Ling10002 Intercultural Communication : Australian Assessment Answers

Introduction

The consequences of the assimilation policies on the Indigenous members of the Australian society are still felt to date. The policies enacted by the government in the 20^th century have had a devastating impact on the life of the Indigenous people as well as to their culture.  For instance, today, the poverty index among this group of people is high compared to that of their white counterparts. Moreover, there are still traces of segregation on the basis of race against this group of people in some parts of the country. In the employment sector, this group occupies junior positions to their white counterparts. Today, Indigenous people still live in with the acceptance and realization that they are inferior to the whites and that they exist in Australia as a minority group who should respect and conform to the white European culture, norms, values as well as lifestyle (Putnam, 2007, pp. 137-174).

The belThe consequences of the assimilation policies on the Indigenous members of the Australian society are still felt to date. The policies enacted by the government in the 20^th century have had a devastating impact on the life of the Indigenous people as well as to their culture.ief in a culture not their own has affected the well- being of the Indigenous people and the general ability of this group of people to thrive within the broader Australian society. These effects caused by the assimilation policies of the 20^th century has led to widespread debates on the policies, the effect of the policies as well as the need for healing and reconciliation among the Indigenous members of the Australian community. This is a report of a research conducted to evaluate the integration and assimilation of the Indigenous people of Australia in the 20^th century.

The report covers the history of the policies of assimilation, the prevalence of the issue of assimilation among the Indigenous persons, the nature of assimilation as well as the challenges encountered by the Indigenous persons as a result of the assimilation policies (Gray & Beresford, 2008, pp. 197-223). Furthermore, the report covers the strategies employment in the eradication of the problem of assimilation among the Indigenous members of the Australian society. The research used both secondary as well as primary methods of data collection to collect information relevant for this research. Both qualitative as well as quantitative data was collected and used in answering the research questions.

The research used case study methods to reach the conclusions. The case study was conducted in government institutions such as schools located in within the Indigenous communities. To do a comparative case study analysis, the research used the process-tracing analysis system. Similarly other sources of primary data which were used include information obtained from national archives as well as government documents that detail the change of government assimilation policy to cultural assimilation. Data was also collected from secondary research sources such as books, journals, articles as well as internet sources such as Google Scholar.

History, prevalence and the nature of the issue of integration and assimilation of the Indigenous people in the 20^th century

The predicament of prejudice and discrimination against the indigenous people of Australia began during the colonial period. Right from the 18^th century when the indigenous members of the Australian society came into contact with the white settlers, their lives were to change for the worst. At the hands of the white settlers, the indigenous Australians faced exploitation, abuse as well as strict control by government authorities. During the 18^th and the 19^th centuries, the government adopted the protection policy which entailed separating Indigenous people from the members of the white society. This policy saw the Indigenous members of the Australian society placed in reserves and missions with the aim of avoiding mixing with the white Australians (Bohaker & Iacovetta, 2009, pp. 427-462). These mistreatments stretched into the 20^th century where it became worse.

The Australian government with the intention of creating a single uniform white Australian culture introduced the policy of integration and assimilation. The policies of assimilation proposed for the killing of the Indigenous culture through making the “full blood” Indigenous Australians to die in a process of natural elimination. On the other hand, this policy allowed the “half-castes” to continue surviving by assimilating them into the white Australian community (Brady, 2007, pp. 759-763). The policy of assimilation promoted the segregation of the full-blooded members of the Australian society with the intention of making them die out and hence kill the indigenous culture at the expense of the white culture.

At the same time, the government in an attempt to further promote the white culture and kill the indigenous culture, encouraged intermarriages among members of the two races whereby the members of the white Australian community were encouraged to marry low class white individuals. It was believed that through the intermarriage of the white Australians and the half-castes, the Aboriginality in the offspring would be reduced and hence eliminate the Indigenous culture in Australia. According to this policy of assimilation, it was only through acquiring the white status and adopting the European customs and beliefs that the members of the Indigenous community could access and enjoy equal living standards to those of the white members of the Australian community (Van Krieken, 2012, pp. 500-517).

Arguing in castigation to the policy of assimilation, Professor Michael Dodson, an Indigenous academic researcher, maintained that the Australian government in coming up with and in executing the policy of assimilation relied on the well-established and widely accepted view that the white race is superior to the black race and that the way the Indigenous people of Australia lived, their culture as well as their language was of a low standard and hence coming up with the policy meant to wipe out the Indigenous culture from the Australian society. According to the Australian government, the assimilation policy was meant to make the Indigenous members of the Australian community; both the full-blooded Aborigines and the part-Aborigines, to acquire a similar living standard to that of the white Australians thereby enabling Australia to have its members living as members of a single Australian community able to enjoy equal rights and privileges, accept similar responsibilities, observe common customs as well as to be influenced by similar hopes, loyalties and beliefs as one community (Merino, et al. 2009, pp. 802-822).

