to address the inequality that indigenous people face. In a multicultural first world country, it seems ludicrous that people are still judged for their skin colour and appearance.