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Impact of assimilation aboriginal australia
Social issues in canada due to the indian act
Social issues in canada due to the indian act
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These policies have impacted Aboriginal people and their communities in countless ways and has left a permanent mark on them. I believe that the manner in which this assimilation was attempted was horrendous and caused unimaginable harm. One of the key players in the establishment of the Indian Act, John A McDonald himself said that the goal was to integrate Aboriginals into the European life style "…as speedily as they are fit to change." This quote in itself illustrates the carelessness and inconsideration there was to how this transformation may impact the Aboriginals and their communities. The sole objective was to strip their culture as quickly as possible and replace it with what was deemed acceptable by the government. Families' were
Some of the positive effects of the act are that it still protects several Aboriginal rights: it provides protection for the Aboriginals, paid education (post-secondary), exempts them from paying taxes, having healthcare coverage and have cheaply priced housing. As well as, the Act protects and preserves the Aboriginals’ land and prohibits non-Native people from using or living on the reserves. Lastly, It helps us to understand how the federal government took away the Aboriginals’ rights and lands and also learn that you should not discriminate people, no matter their background. Some of the negative effects of the act are that Aboriginals have lost a lot of cultural aspects due to the Indian Act. Firstly, the law prevents Aboriginals living on a reserve from owning their own property and they need to rely on their chief and band councils to grant them housing and maintain their homes condition. Adding on, First Nation people are prohibited from getting a mortgage, a business loan or even leasing a car. They are also prohibited from selling meat or agricultural products cultivated from their land to anyone off the reserve without special government permission. Finally, as of today, some Aboriginal people are still disrespected because of the stereotypes that non-Aboriginal people still believe. For example, there are a number of myths and misconceptions about Aboriginal people that some non-Aboriginal people still think is
There have been many unanswered questions in Australia about Aboriginal history. One of these is which government policy towards indigenous people has had the largest impact on Indigenous Australians? Through research the Assimilation Policy had the largest impact upon Indigenous Australians and the three supporting arguments to prove this are the Aborigines losing their rights to freedom, Aboriginal children being removed from their families, and finally the loss of aboriginality.
Native Americans have had a long history of resistance to the social and cultural assimilation into white culture. By employing various creative strategies, Native Americans have attempted to cope with the changes stemming from the European colonial movement into the Americas. There are fundamental differences in world views and cultural and social orders between Indians and Europeans, which contributed to conservatism in Native American cultures. In this paper, two aspects of such cultural and institutional differences of Native American societies will be examined: holistic Native American beliefs versus dualistic world views and harmony versus domination. These two aspects are important in terms of explaining changes (or lack thereof) in Native American societies because they suggest that the Native American world view is more cyclical and its components are interlinked, while Western societies have a clear demarcation between cultural elements, such as religion, kinship, and morality. However, there are certain limitations to the theoretical frameworks that explain conservatism in Indian cultures because these theories are oriented around the Western world view and were developed based on the Western terms; therefore, indigenous population was not taken into account when these theories were developed.
“To kill the Indian in the child,” was the prime objective of residential schools (“About the Commission”). With the establishment of residential schools in the 1880s, attending these educational facilities used to be an option (Miller, “Residential Schools”). However, it was not until the government’s time consuming attempts of annihilating the Aboriginal Canadians that, in 1920, residential schools became the new solution to the “Indian problem.” (PMC) From 1920 to 1996, around one hundred fifty thousand Aboriginal Canadians were forcibly removed from their homes to attend residential schools (CBC News). Aboriginal children were isolated from their parents and their communities to rid them of any cultural influence (Miller, “Residential Schools”). Parents who refrained from sending their children to these educational facilities faced the consequence of being arrested (Miller, “Residential Schools”). Upon the Aboriginal children’s arrival into the residential schools, they were stripped of their culture in the government’s attempt to assimilate these children into the predominately white religion, Christianity, and to transition them into the moderating society (Miller, “Residential Schools”). With the closing of residential schools in 1996, these educational facilities left Aboriginal Canadians with lasting negative intergenerational impacts (Miller, “Residential Schools”). The Aboriginals lost their identity, are affected economically, and suffer socially from their experiences.