Although the justification for the assimilation policy by the Australian government makes it appear well intended, in practice, this policy ended up destroying the culture as well as the identity of the Indigenous members of the Australian community. Children were forcefully taken away from their Indigenous families into institutions far away from their families where they could be taught the European culture with the intention of alienating them from their Indigenous cultures (Joppke & Morawska, 2014, pp. 1-36). This act of taking away children from their families and forcing them to live far away from the families was an act of torture both to the child as well as to the parent who endured great pain as a result of living without their children.

In its attempt to wipe out the full-blooded Indigenous members of the Australian community, the government evicted them from their places of residence while at the same time forcing them to leave the slums and reserves where they had been segregated to during the colonial periods in an attempt to separate them from the white Australians (Barta, 2008, 201-214). Their slums and reserves were reclaimed by the government into housing and mining schemes meant for the assimilated individuals.

Challenges faced by the Indigenous people

The hopeless Indigenous persons were forced to flee into towns in search of means of survival. While in the towns and cities, life did not get better. They were segregated on the basis of their race and as a result denied access to basic social amenities such as schools, hospitals as well as sporting facilities. In the long run, the members of the Indigenous community ended up living in abject poverty and misery instead of being assimilated. Therefore, the contradictory logic adopted by the assimilation policy failed its intended purpose terribly (Bamblett & Lewis, 2007, pp. 43-56).

The policy failed to accord equal rights and opportunities to the Indigenous members of the Australian community as those given to their white counterparts yet they were expected to be responsible and ensure that they became as whites. Moreover, taking away the Indigenous children by the Aborigines Welfare Boards into institutions far away from their families broke down the social structure of the Aboriginal society while at the same time threatened the culture of the Indigenous people. Hence, what was regarded as assimilation policy was simply segregation policies meant to treat the Indigenous members of the Australian community as an inferior race. The treatment of the Indigenous people as an inferior race ended up undermining the intended purpose of assimilation and led to its complete failure.

Strategies used to address the issue of assimilation

The events that occurred towards the end of the 20^th century henceforth led to the abolition of the policies of assimilation and an increased acceptance of the Indigenous Australians as people with equal rights to the whites as well as an acceptance of their culture. The period after the Second World War was history changing in the lives of the Indigenous persons. Many nations rose during this period to fight against discriminatory policies such as assimilation having realized the dangers of discrimination as well as the atrocities which a rise as a result of discrimination policies (Cook, et al. 2012, pp. 293-305).

This period was marked by a greater understanding and acceptance that all human beings regardless of the skin colour are equal and hence should be treated with respect and dignity. This realization led to the rise of groups pushing for the rights of humans and decolonization. The desire for equality as well as the increased desire to embrace morality in the Western countries contributed to the change in the worldviews and ideas which eventually forced the Australian government to embrace measures that led to the abolition of the policies of assimilation. Some of the strategies that led to abolition of the assimilation policies include the emergence of governmental and non-governmental actions which led to widespread campaigns for the rights of the Indigenous people (Colic-Peisker & Tilbury, 2007, pp. 59-85). Similarly, the rise of feminist campaigns for Indigenous rights led to the abolition of the policies of assimilation. Furthermore, the postwar period brought in changes that forced the government to change its policies of assimilation.

Major world events such as the Nazi atrocities and the Second World War caused a shift in the world views and ideas held by policy makers. As a result of this change in the beliefs, ideas and world view, the government and other policy makers as well as the entire society had to adopt a new policy that could rhyme with the new ideas (Cunneen, 2007, 239-261). Due to the change in the ideas, the Australian government shifted its focus from assimilation policies which emphasized in biological adoption of the Indigenous members of the Australian society to policies that promoted cultural assimilation. This period was marked by events such as the pamphlet campaign which characterized the Hasluck Administration. Moreover, the period after the Second World War was characterized by activism which forced the government to make significant changes to the Constitution of Australia (Jacobs, 2009, pp. 1880-1940). These changes recognized the Indigenous persons, their rights to live and exist in Australia as equal human beings as well as the right to belong to and practice their culture without any interference.

Through cultural assimilation, members of the Indigenous group were allowed to retain their cultural identity as well as Aboriginality in the course of their interaction and incorporation into the white Australian society (Dejaeghere, 2006, pp. 293-317). As a way of ensuring that the Indigenous culture was protected, the government initiated programs geared towards promoting and preserving the Indigenous culture. For instance, the Aboriginal culture was included in the school learning curriculum where children from both the Indigenous families as well as those from white families could be taught about the Indigenous culture in an attempt to promote and to preserve it.

