Good morning ladies and gentleman, I stand before you to bring to your attention an issue so crucial yet so blatantly ignored that it has etched its way into every aspect of our lives. From when we answer the phone to when we walk into a service station, racism has become the new Australian tradition. According to altogether now an organisation dedicated to raising awareness for racism, during the past year, one in five people living in Australia was a target of racial discrimination/ that is approximately 4.6 million Australians. No matter how much we try to sweep this under the rug, and call ourselves ‘multicultural’. The discrimination we showed towards the Indigenous Australians, the avoidance of accepting refugees, the Indian bashings, …show more content…
My first point to why Australia is a racist country is because of the way we treat our first Australians. Ignoring the fact that we stole their land off them, we still don’t treat aborigines with the manner they deserve to be treated with .The sorry speech delivered by Kevin Rudd on the 13th of February 2008, lost the effect it could have had because it was made too late. We as Australians stole their country, culture and even children off the aboriginal people in 1910, however, took us almost a century to apologise for this. But did you ever think, if the tables were turned, and the aborigines did the same thing to us, this would’ve not been forgotten whatsoever. This is one of the cruel and most hurtful examples of the racism taken part in Australia, post colonisation. According to Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, there has been little progress in aboriginal demographics. Despite Australia having one of the ‘best’ healthcare and welfare schemes in the world, these are not evident in aboriginal education and health outcomes. The indigenous population has a relatively young age structure. In 2006, the median age was 21 years, compared …show more content…
As known by everyone, our current prime minister is Tony Abbott. It’s clearly demonstrated in Australian media, (which is also biased) that he is not a leader who is esteemed, as he is viewed to be ethnocentric by many citizens. How on earth can we claim to be a multicultural and welcoming country when our prime minister, the man who represents our country to the rest of the world makes comments saying “there was nothing but bush in Australia before white settlement”. Also, the controversy which overtook the Australian media about Abbott’s comments about indigenous lifestyle choices were simply appalling. He claimed their disadvantages arise from their own poor decision making. Even if this was the case as a leader he should try to help them and create advantages they could make use of in their circumstances, rather than making ethnocentric and close-minded remarks about the people of his nation. Pauline Hanson who is a former member of the Australian parliament clearly stated with her own mouth that she wanted “multiculturalism abolished”. It makes me think where she gets this confidence from, and then remember that she has a role in parliament. I’m once again mortified that this is our
Over the years Australia has had many different problems with racism and racism affecting peoples’ lives. Many racial groups have been affected, most significantly the Aboriginals. The end of world war two in 1945 marked a huge change in types of racism. Australia went from the ‘superior’ white Australians dominating over immigrants and aboriginals. To a relatively multicultural and accepting society that is present today.
Key events in Aboriginal Australian history stem from the time Australia was first discovered in 1788. For instance, when Federation came into existence in 1901, there was a prevailing belief held by non Aboriginal Australians that the Aborigines were a dying race (Nichol, 2005:259) which resulted in the Indigenous people being excluded from the constitution except for two mentions – Section 127 excluded Aborigines from the census and Section 51, part 26, which gave power over Aborigines to the States rather than to the Federal Government. Aboriginal people were officially excluded from the vote, public service, the Armed Forces and pensions. The White Australia mentality/policy Australia as “White” and unfortunately this policy was not abolished until 1972. REFERENCE
...ndigenous recognition and the removal of racist remarks has been an on-going theme for a vast majority of time. The necessity of Constitutional reform to close the gap on cultural divide as well as support the on-going concept of reconciliation is essential in ensuring Australia continues to improve and nurture its relationship with Indigenous peoples. The process of amendment through referendum has proven to be problematic in the past, with the success rate exceptionally low. Though with key factors such as bi-partisan support, widespread public knowledge and correct management, the alteration to remove racial discrimination and provide recognition for Indigenous persons within the Constitution is highly achievable. If proposed and eventually passed, this will provide assistance in eliminating many of the cultural gaps Indigenous persons face throughout society.
Throughout the world, in history and in present day, injustice has affected all of us. Whether it is racial, sexist, discriminatory, being left disadvantaged or worse, injustice surrounds us. Australia is a country that has been plagued by injustice since the day our British ancestors first set foot on Australian soil and claimed the land as theirs. We’ve killed off many of the Indigenous Aboriginal people, and also took Aboriginal children away from their families; this is known as the stolen generation. On the day Australia became a federation in 1901, the first Prime Minister of Australia, Edmund Barton, created the White Australia Policy. This only let people of white skin colour migrate to the country. Even though Australia was the first country to let women vote, women didn’t stand in Parliament until 1943 as many of us didn’t support female candidates, this was 40 years after they passed the law in Australian Parliament for women to stand in elections. After the events of World War Two, we have made an effort to make a stop to these issues here in Australia.