The Indian act, since being passed by Parliament in 1876, has been quite the validity test for Aboriginal affairs occurring in Canada. Only a minority of documents in Canadian history have bred as much dismay, anger and debate compared to the Indian Act—but the legislation continues as a central element in the management of Aboriginal affairs in Canada. Aboriginal hatred against current and historic terms of the Indian Act is powerful, but Indigenous governments and politicians stand on different sides of the fence pertaining to value and/or purpose of the legislation. This is not shocking, considering the political cultures and structures of Aboriginal communities have been distorted and created by the imposition of the Indian Act.
The Indian Residential schools and the assimilating of First Nations people are more than a dark spot in Canada’s history. It was a time of racist leaders, bigoted white men who saw no point in working towards a lasting relationship with ingenious people. Recognition of these past mistakes, denunciation, and prevention steps must be taking intensively. They must be held to the same standard that we hold our current government to today. Without that standard, there is no moving forward. There is no bright future for Canada if we allow these injustices to be swept aside, leaving room for similar mistakes to be made again. We must apply our standards whatever century it was, is, or will be to rebuild trust between peoples, to never allow the abuse to be repeated, and to become the great nation we dream ourselves to be,
The over-representation of Aboriginal children in the Canadian Child Welfare system is a growing and multifaceted issue rooted in a pervasive history of racism and colonization in Canada. Residential schools were established with the intent to force assimilation of Aboriginal people in Canada into European-Canadian society (Reimer, 2010, p. 22). Many Aboriginal children’s lives have been changed adversely by the development of residential schools, even for those who did not attend them. It is estimated that Aboriginal children “are 6-8 times more likely to be placed in foster care than non-Aboriginal children (Saskatchewan Child Welfare Review Panel, 2010, p. 2).” Reports have also indicated that First Nations registered Indian children make up the largest proportion of Aboriginal children entering child welfare care across Canada (Saskatchewan Child Welfare Review Panel, p. 2). Consequently, this has negatively impacted Aboriginal communities experience of and relationship with child welfare services across the country. It is visible that the over-representation of Aboriginal children in the child welfare system in Canada lies in the impact of the Canadian policy for Indian residential schools, which will be described throughout this paper.
The refusal to embrace development and live out of their reserves has seen most aboriginal people living in low employment areas (Wilson and Macdonald, 2000). Most children live with their parents in the rural areas. These parents may be illiterates and they lack to see the need for formal education for their young ones. Without education, it is difficult to find sensible employment, this again contributing to the low income of the aboriginal people. Children who make it to school end up dropping out before they attain a high school diploma. The number of people from Aboriginal communities without high school diplomas is twice as much in comparison with the non-aboriginals (Wilson and Macdonald, 2000).
The assimilation policy was a policy that existed between the 1940’s and the 1970’s, and replaced that of protectionism. Its purpose was to have all persons of aboriginal blood and mixed blood living like ‘white’ Australians, this established practice of removing Aboriginal children (generally half-bloods) from their homes was to bring them up without their culture, and they were encouraged to forget their aboriginal heritage. Children were placed in institutions where they could be 'trained' to take their place in white society. During the time of assimilation Aboriginal people were to be educated for full citizenship, and have access to public education, housing and services. However, most commonly aboriginal people did not receive equal rights and opportunities, for example, their wages were usually less than that paid to the white workers and they often did not receive recognition for the roles they played in the defence of Australia and their contribution to the cattle industry. It wasn’t until the early 1960’s that expendi...
The Stolen Generation has left devastating impacts upon the Aboriginal culture and heritage, Australian history and the presence of equality experienced today. The ‘Stolen Generation’ refers to the children of Aboriginal descent being forcefully abducted by government officials of Australia and placed within institutions and catholic orphanages, being forced to assimilate into ‘white society’. These dehumanising acts placed these stolen children to experience desecration of culture, loss of identity and the extinction of their race. The destructive consequences that followed were effects of corruption including attempted suicide, depression and drug and alcohol abuse. The indigenous peoples affected by this have endured solitude for many years, this has only been expressed to the public recently and a proper apology has been issued, for the years of ignorance to the implementation of destruction of culture. The Stolen Generation has dramatically shaped Australian history and culture.
