Australia Day

Since the British colonization of Australia, the basic rights of indigenous Australian, including the land rights were despised, or even violated, by British settlements in many ways. Although the government’s policies have started to change from 1960s in order to protect human rights of indigenous people, the questions of reconciliation between them and Australian government have not been solved by now. In this essay, I will clarify Australia’s effort to make the reconciliation with indigenous…

misappropriation and commercial gain (Waitoa, Scheyvens, Te Rina 2015). While these concerns are valid, the advantages of social media, in particular among young Indigenous peoples, is a positive development. With many remote Indigenous communities in both Australia and around the world now being able to access the internet, social…

For Hannah this has caused severe disruptions to her usual schedule and has impacted her ability to perform daily tasks. The fact that Hannah was led to believe and given certain assurance and guarantees that the Bolt computer would last the whole day at University to then die within 4 hours would have caused Hannah emotional grief and disappointment as well as putting her out of her way in attempting to return the computer whilst looking to get a new replacement computer that will fulfil her…

Refugees have existed ever since there has been conflict in the world; both World Wars, displacement of Jews and Palestinians, the India and Pakistan border conflict, and even the aftermath of Japanese imperialism. Although refugees have been a huge issue throughout history, the recent crisis has brought over one million refugees into Europe in just 2015. Today, more than 65 million people are forced out of their home country as a result of persecution, violence or natural disasters. The…

Due to the distorted retellings of Australia’s history, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture has suffered and become widely misunderstood. Stories often provide a myopic, inaccurate image of the Indigenous people, portraying them as uneducated, violent or lazy. While many Australians seem to lack concern for the country’s first inhabitants, there is a large population who also wishes to protect them and resolve a number of issues deeply rooted in Australian history. In an effort to gain…

Aboriginal Spirituality is inextricably amalgamated to the Dreaming, in which the adherent is provided with grounding in the past, present and future- a vehicle for posterity in finding meaning and purpose. Here, “the Dreaming can be seen as an embodiment of Aboriginal creation which gives meaning to everything”, exemplifying the importance of Dreaming in determining Aboriginal Spirituality. Furthermore, the Ku Ring Gai people’s rainbow serpent creation story of Ku Ring Gai National Park…

During World War One, two referendums were held on the 28th of October 1916 and the 20th of December 1917 to the Australian public . The referendums allowed the people of Australia to establish whether the Australian government should introduce the proposal of conscription - the nationwide system of mandatory service to the national military. It was proposed but not introduced during the Great War; due to the severity of casualties on the Western Front as well as constant pressure from the…

1959 Mabo moved to Townsville and later in 1974 Land Rights became his focus. Mabo found out that ‘his’ land was in fact crown land when he was out for lunch with Noel loos and Henry Reynolds who were colleagues at the time “we were having lunch one day when Koiki was just speaking about his land back on Mer, or Murray island. Henry and I realised that in his mind he thought he owned that land, so we sorta glanced at each other, and then had the difficult responsibility of telling him that he…

The most common contemporary impact of other Cultures on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures is people having a lack of knowledge and understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, their culture, or their backgrounds. Being familiar with their behaviours, their history and their connection and relationships between people, their land and their culture is important in order to better communicate and work with and/or alongside them. It is important to acknowledge that…

anything that prevented them from setting up and creating camp. I also learned that because of rain and humidity many of the marines supplies got destroyed in Cape Glouster. I also learned that between 1942-1943 the marines had traveled down to Australia as a way to gain back strength before going off and fighting once again. This war was really devastating for many people and I learned so much things about how horrible the war was on the human body and food and it was definitely hard to live…