“We often make friends for the weakest of reasons – proximity for example, or shared…
Noel Pearson’s ‘An Australian History for us all’ discusses his approach to trying to solve some of the most systemic problems facing Australian Aboriginals today. Through the uses of various language techniques and context, Pearson’s speech details the struggles of the relationship between the first European settlers and Aboriginal Australians.…
Melanie Hogan’s Kanyini shows the pain and suffering of Aborigines during the period of white settlement through the contemporary accounts of Bob Randall, an aboriginal elder of the Yankuntjatjara people. Randall explains that the aboriginal people were deprived of their ‘Kanyini,’ which comprises of their land, family, belief system and spirituality. The loss of Kanyini, is shown to be the major factor in the current day troubles of Aborigines. In Kanyini, Hogan exposes the traumas within the Indigenous community due to the invasion of their land.…
In the ‘Introduction’ the editor Carmel Bird accentuates her own sympathetic attitude towards the inhumane treatment of the members of the Stolen Generation. Bird’s value of compassion and egalitarianism challenges and compels us to form our own voice concerning the Aborigines and agree with view that the Australian government must apologies and take action for reconciliation. Carmel Bird uses highly emotive languages, which powerfully demonstrate her emotive appeal to the reader’s sense of sympathy and compels the audience to emotionally react and rectify the wrongs committed against the stolen children. She ends with the short imperative, “Listen to their voices”, which illustrates that it is a moral duty of our generation to understand the pains and continuing cries of agony of the Indigenous people. Her emphatic tone and sympathetic personal voices allows us to gain insight into the common voice of white Australians for reconciliation with the Aboriginal community.…
In 1788, nearly 1000 Europeans arrived to Australia. From this year, conflicts between Aboriginals and Europeans continued until 1860. Before colonization, indigenous people were struck down by diseases introduced by Europeans. Indigenous people had no immunity to new diseases, so the common cold, sexually transmitted disease and smallpox resulted in a rapid decline of their population. In 1856, the British government authorized the appointment of a “Protector of Aborigines” to settle problems such as people’s illness, language and occupation. In 1860, the Victorian government established the Aborigines Protection Board. In 1910, Australia government forcibly took more than 100 000 Aboriginal children from their families and placed in church or state based institutions. (Jupp,J 2001, p.9).…
Terms | Definitions | Pacific island groups: | Micronesia, Melanesia, Polynesia | (Pacific) Micronesia means- | small islands | (Pacific) Melanesia means- | black islands |…
The novel, A Lesson before Dying, was written by Ernest J. Gaines in 1993. Gaines was born on the River Lake plantation in Louisiana, where he was raised by his aunt, Miss Augusteen Jefferson. Racism was prevalent shown by the whites-only libraries in Louisiana. After 15 years of living in Louisiana, Gaines moved to California, although he states Louisiana never left him. California had libraries available for the blacks also. In California, he lived with his mother and which inspired him to the point of writing about six novels and scores of short stories. In 1953, Gaines was drafted into the Army, and he later went on to study creative writing at Stanford University. While in the library, Gaines…
Noel Pearson’s speech, ‘An Australian History for us All,’ explores the divides between our community and the issues that prevent us as a nation from achieving reconciliation. Ultimately, throughout his exordium Pearson is excessively humble, ‘it is my honour to have been invited… Alas, I cannot promise my teacher’s rigour ,’ this diminution of his prominent political position equalises Pearson with his audience. He successfully characterises himself as being selflessly modest, a successful tool in capturing our attention, his choice to do this in the exordium is also an example of kairos, his appealing attitude is naturally attractive, guaranteeing our fixated attention throughout the duration of his speech. Pearson additionally employs a variety of quotes to both enforce his credibility and portray society’s ignorant attitude towards reconciliation. We see this when he quotes Professor Bill Stanner, the ‘Great Australian Silence,’ becomes a metaphor of our refusal to address the Aboriginal struggle on a national level, objectifying the Australian nation as absent minded. Furthermore, Pearson makes noticeable appeals to pathos and logos, encouraging an emotional and logical response identifiable by all of us. Pearson in his battle for reconciliation, provides syllogistic reasoning and structure on solving the inherent ‘guilt’ issue, ‘it is not about guilt. It is about opening our hearts a little bit… and to have an open and generous heart…means that when you acknowledge the wrongs of the past, you might try to do so ungrudgingly… there must be some respect for that.’ Additionally, the inclusive pronouns that Pearson employs in this statement make his proposed solution exclusive, applying to both indigenous and non indigenous peoples as such he unites his audience, generating logos through the universal nature and structural flow of his statement. Additionally, Pearson goes on to compare the reasoning he provides to the internationally notorious issue of Jewish…
Indigenous Australians are a prominently disadvantaged group that are subject to extreme discrimination impacting on their life’s. The Stolen generation had severe negative impacts on the victims of the stolen generation and has continued to negatively affect future generations. Further negative implications have stemmed from this extreme action. And it is the cause of many issues of inequality today among Indigenous Australians. This essay will define the stolen generation, outline and discuss the negative impacts that have stemmed from it and then link the impacts of assimilation to theories such as functionalist theory, structural, etc.…
recognition, and to shape the present. Indigenous Australia is made up of two cultural groups…
One thing that was shared by all colonies was the idea of a ‘white’ Australia. A great percentage of the population were of Caucasian decent, and Australia had been a British Dominion. Many politicians believed that the Anglo-Saxon race was superior. They were afraid that cheap Asian labourers would destroy good working conditions and destroy racial impurity. William Lane was extremely blunt on his very of intermarriage; he would rather see his daughter ‘dead in her coffin than kissing one of them’. The idealism of the superior Caucasian race was demonstrated by the texts that were printed such as ‘the facial angle is greater in this race than in any other…brain is usually heavier and of grater size’. (Outlines of Geography, 1878) This common idea increased a sense of unity.…
The Article the end from the beginning re (de)finding Aboriginality written by Michael Dodson explores the notions on how Aboriginal people have been represented and perceived by the early settlers. Michael Dodson makes a critique on the language from previous historians. They Mention in the beginning that the Aboriginal people were seen as Noble savages from the prehistoric beasts, blood thirsty, cunning ferocious” that they even fell in the classification of blood types which gives an idea of an animal like classification, scientific based and based purely on Age and descent. ( Dodson, 2003: 19-20). Michael Dodson Argues the question as to how can the colonisers understand all the aspects of the indigenous people if they haven’t actually experienced it first hand? He also stresses on the importance of the Aboriginal voice and how it’s actually excluded in the society that they need to speak back.…
The Australian Aborigines were the first people to live on the continent Australia, being here longer than the White Australians. During that time, the Aboriginal people made a special bond with the land and their kinship to their families. After the invasion of the Europeans settlers, laws were introduced to take away the land traditionally owned. Protectionism was one of the first policies meaning that Aborigines and the European settlers were separated and ‘protected’ for their own good. This was failing and that’s when assimilation was introduced which meant…
Religion was a vital part of everyday life for the British. They felt that they had been ‘burdened’ with the task of having to spread their faith – Christianity. When the British had come into contact with the Aboriginals, they tried to ‘save’ them by introducing them to their religion, however, the Aboriginals had their own religion – the dreamtime.…
Beginning in 1910 and ending in the 1970s, Australians Federal and State government agencies and church missions made a policy to forcibly take many aboriginal and Torres Strait children away from their families in an attempt to destroy the Aboriginal race and culture. There was an impact on the aboriginals with a particular policy the Australian Government had introduced, which was the policy of ‘Assimilation’. This policy was to encourage many Aboriginal people to give up their culture, language, tradition, knowledge and spirituality to basically become white Australians. Unfortunately this policy didn’t give the Aboriginals the same rights as white Australians, as a result of discrimination, aboriginals were moved to live in special housing…