Subject Name: Indigenous Australian Politics
Subject Code: IA2016
Study Period: SP1
Study Mode: External
Campus: Townsville
Subject Coordinator: Sharon Moore
Student: Josephat Magomo
Assessment Task 1: Reflective Critique
The European colonisation of Australia over the past two centuries has resulted in violent conflict, forced dispossession, displacement and protectionist policies that denied Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people basic rights, separated families and entrenched discrimination and inequalities. Over the past centuries there have been many changes in the attitudes and rights regarding the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Despite the efforts by Australian government's initiatives of 'Closing the Gap' in an attempt to address the inequalities between indigenous and white Australians there are still vast gaps in terms of socio-economic status, health care and welfare services, life expectancy, education, employment, housing ownership, land tenure and land rights. However, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people still experience an ongoing prejudice and discrimination as a marginalised minority group.
A 19th century engraving showing Australian "nativ...
English: Title: Personal photographs of the Hon. C...
Townsville Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander C...Therefore, there is still a great deal of negativity that needs addressing in our society.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people still experience ongoing prejudice and discrimination as a marginalised minority group (Pedersen, Beven, Walker & Griffiths, 2004). Despite efforts by the government to address the inequalities, some Australian research finds a relationship between racism against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the belief that such views are shared by the wider population (Pedersen & Griffiths, 2002). It is suggested that many Australians believe that Aboriginal and Torres strait Islander people have the right to equity, but they are perceived as wanting more rights than anybody else (McConahay & Hough, 1976, as cited in Pedersen, Dudgeon, Watt & Griffiths, 2011). However, the Australian state aims to achieve social equality through the provision of services which provides for the pensioners based on age...