Dispossession Of Aboriginal People Essay

The Aboriginal people of Australia are still being mistreated over land dispossession and deserve more than what our government has given them. These people are the traditional owners of Australia but do not have access to this land. If they want ownership, they must go through a long and arduous process in which their request for land will likely be denied. Why do we continue to deny them ownership of the land? Our government has gone through a series of half measures in an attempt to resolve the rampant dispossession of the land the Aboriginals faced during early colonisation. We must stand up and fight for the rights of the Aboriginals who have been mistreated for hundreds of years over the land they own.

Recent archaeological investigations/studies around Australia have shown that the Aboriginals have inhabited Australia for about 60,000 years. The land these people inhabited became an integral part of their culture and

Furthermore the Aboriginals lived and thrived off the land with it providing both food and shelter in the harsh Australian landscape. This all changed however when the British, led by Captain James Cook, arrived in Botany Bay in 1788. Over the next years, more and more British arrived, many of whom were convicts, with the intent on colonising the land and building a life for themselves in the new land. These selfish white men believed that the Aboriginals didn 't own the land because there were no clear boundaries, fences, or signs set up that divided the land up between groups and signalled ownership. The British claimed this land under “Terra Nullius” which means “no ones land” and began to build on the land they claimed as their own. Furthermore the British didn 't understand the cultural significance of the land to the indigenous population so they would destroy sacred land accidentally, but in some cases did it deliberately.