Australian Aboriginal Studies: Health, Law, and Education Closing the Gap - Essay Example

Australian Aboriginal Studies Health/ Law/ Education ‘Closing the Gap” Name: Unit: Instructor: Submission Date: Australian indigenous community background overview The aborigines in Australia are the indigenous people who were the original inhabitants of the Australia mainland, Tasmania and the other adjacent islands (Blacks & Richard, 2009). Dalton (2014) they are the people originally found in Australia during the arrival of the British colonies. Recent government surveys show that the population of the aboriginal people stood at 2% compared to the Australian total population. This is approximately 400,000 people. They are said to have migrated from a place in Asia around 30,000 years ago. Durey, Wynaden, Barr, & Ali, (2014) they carry with them the original culture of Australia. They are not against multicultural but, the diversity in races has posed a major challenge and treats for them. The new habitants have taken over Australia and they are left to suffer. Australia is well known for its diversity in races and hence the problem of racism. Recent studies of researches done on the aboriginal Australians as respondents have shown that they are the population that has suffered a lot following racism. Paradies, Harris, & Anderson, (2008) with racism the issue of inequality raises. The gap between different people in different programs and services offered in a country continue to increase. The indigenous people seem forgotten and somehow suffer from neglection leading to a big gap between them and the others. The Australian government is working hard with various types of initiatives to solve this situation but, inequality still prevails. The minority group always suffers more and more. Poor maintenance of the social institutions in the communities affects them negatively. This paper will look at these issues in three perspectives; education, health and law using the theme of closing the gap which has been a campaign drive by the Australian government to iron out issues of inequalities in different areas. This essay will address the government’s initiatives, how the people have suffered to date. Health Altman (2009) the indigenous health policy has existed within the Australian government policy agenda from 1960s. However, within the inequality on health services between the non- indigenous and the indigenous Australian still remains .The health of the indigenous people since the arrival of colonization continued growing worse. Unfortunately, the policies that have been formulated have proven inadequate in solving this alarming issue. Inequality in the health sector is one of the greatest challenge that the Australian government faces, and a greatest concern for the state. As the overall health of Australia continues to improve the health levels of the non-indigenous Australia still remains on top of the levels of the indigenous Australia. A lot seems to be done to address the situation but, the statistics from numerous researches such as one from Blacks, & Richard (2009) still shows that the policies being implemented are not effective in addressing the issues. The government has been trying hard enough but it is just in recent times that policies that are almost near to closing the gap are being implemented. The indigenous population requires the assistance and knowledge of their counterparts non-indigenous in the health sector but, still their health has declined a lot since the era of Australian colonization. The relationship between colonization and their decline in health has to be identified first. If this is not identified then they will be a continuation of the challenge rather than solving it and have positive outcomes. According to Zhao, & Dempsey, (2006) there is scarce information about the health conditions of the indigenous people before colonization but, they were healthier than the colonizers. This is because, there was less contact for the natives from the outside world hence they were not exposed to infectious diseases. Their diet was vegetables and proteins but, the colonizers brought changes on edibles. Their method of hunting and gathering made them stronger due to excising. In addition, colonizers displacement brought mental illnesses as they were attached to their lands and families. These factors bring out the complexity of their health issue. According to Altman (2009) Lack of understanding the culture and the indigenous people is a major reason why the policies that have been put in place have not born results. The first policy that addressed the health issue was formulated in 1968 and underwent various governmental changes. An event of dissolving the aboriginals and Torres Strait islander commission removed the control of health policies of the indigenous people from them. It was then placed in the hands of non-indigenous people this wounded the long time government efforts of handling inequality. Hence, the knowledge, culture and the expertise of the indigenous people is needed to address their health issues. Paradies, Harris, & Anderson, (2008) the indigenous group is the least group to manage to access proper and quality health services this is due to, first is the language barrier tones of indigenous people are misinterpreted. The other barrier is the location barrier. Indigenous Australian lives in remote places which are hard to access good services as compared to others. The costs are quite unaffordable for the natives. Their poor health state has affected their quality life years. Misunderstanding of the indigenous culture has also contributed a lot in the failure of the health policies. Altman (2009) gave an example of a program that was successful the men’s group in YabaBimbie and Ma’DdaimbaBalas. The indigenous were the implementers and did understand cultural issues of the society. This fact saw their success. They also felt that they were included in their communities since they had control rather than being controlled. Dalton (2014) the closing the gap campaign has tried to put into consideration all the factors that has made other earlier policies to fail. It is involving the indigenous people in the policy formulation and using their knowledge and understanding of their culture. The campaign is getting positive results in aching health equality for the Aboriginal and the Torres Strait Islander. Their main aim is to also close the expectancy gap between the indigenous