Australia is a nation whose initial growth was fuelled largely by the labour of prisoners and reminders of our penal roots can be seen everywhere in the form of heritage listed buildings. The concerted effort by the Australian Government in recent years to preserve many buildings that were built from convict labour demonstrates the value that our society has placed on retaining the bricks and mortar links to our historical origins. This was not always the case however as our convict beginnings were once a taboo topic, a source of embarrassment (Crockett, 2015), but they have now become a badge of honour worn proudly by many of our citizens. The shift in attitudes reflects the changes in social and political formations over recent decades. Politicians,
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Whilst Anglo-Saxons have only been present in Australia for a few hundred years, our Indigenous people have inhabited this land for as many as 65 000 years. In Australia there has been a devastating loss of Indigenous heritage with their languages, beliefs and customs often being forgotten. This is a result of a cultural identity that wasn’t values and therefore not protected by conservation policies. As a result many indigenous people feel like there is a missing link to their ancestral roots, to share with future …show more content…
So to understand the values held in a city the society must first be decoded, as the surface appearance can often be biased. In decoding Australia’s heritage and conservation policies, we can surface a nexus between the neglect of indigenous heritage and a long history of racial undertones uprising from conflicting values and cultural identities. Australia’s written history has been I biased one in the past. The education on this topic has focused on the British colonisation and has made little mention of the stolen generation. This has formed a battle between heritages, a cultural war which is still occurring today. Do our heritage and conservation policies reflect this? The ‘Australian Heritage Commission ACT’ was established in 1975 to protect sites that are believed to hold national and cultural value, however it wasn’t until 1984 that the ‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act’ legislation was passed by parliament. This Act allows the Commonwealth of Australia to intervene when necessary to preserve and protect sites that are of historic significance to Indigenous or
Whilst Anglo-Saxons have only been present in Australia for a few hundred years, our Indigenous people have inhabited this land for as many as 65 000 years. In Australia there has been a devastating loss of Indigenous heritage with their languages, beliefs and customs often being forgotten. This is a result of a cultural identity that wasn’t values and therefore not protected by conservation policies. As a result many indigenous people feel like there is a missing link to their ancestral roots, to share with future …show more content…
So to understand the values held in a city the society must first be decoded, as the surface appearance can often be biased. In decoding Australia’s heritage and conservation policies, we can surface a nexus between the neglect of indigenous heritage and a long history of racial undertones uprising from conflicting values and cultural identities. Australia’s written history has been I biased one in the past. The education on this topic has focused on the British colonisation and has made little mention of the stolen generation. This has formed a battle between heritages, a cultural war which is still occurring today. Do our heritage and conservation policies reflect this? The ‘Australian Heritage Commission ACT’ was established in 1975 to protect sites that are believed to hold national and cultural value, however it wasn’t until 1984 that the ‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act’ legislation was passed by parliament. This Act allows the Commonwealth of Australia to intervene when necessary to preserve and protect sites that are of historic significance to Indigenous or