Aboriginal People: Culture, Education, And Institutionalisation - An Essay.

The Aboriginal Culture and Race

1.Discuss any one of the weekly topics or film with reference to Aboriginal People.

2.Evaluate Indigenous knowledge and Education Practice by discussing what Aboriginal Educators draw attention to when discussing Aboriginal Education? How have their arguments been shaped?

3.Analyse the Impact of Institutionalisation and Aboriginal people that is brought about by Government Policy.

1.Aboriginal Australians are a people belonging to the Aboriginal race mostly occupying the mainland on the island of Tasmania, with a long history that stretches back from the pre-colonial era, to the colonial era and eventually to the post- colonial era. This is a community with a long cultural heritage which they fought over the years to preserve. Culture for the Aboriginal community in this context refers to their belief systems, language of communication, their value of education, religious beliefs, traditions, history as well as their held concepts regarding social issues such as health and living (Mattei, 2008, pp. 245-269).

The Aboriginal culture is today known and appreciated all over the world. This group of people are one of the few communities in the world who have kept hold of their ancient culture and practice it up to date. For instance, the Aboriginal people have kept a culture of religion. The Aboriginal spirituality is composed of a very close relation between the human race and their land. They belief in the beginning of the world which they refer to as “Dreaming” or “Dreamtime.”  They belief that it was in a Dream or Dreamtime that their ancestor rose from beneath the earth and created nature. To them, the world comprises of water bodies as well as the universe (Turnbull, 2007, pp. 26-50). Unlike the Christian and other religions, the Aboriginal religion does not elevate man above other creatures such as water and the universe. To the Aboriginal people, some of their ancestors transformed into nature such as big rocks as well as water bodies and as a result, the Aboriginal people use specific rocks and water bodies as their shrines because they belief that through these natural sources, their ancestors are alive (Cohen, 2007, pp. 198-217).

This group of people have encountered a lot of oppression as well as resistance from people of different cultures in an attempt to keep and preserve their culture. To them, their cultural heritage has always and will always come first before anything else. Right from the pre-colonial era, to date, the Aboriginal people have been in constant fights to defend their culture. For instance, during the colonial era, the colonial masters introduced policies that segregated the Aboriginal people on the basis of their culture.

The Impact of Institutionalisation and Aboriginal People

Members of this race suffered a great deal in the colonial era as a result of government policies enacted which segregated them on the basis of their race as well as their culture.  Some of the policies which were passed that segregated them include education policies. As a result of such policies, this group of people were denied access to basic national resources such as schools among other essential resources (Barn, 2007, pp. 1425-1434). These policies left members of this community to live in poverty as well as live lifestyles regarded to as primitive. Later, in the 19^th century, the government introduced policies that saw children from the Aboriginal community forcefully taken away from their Indigenous community into institutions such as schools located within the non-Indigenous communities in an attempt to rid them of their cultures. These attempts were vehemently objected and as a result the Aboriginal people fought against such policies through various revolts that were organized against the government. They wanted their cultures to be recognised and respected just like any other non-Indigenous Australian culture.

The government considered the Indigenous culture to be neglectful and hence by forcing the children from the Aboriginal families to join non-Indigenous institutions, the government claimed to be helping this community live a better life (Smye, et al. 2010, pp. 28). However, this forceful movement of children into foreign cultures negatively affected their emotional as well as health development. Crusades geared towards raising a cultural awareness among the Aboriginal community gained momentum in the 1970s. This period earmarked an important landmark in the fight against cultural and racial segregation levelled against the Aboriginal community.

Later, in the 1980s, this fight changed track and now focused not just on creating cultural awareness among the Aboriginal people but also on creating and ensuring cultural sensitivity among the Indigenous communities (Dion, 2007, pp. 329-342). Cultural sensitivity entailed creating a realization that there is need for the Australian societies to shift focus from just making valuable judgements aimed at addressing cultural differences but to accept that indeed cultural differences exist but these cultural differences should be embraced and appreciated in a manner that every member of society belonging to a distinct culture will feel valued and respected in their distinct cultural heritage. As a result of these fights, various policies over the years have been formulated to promote and respect the Aboriginal culture.

Through the various policies, today, the Aboriginal people are relatively more respected and treated with much dignity than the Aboriginal people of yester years. They now can access formal education in schools set up in their own Indigenous land. Moreover, the modern Aboriginal child has a right to choose to learn and study their own cultures as the Australian government through the Ministry of Education has enacted policies which have seen the Aboriginal Indigenous culture included in the national education curriculum. Through such initiatives, members of the Aboriginal community are today free to study as well as practice their cultural activities and events (Brayboy,& Castagno, 2008, pp.731-750).

