How Did South Sea Islanders Contribute To Australia

Australia became known as a workingman’s paradise at the turn of the twentieth century, however, for a large majority of the population Australia was far from a paradise. Due to their rejection of the British class system, and the instalment of the eight hour working day and a basic wage Australians believed themselves to be an egalitarian society with equal opportunities. And this much was true, for the working class, white male. For the rest of the population, the women, children and non-Europeans life was a different story. For them, Australia was not the workingman’s paradise it claimed to be.

Some Australians felt threatened by the amount of non – Europeans in Australia even though Europeans made up about 98% of the population. There was also a huge surge of nationalism at the time which made people want Australia for what they considered the Australians. The nationalism caused them value a ‘pure’ race of Australians in which there was no room for the migrants who had been living in Australia happily until that point.

In February 1965 a group of University of Sydney students organised a bus tour of western and coastal New South Wales towns. The students planned to draw public attention to the poor state of Aboriginal health, education

Ethnocentrism occurs when one culture comes into contact with another. It the evaluation of one culture based on preconceived ideas that have derived from the customs and traditions from one’s own culture. William Summer, an American sociologist, believes that an ethnocentrism is “A view of things in which one’s own group is the centre of everything and all others are scaled and rated in reference to it” (Sorrells 2013). This phenomenon can have detrimental outcomes; such as stereotyping and prejudice both of which may hinder intercultural relations and assimilation therefore impacting on societal cohesion.

Not only the war had a massive effect on the Indigenous in Australia, The war was a huge boom to the Australian economy and as it turned out another massive factor. As many Australian fundamental products were purchased as could be produced, and secondary, subsidiary industries manufactured many ‘modern’ items for the services. Many men and women retired and fled their careers to accompany the armed forces leading to a ‘deficit’ of labour. New commerce and businesses need to have been created to fund the troops with combat weapons, uniforms and ammunition. Scarce goods needed to be controlled by the Australian Government in enhancing better buying and selling and in ensuring that everyone received a fair share. Australians began to experience shortages of almost everything they needed in daily life. At the time of World War II, most of them drank tea, not

The Ngunnawal People have been living within the borders and surrounding mountains of the Australian Capital Territory for over 25,000 years. The way the Indigenous people used the land to live off was extremely efficient and sustainable. They had a bounty of knowledge about the land surrounding them, and over generations, devised resourced management skills to ensure maintenance of the animals and plants, and most importantly, the land in which provided these things. Aboriginal culture existed long before Captain Cook arrived in Australia in 1770. He claimed the land to be "Terra-Nullius", meaning that the land did not belong to any person. This claim obviously seemed ludicrous and crazy to the Indigenous people whom already lived on the land.

The ‘Bringing Them Home Report’ was a significant event for the civil rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, as what they experienced between 1910 to 1970 was something no human being should have to go through, The Stolen Generations suffered a great deal of traumatic experiences. On 11 of May 1995 change, had to take place as this wasn’t a lifestyle a human being should live, the inquiry period began for The Bringing Them Home Report. It was a National Inquiry that looked into the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families. It was a complicated

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

There were many different groups and races who migrated to Australia before the 1900’s. There were the Chinese - who worked in the gold fields, the South Sea Islanders

Douglas Grant, was an Aboriginal Australian soldier who fought during World War 1. Grant had experience as a draughtsman, public servant and factory worker. During World War 1, he was captured by the German army and was held prisoner at Wittendorf, and later transferred to Wunsdorf, Zossen, near Berlin.

Around 52% of Australian citizens lived in towns and cities of a population greater than 2500 people, the rest of the citizens lived on farms or small rural communities supplying wool, minerals, wheat, meat and fruit to the colonial markets and the international markets ( Nelson Connect with History, page 290). Even though the working conditions were harsh through the 19th century, Australia was known as the workingman's paradise because of the short hours a day which you couldn’t get in Europe at the time. The workers were paid a low wage, middle class citizens were usually professional workers. The men had to provide for their families, most manual labourers worked in the city in factories and the factories had poor working

The White Australian Policy was discovered in Australia in the 1850’s. A big amount of British prisoners were in need to come to the country but were declined. Although the Australians lack prisoners to work in the mines they had brought people from the pacific islands and china, leaving the British out. The Australians

In 1945 not along after World War II, Australia’s immigration minister Arthur Calwell, came to the conclusion that Australia’s economy was in need of expansion. He believed that in order to do this, Australia needed a larger population, implementing the need of higher birth and immigration rates. Historian James Jupp provides a relatively accurate statement to an extent describing Australia’s long immigration history as typically xenophobic, racist and insular. In 1947, the ‘Displacement Persons scheme’ was introduced specifically for European immigrants. On the other hand, there were still many other immigrants such as the O’Keefes who did not receive the same treatment as Europeans and instead experienced much racism and many difficulties. However, the eventual acceptances of non-Europeans immigrants led to the modifications of the white Australia policy.

Until 1967 the Australian governments only intention was to wipe out Indigenous Australians and create a white Australian culture. To do this the government changed the protection policy was changed by Paul Hasluck who was the Federal Minster for Terriroties to the Assimilation Policy. (Refference) This policy proposed that “full blood” Indigenous Australians die out through natural causes, while “half blood” be allowed to integrate into the “white” community. Through doing this Indigenous Australians were forced to give up their traditional ways of life and live on the reserves and missions that the government provided if they wanted to retain a degree of freedom. However the

Britain was the biggest colony power in the world. Even the fall of the First Empire did not discourage the British from further colonization of ‘’unknown lands’’. In 1770, Captain James Cook claimed a portion of the Australian continent in the name of King George III. On his journey from Botany Bay to Cape York, Cook recorded several interactions with the indigenous population of Australia. Despite knowing about the continent being inhabited by one of the Earth’s oldest civilizations, Great Britain considered Australia terra nullius - land belonging to no one. With that said, the British went through with the plan of establishing a penal colony in New South Wales and in 1788, the First Fleet led by Captain Arthur Phillip arrived in Sydney Cove. This essay will focus on the effects of racism towards the Aboriginal population of Australia in the past and today.