and non-indigenous Australian. The indigenous men die 12 years earlier than the other men while women die 10 years earlier than those of non-indigenous. Education Many years past the colonial era, the Australian indigenous people population still remains unequal to the non-indigenous community in education. A time has come for the involved stakeholders to address the persisting inequality. According to Leigh, & Gong, (2009) shows that not much has been achieved by the government’s interventions since the indigenous children are 40-60 percent below the minimum standards of reading. The major inequality is associated with the institutionalized education inequality (Fitzgerald, 2006). . This is due to the weak institutions involved in the offering of education to the indigenous group. Education in the remote places faces the challenge due to poor quality of teachers. Those posted there are just fresh from campus and given high salaries as incentives. Teachers mainly skip classes, and hence the days of schooling vary and become inconsistent. The people need quality education from quality teachers and with quality resources. But the failure of the government to provide such in the past has brought mistrust among the community leaders and the scholars parents. The community ends up feeling neglected and this is due to the views of the indigenous students. Leigh, & Gong, (2009) states that there is a major view that the children of the indigenous community does not deserve to be educated and are not to be given the same standards due to their nomadic lifestyle. For this inequality to end the government needs to change the profiling attitude towards the population of the indigenous children. For many government systems to be a success they should be a biliqual approach in teaching where the native language is used in teaching alongside the English used. The government should also acknowledge that there is a problem to be solved and that language is very important. Fitzgerald (2006), despite the many challenges and the slow rate taking place, the education level of the indigenous people is improving gradually. The number of students who have finished school has increased and attainment for higher education has been due to the prospects of getting a better employment, better income and hence improved living standard for the indigenous people. Education has a positive impact on employment, income and health of the indigenous people. It generally impact of the economic live of the indigenous people and this is the greatest way of closing the gap between the indigenous and bon indigenous people. Different government programs aim to close the gap for example the action plan that has made the government commit to unified way of closing the gap by bringing the mainstream education reforms together. Law Leigh &Gong, (2009) after the colonization Australia was not considered as a conquered or rather a seceded country but, was considered as a settled country where the British law applied for all. Application of this law was harder for the aborigines. The amenability of the law to the aborigine presented a lot of troubles. The law oppressed them since they did not consider their perspective and view. As far as the colonies courts were concerned the idea of that the aborigines are subjects of the English was settled (Leigh, & Gong, 2009). According to the theory established by the Murrells case the indigenous were equally British subjects as subject to the British law (Fitzgerald, 2006). But in reality, the aborigines did neither feel allegiance to nor did they understand the law. A protection society for the aboriginal was formed in Britain. It helped bring some establishment of the selected committee of the House of Commons which examined the welfare of the aborigines. A position of Torres Strait Islander and aboriginal social justice commissioner was established as identified by Altman (2009). This was a response to the findings that the aboriginal deaths for the prisoners were raising. The aim was to provide social justice to both the indigenous and non-indigenousAustralian society. It did recognize the rights of the indigenous Australian. Some effort might have been put to ensure law equality for the two groups but, the gap is still yet to be closed and much more should be done. Conclusion The studies have acted as enlightenment to the diverse culture and practices of the aboriginal in Australia. Their culture is wide and undermining it has led to the greater challenges of inequality between the communities and the effects of racism to affect the aboriginal more than others. It is a minority group but their existence as natives is quite important. All stakeholders ought to address the inequalities that exist between indigenous and the non-indigenous populations to bring forth a fair community. in reference to education, law and health many changes have taken place, though a lot has to continue taking place for the indigenous community to improve their living conditions. References Altman, J. C. (2009). Beyond Closing the Gap: Valuing Diversity in Indigenous Australia. ANU: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research. Black, D., & Richards, R. C. (2009). Is ‘Close the Gap’a useful approach to improving the health and wellbeing of Indigenous Australians?. Australian Review of Public Affairs, 9(2): 1-13. Dalton, L. (2014). Nursing education, regulation and standards in Australia. In 13th Annual Conference of the Association of Indonesian Nurses Education Centre (AINEC). Durey, A., Wynaden, D., Barr, L., & Ali, M. (2014). Improving forensic mental health. Care for Aboriginal Australians: Challenges and opportunities. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 23(3): 195-202. Fitzgerald, T. (2006). Walking between Two Worlds Indigenous Women and Educational Leadership. EducationalManagement Administration & Leadership, 34(2): 201-213. Leigh, A., & Gong, X. (2009). Estimating cognitive gaps between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous Australians. Education economics, 17(2): 239-261. Paradies, Y., Harris, R., & Anderson, I. (2008).The Impact of Racism on Indigenous Health in Australia and Aotearoa: Towards A Research Agenda. Darwin: Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal Health. Zhao, Y., & Dempsey, K. (2006). Causes of inequality in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in the Northern Territory, 1981-2000: A Decomposition Analysis. Read More