The Indian Act is a combination of multiple legislations regarding the Aboriginal people who reside across Canada, such as the Gradual Civilization Act of 1857 and the Gradual Enfranchisement Act of 1869 (Hanson, n.p.). The Gradual Civilization Act was the Canadian government's attempt to assimilate the aboriginals into the Canadian society in a passive manner, through a method they encouraged called Enfranchisement. Enfranchisement is basically a legal process that allows aboriginals to give up their aboriginal status and accept a Canadian status (Crey, n.p.). This process, while under the Gradual Civilization Act, was still voluntary, but became a forced process when the Indian Act was consolidated in 1876 (Hanson, n.p.). The Gradual Enfranchisement Act introduced in 1869 was a major legislation that intruded with the private lives of the aboriginals. First, it established the “elective band council system” (Hanson, n.p.) that grants th...
Parbury (1999:64) states that Aboriginal education “cannot be separated” from the non-Aboriginal attitudes (racially based ethnocentricity that were especially British ie. white and Christian) towards Aborigines, their culture and their very existence. The Mission Schools are an early example of the connection between official education policies and key events in Aboriginal history. Aboriginal children were separated from their parents and placed into these schools which according to McGrath (as cited by Parbury, 1999:66) it was recommended that these establishments be located ‘as far as possible’ from non Aboriginal residents so as to minimize any heathen influence that Aboriginal children might be subject to from their parents. Mission Schools not only prepared Aboriginal youth for the manual labour market but also, adds Parbury (1999:67) their aim was‘to destroy Aboriginal culture and replace it with an Anglo-European work and faith ethic.’ Despite the NSW Public Instruction Act (1880) which made education free, secular and compulsory for all children Aboriginal children could be excluded from public schools based on prevailing dominant group attitudes. Consequently, the NSW Aborigines Protection Act (1909) was introduced as a result of a perceived public education crisis and Laws had already been passed, similar to protectionist type policies. This Act gave the State the power to remove Aboriginal children from their families whereby this period of time has become known as ‘Stolen Generations.’ It was during this time that Aboriginal children were segregated from mainstream schools. (Parbury, 1999; Lippman, 1994).
Duncan Campbell Scott was a well-known man due to him being a Canadian bureaucrat, a poet and prose writer in 1920. Duncan Campbell Scott was a man who lead the Department of the Indian Affairs, he believes the key to fix the Aboriginals was by assimilating them through education. On that day the Parliament changed the Indian act and required all children between the age of 7 and 15 to go to school, the goal of the school was to civilize the children so that they would fit in the Canadian society. Children were forced to leave friends, family, and their homes, also were instructed to speak English and weren’t allowed to speak their first language. If someone did disobey those rules there would be severe consequences for instance being harsh
The article’s main focus was determining the role of communication in process of assimilation of Hispanics into the greater American culture. This topic has grown increasingly important over the years as more and more hispanics are moving into the country. When these people do move into the United States they have to integrate into society in order to fully grasp the fruit of the nation. However even though they are integrating, a part of their original cultural heritage will live on and ultimately change the definition of American culture as a whole. Now when looking at this it can be seen why the study was conducted. With the researchers oral justified they went about various Midwestern schools asking their Hispanic inhabitants various closed-ended
In the period of modernity, the aspect of Aboriginality has become manipulated through the primary role of film and media depicting prejudice and assumptions of Indigenous Australians by White Australians and the way this shapes an individuals 'real world.' In the 1995 Social Justice Report Professor Dodson identified that "recognition will have great benefits over time in changing Non-Indigenous social attitudes towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders" (AHRC, 2013). The film Yolngu Boy (2001) directed by Stephen Johnson and the collection of seven inkjet prints titled Majority Rule (2013) by Michael Cook represent Indigenous Australians as a group whose life opportunities are diminished by their perceived 'racial' difference after being inspired by peoples struggle for rights and self-determination.