Rudd, K. (2008, February 13). Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, MP – Apology to Australia’s Indigenous peoples [Parliament of Australia, House of Representatives]. [Transcript]. Canberra, ACT: Retrieved from http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/our-country/our-people/apology-to-australias-indigenous-peoples
The reason for this report was to explain the steps that were taken to create and implement this action plan and the outcomes. My three actions were established to help carry out my vision of bringing together the two sides by creating equality and harmony. First I wanted to create a better understanding of Aboriginal history, culture and their people within my family and friendship groups. I tackled this by talking not only in-person but also over social media about the past struggles of Aboriginal people and reduce the stigma and misconceptions that surround Aboriginal people. The second action was to restore trust between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians by involving friends and family in public and activities and events that are related to learning more about what gaps need closing and coming together. My third action plan was to eradicate racism and as a way to contribute to this cause long term, I signed up to be a Constitutional Recognition Campaigner through ANTAR. As this campaign is about changing the Australian constitution to include Aboriginal people and also to remove sections that have to power to stop Aboriginal people from voting and sections that give the Australian governmen...
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have some of the worst health outcomes in comparison to any other indigenous community in the world (AIHW, 2011). According to United Nations official Anand Grover, Aboriginal health conditions are even worse than some Third World countries (Arup & Sharp, 2009), which is astonishing, considering Australia is one of the worlds wealthiest countries. Thoroughly identifying the causes and analysing every aspect behind poor health of indigenous Australians, and Australian health in general, is near impossible due to the complexity and abundant layers of this issue. Even within the category of social determinants, it is hard to distinguish just one factor, due to so many which interrelate and correspond with each other. The aim of this essay is to firstly identify and analyse components of the social determinants of health that impact the wellbeing of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders, and demonstrate how they overlap with each other. By analysing the inequalities in health of Aboriginal and non-indigenous Australians, positive health interventions will then be addressed. Racism and the consequences it has on Indigenous health and wellbeing will be discussed, followed by an analysis of how and why social class and status is considered a determining factor when studying the health of the Aboriginal population. The issue relating ...
Cunningham, J. & Paradies, Y.C. 2013, 'Patterns and correlates of self-reported racial discrimination among Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults, 2008-09: analysis of national survey data', International Journal for Equity in Health, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 47-61.
“Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human History. We reflect on their past mistreatment. We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations—this blemished chapter in our nation’s history. The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia’s history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future. We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians” (apology by Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, 16th November 2009, Parliament House, Canberra.)
I’m not part of an “Aboriginal race”. I’m a member of the Bundjalung nation. Nations are not the same as sovereign countries. There are dozens of stateless nations. Constitutional recognition isn’t about race. Nationhood isn’t about race. It’s about the continuation and evolution of culture through a group of people. There’s no other country where Australia’s traditional nations will continue and evolve.
After the release of Rabbit Proof Fence, many `politically right' white Australians tried to promote that the film was based on myth and misunderstanding but in facet is not as the film itself promotes the openness of racism. Racism was not only a problem is Australia but throughout the world and is continuing to stay a problem, even in our own backyard. The racism between the white Australians and the Aborigines is quite similar to the racism shown in schools and even in parliament here in New Zealand between the Maori and Europeans, or once again between the `white' and the `black'.
In todays society “whiteness is not anything, really, not an identity, not a particularizing quality” (Dyer, 1997, p. 142) and as such “secures its power by seeming to not be anything in particular” (Dyer,1997, p.44). As a non-Indigenous Australian I have remained part of a group which was unmarked, unnamed, and unraced. Whiteness in definition is not limited to skin colour but also refers to “ideologies, policies and practices involved in the domination and subordination of colonised peoples on the basis of ‘race’...to the institutions of power that carry out [these] practices: Parliament, the legal system, churches, schools, the welfare system… ”(Deane, 2014, p. 6). During the period spanning from the 1970’s to the 1990’s “Whiteness became
During the late twentieth century, ideas of cultural diversity and equality gained prominence as a response to the rising trends of international migration and globalization. Beyond migration patterns, to accommodate diversity and citizenship, the diaspora of cultures and identities have translated into the need for more sensitive policy approaches. While this has resulted in the formulation of multicultural policies in different countries to varying degrees and conceptual depth, there has also been growing discontent and disillusionment emanating from cultural conflicts and integration issues. Nevertheless, among the different experiences, Australia is considered to be one of the most successful examples in multicultural affairs. This paper will attempt to assess the state of cultural diversity governance in Australia by looking at the status of multiculturalism as a national policy and the community engagement programs implemented to address cultural differences.
...ntolerance. Other factors that continue to shadow multiculturalism include racism, prejudice and social inequality. This has caused concern in the government as this is a major threat to Australia’s stride towards achieving full multiculturalism.
Australia is commonly known as a multicultural country with multicultural views. Australian TV gives people of different heritage a chance to achieve big in the industry. This is seen through the large quantity of awards given to people from different cultures, for example, the 2016 Logies gave awards to people with Egyptian, Chinese, Italian, Greek, and Australian backgrounds. This shows our cultural diversity on the screens and how everyone is treated equally. However, this is an illusion and only shows the front line of television.