Indigenous Education and Knowledge Practice

The cultures are also documented to allow future generations as well as people across the world to access and read about the Aboriginal culture. Furthermore, to help preserve the Aboriginal culture, the national government in collaboration with territorial governments have set up policies to preserve the Aboriginal culture as well as their cultural heritage. For example, the Australian government supports the Dhimmuru Aboriginal Corporation in an attempt to preserve the Indigenous resources belonging to the Aboriginal people. 

2.When discussing Aboriginal education, Aboriginal educators focus their attention on a syllabus that teaches Indigenous knowledge, methods as well as the indigenous models and their content. This indigenous knowledge is inculcated and taught within the existing systems of formal and non-formal education. A concern over the loss of Indigenous knowledge from the 19^th century to date through processes such as colonization, globalization as well as modernity has led to widespread calls for the society to reintroduce Indigenous knowledge in the formal and informal education systems that exist. This reintroduction of Indigenous knowledge, it is argued will enable the Indigenous communities such as the Aboriginal people reclaim and revalue their cultures and language which are at the brink of extinction especially with the advent of globalization.

This reintroduction will enable the Indigenous people improve their participation and performance in the formal and informal education systems used in the world today. Moreover, the reintroduction of Indigenous knowledge will enable the Indigenous culture to be preserved and be passed over to the next generation (Thompson, et al. 2008, pp. 3). Calls for the reintroduction of the Indigenous education by aboriginal teachers is increasingly baring fruits as many scholars and governments across the world are increasingly accepting and embracing this call as they regard Indigenous education as a being a viable as well as legitimate model of education.

Indigenous knowledge which focuses on celebrating diversity has been viewed as a good alternative to the western education curriculum which puts its focus on reading, arithmetic and writing and ignores cultural diversity which is part and parcel of the human race (Ma Rhea, 2012, pp. 45-66). This form of knowledge which focuses on diversity of cultures has been thought as a viable education system that ensures that teachers and students both Indigenous and non-Indigenous benefit in a culturally sensitive manner through a review of the Indigenous cultures.

When discussing Aboriginal education, the Aboriginal educationists draw their attention to the Indigenous ways of learning which are inclusive, adapts a classroom structure which eliminates the distinctions and separations based on community, race and gender as well as motivating students to participate in their social world. The arguments of the Aboriginal educationists have been shaped by the production of Individuals who are culturally sensitive and respectful to social diversities (Pirbhai-Illich, 2010, pp. 257-266). This system of education is increasingly being embraced across the world to act as a supplement to the Western education curriculum heavily reliant on reading, writing and arithmetic. Embracing the system has led to the production of personalities specialised in various fields such as sports, music among other fields of art.

3.In the colonial era, the government treated members of the Aboriginal community with prejudice. Children belonging to the Aboriginal community were forcefully taken away into educational institutions outside the Indigenous regions into the non-Indigenous regions (Bretherton & Mellor, 2006, pp. 81-98). This was in an attempt to alienate these children from the Indigenous culture which the government viewed as being neglectful and not able to bring up children in a responsible manner. In these institutions, the children from the Aboriginal communities were exposed to foreign cultures in an attempt to make them abandon and forget their Indigenous cultures (Denis, 2007, pp. 1068-1092). For instance, in these institutions, the primary language of communication and teaching was the Standard Australian English. This exposed the children to the risk of forgetting their Indigenous language.

The forceful exposure of Aboriginal children to foreign cultures in institutions located in foreign lands was an act of prejudice meant to undermine the Aboriginal culture. However, due to outcry by the members of the Aboriginal families, the Australian government through a report entitled, “Bringing them Home Report,” conducted in 1997 discovered that forcefully institutionalising children away from their families and cultures lowered their self-esteem and made them have a feeling of lacking identity and connectedness (Christie, 2006, pp. 78-89). In reaction to this report, the government came up with various education policies that have transformed the Aboriginal people in the field of education. For instance, the government created the National Congress of Australia’s First People. Through this body, the Australian government has set up resources geared towards ensuring that the Indigenous people are respected as well as respecting their cultures, right to belong to their homeland, their history as well as coming up with ways of eradicating racial segregation against the Aboriginal people.

Today, the Australian government policies have led to the formulation of a curriculum that recognizes and appreciates the culture of the Aboriginal community and considers it as being fundamental to the cultural heritage of Australia as a nation (Dudgeon, et al. 2010, pp. 25-42). The government has embraced an all-inclusive education system geared towards promoting the language, history, as well as cultural practices of the Aboriginal people.

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Smye, V., Josewski, V. and Kendall, E., 2010. Cultural safety: An overview. First Nations, Inuit and Métis Advisory Committee, 1, p.28.

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