A primary issue within Indigenous affairs is the intergenerational disadvantage, however, another key issue is the frequent discrimination and racism. Beyondblue have stated Australia is still a society in which 1 in 5 individuals openly admit to having racist attitudes towards Indigenous people (2014). Many Australians are aware of the discrimination that exists yet, many do not understand that it is directly connected to the nation's history of colonisation. This issue is also perpetuated by the many statues and monuments around Australia, that represent a one-sided history and silence the Indigenous communities as the first people of our land. This paper will analyse the issue of historic racism through monuments and argue that there are
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Allowing monuments like Cook and Macquarie to stand, is an action that perpetuates discriminative behaviour and the white-washing of history. As argued by Szoke, allowing the continued manifestation of a one-sided perspective of history is racist and not telling the history of an event or the experiences of a group of people of our country is discrimination in its covert forms (2012). Therefore, the effects of not having your story told, or it not being represented alongside other stories as a facet of racism, has direct links to various health problems including high blood pressure, heart disease, depression, anxiety, low birth rate and premature birth (Australians Together, 2018). Expanding on depression and anxiety, racism as a stressor within life, also has the power through personal experiences to have a severe effect on a person's mental ill-health and physical and has been correlated with the use of defective coping behaviours such as smoking, alcohol and substance abuse (Paradies & Cunningham, …show more content…
The past and the present, and the consistent Indigenous disadvantage are all interrelated, if the underlying issues are not addressed, and even small steps such as amending monuments are not taken, the disadvantage will
Allowing monuments like Cook and Macquarie to stand, is an action that perpetuates discriminative behaviour and the white-washing of history. As argued by Szoke, allowing the continued manifestation of a one-sided perspective of history is racist and not telling the history of an event or the experiences of a group of people of our country is discrimination in its covert forms (2012). Therefore, the effects of not having your story told, or it not being represented alongside other stories as a facet of racism, has direct links to various health problems including high blood pressure, heart disease, depression, anxiety, low birth rate and premature birth (Australians Together, 2018). Expanding on depression and anxiety, racism as a stressor within life, also has the power through personal experiences to have a severe effect on a person's mental ill-health and physical and has been correlated with the use of defective coping behaviours such as smoking, alcohol and substance abuse (Paradies & Cunningham, …show more content…
The past and the present, and the consistent Indigenous disadvantage are all interrelated, if the underlying issues are not addressed, and even small steps such as amending monuments are not taken, the disadvantage will