Aboriginal :: essays research papers

What Wrongs Have White Administrators Done to Aborginal people In The Past? Have all wrong Been Righted? Even though Hardy wrote his book in 1968, he gives a good definition of how the Aborigines were treated in that time. A very bias 'opinion' based difinition of the treatment of Aborigines: "To this day the Aborigine is treated as less than a man, his situation isapalling. His destiny and very identity is decided by his white superiors. He can live only on terms dictated by the people, who despise him. He is paid less, educated less, segregated, rendered landless, discriminated against, insulted, deprived of dignity, his women molested." (Hardy 1968) The Aborgiines have been unfairly treated since European settlement. Children have been taken from their parents, they have been humiliated. They have shot down until not one Aborgine was left in Tasmania. Even though all te worst of it has been over for the Aborigines - but has all wrongs been righted? One of the most inhumane practices of white settlement in Australia would be the taking of the Aboriginal children from their families. Some Aboriginal children were brought up to feel ashamed of their race and heir colour. "In a deliberate and callous attempt to conceal their cultural identity," Aboriginal children were taken from the families an forcibly placed in an institution and were denied further contact with their families. (Aboriginal legal service, 1995 pp ii) For white Australia, the feeling of responsibility, shame, apologetic and sympathetic for what their past people have done to the Aboriginals. The Aboriginals feeling anguished, rejected and feeling in a sence made "different" from the Europeans. "For Aboriginal participants a catharsis for feelings of sorrow and rage, and it encourages as to anticipate that, after generations of neglect, white Australia is finally prepared to own the shame of its past, and to accept the responsibility of effecting real and substancial reparation in the future." (Aboriginal legal service, 1995 pp ii) Aboriginal children in Western Australia were removed from their families until the 1960's. The children were taken from police and 'welfare offices' to be raised as white children for the purpose of assimilation. (Aboriginal Legal Service, 1995 pp ii) Surveys have been conducted from Aboriginal people. They were asked about the effects the assimilation had on them. (See Appendix A) "It is not only the intence impact of removal from families and culture which has contributed to long lasting effects. Life at the missions, faster care, or other institutions was for may a harsh experience which exacerbated the dislocation, alienation, lonliness and pain felt from being rem,oved from families and culture.