Conclusion

Government policies of assimilation impacted the Indigenous people and their lives to a great extent. The idea of taking away children from their families to institutions with the intention of assimilating them ended up breaking not only the social fabric of the Indigenous families but also negatively impacted their culture. Similarly, forcing the Indigenous persons to live and act in a manner that does not reflect their cultural beliefs was tormenting to this group of people. Furthermore, the act of forcefully ejecting the full-blooded Indigenous Australians from their homes and reserves rendered them homeless and hopeless causing them to wonder on the streets in the cities in search of sources of livelihood (Forsyth, 2007, pp. 33-44).

While in the city, they encountered cases of racial segregation. However, major world events that occurred such as the Nazi atrocities and the Second World War led to widespread calls across the world for the abolition of discriminatory treatment against this group of human beings. These calls forced the government to adopt the policy of cultural assimilation. Through this policy, Indigenous people were accepted and respected for who they are. Their culture was accepted and embraced in the Australian society (Robinson & Paten, 2008, pp. 501-518). Inclusion of the Indigenous culture in the Australian systems such as the education system encouraged positive inter-cultural communication. Today, children both from the white families and the Indigenous families are taught all Australian cultures. This has improved the cultural interaction among the people of Australia.

Bibliography

Bamblett, M. and Lewis, P., 2007. Detoxifying the child and family welfare system for Australian Indigenous peoples: Self-determination, rights and culture as the critical tools. First Peoples Child & Family Review, 3(3), pp.43-56.

Barta, T., 2008. Sorry, and not sorry, in Australia: how the apology to the stolen generations buried a history of genocide. Journal of Genocide Research, 10(2), pp.201-214.

Brady, M., 2007. Equality and difference: persisting historical themes in health and alcohol policies affecting Indigenous Australians. Journal of epidemiology and community health, 61(9), pp.759-763.

Bohaker, H. and Iacovetta, F., 2009. Making aboriginal people ‘immigrants too’: A comparison of citizenship programs for newcomers and indigenous peoples in Postwar Canada, 1940s–1960s. Canadian Historical Review, 90(3), pp.427-462.

Colic?Peisker, V. and Tilbury, F., 2007. Integration into the Australian labour market: The experience of three “visibly different” groups of recently arrived refugees. International migration, 45(1), pp.59-85.

Cook, G.D., Jackson, S., Williams, R.J., Bradstock, R.A., Gill, A.M. and Williams, R.J., 2012. A revolution in northern Australian fire management: recognition of Indigenous knowledge, practice and management. Flammable Australia. Collingwood: CSIRO Publishing, pp.293-305.

Cunneen, C., 2007. Criminology, human rights and Indigenous peoples. In Crime and human rights (pp. 239-261). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

DeJaeghere, J.G., 2006. Intercultural meanings of citizenship in the Australian secondary curriculum: Between critical contestations and minimal constructions. Reimagining civic education: How diverse societies form democratic citizens, pp.293-317.

Forsyth, S., 2007. Telling stories: nurses, politics and Aboriginal Australians, circa 1900–1980s. Contemporary nurse, 24(1), pp.33-44.

Gray, J. and Beresford, Q., 2008. A ‘formidable challenge’: Australia's quest for equity in Indigenous education. Australian Journal of Education, 52(2), pp.197-223.

Jacobs, M.D., 2009. White Mother to a Dark Race: Settler Colonialism, Maternalism, and the Removal of Indigenous Children in the American West and Australia, 1880-1940. U of Nebraska Press.

Joppke, C. and Morawska, E., 2014. Integrating immigrants in liberal nation-states: policies and practices. In Toward assimilation and citizenship: Immigrants in liberal nation-states (pp. 1-36). Palgrave Macmillan UK.

Lester, A., 2006. Colonial networks, Australian humanitarianism and the history wars. Geographical Research, 44(3), pp.229-241.

Merino, M.E., Mellor, D.J., Saiz, J.L. and Quilaqueo, D., 2009. Perceived discrimination amongst the indigenous Mapuche people in Chile: some comparisons with Australia. Ethnic and racial studies, 32(5), pp.802-822.

Putnam, R.D., 2007. E pluribus unum: Diversity and community in the twenty?first century the 2006 Johan Skytte Prize Lecture. Scandinavian political studies, 30(2), pp.137-174.

Robinson, S. and Paten, J., 2008. The question of genocide and Indigenous child removal: the colonial Australian context. Journal of Genocide Research, 10(4), pp.501-518.

Van Krieken, R., 2012. Between assimilation and multiculturalism: models of integration in Australia. Patterns of Prejudice, 46(5), pp.500-517.