Australians and Aboriginals---is there integration, or very separate lives?

Question

I know nothing about the Aboriginal people of Australia but when I look to find information on the internet, wikipedia, etc. there is very little information to be found. I know I'm ignorant--that's why I'm asking. I'm just wondering what's the picture down under. Is it like "white america" of the 1960s where there was the beginning of civil rights legislation yet nobody actually had put it to practice yet? Or like american Indian Reservations where they tried to just "move the natives" to a different territory, or what? I'm so curious.

Answer 1

the austrailian government tried to white out the aboriginees, they would kidnap the children and send them to "reformation camps" and try to marry them off to whites. the plan was that eventually they would breed the color out of them.

i would suggest you watch the movie rabbit proof fence, it is about an aboriginal girl.

Answer 2

I live in the 'aboriginal' suburb in Sydney, called Redfern.  I would say that generally speaking, Aborigines are not integrated into society.  They suffer far more health wise, and there are unique welfare payments for aborigines.  The government realises there is a huge problem for aborigines, but it's hard for anyone to come up with a solution.  There was a recent intervention in rural areas, where alcoholism, abuse and truancy are HUGE problems, and plans to stop payments to parents if their children didn't attend school.  They were also planning to examine each child in these areas for abuse.  There has been wide criticism of these measures.  The root of the problem, many feel, is alcohol, but whilst there are some 'dry' communities, people go to great lengths (and travel long distances in rural australia) to get alcohol.  

It's an absolute shame that Australia has been unable to find a way in which Aborigines can enjoy the same success and health of the rest of the population.

Answer 3

Genocide in Australia

http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/sep199...

The Stolen Generation

http://www.janesoceania.com/australia_ab...

Day of healing 2008

http://news.webindia123.com/news/article...

Answer 4

Ozmaniac where did  you get your info on the stolen generation you need to do a bit more research!!!!

Aboriginal people got the right to vote in 1967. The white Australia policy was where they forcibly removed Aboriginal Children from there parents and basically thought that they would try and take the colour out of the race by breeding those children with whites so the whiter there kids would be n so on n so on. Back in the day when this was happening Aboriginal people were made to work for white people for nothing they received little or no pay for their work. Aboriginal people often had curfews and had no rights they had to comply with whatever the whiteman said. They received rations and were forced to feed there families with these rations that consisted of Tea, flour, sugar and lard.

Today the Aboriginal people are a free race although not with out there problems Aboriginal people die 17 years earlier then there white counterparts, 1 in 5 Aboriginal babies will die at Birth, suicide rates of Indigenous youths are 5x the national average.. The government has also a lot to answer for the fact that they have made a welfare dependant society with the Aboriginal people.. this stems back to the era when Aboriginal people first had rights but the whiteman still wanted to be on top and denied them things such as employment, education and introduced them to things such as alcohol...  The govt still has not learnt as bucket fulls of $$ is given to address Aboriginal problems and it isn't working something else must be done...The fact is that there just as many non indigenous people that do not have jobs and that also have alcohol and drug problems. Sanhedri you ignorant poor excuse for an australian (if you are Aussie with a name like that). Lets talk about crimes Ivan Milat ( Backpacker muderer) sorry a whiteman, Carl Williams ( Murderer, drug dealer) oohhh again a whiteman, Schapelle Corby ( convicted drug smuggler) oohh gee umm a white woman.. Robert Farmer ( recently convicted of bashing and dousing Lauren huxley in petrol) oohh I know I know  A WHITEMAN... I am afraid evil comes with all races no matter what colour they are..   NO the Aboriginal race isn't perfect but neither is the white race or any other race for that matter.. Your just a racist pig...

Answer 5

A lot more needs to be done, especially in rural areas. There are some successfully integrated Aboriginals though, I went to school with a family and 2  of the kids turned out nice, one turned out... scary.

It all reminds me of the tenants of the Housing Commission suburbs (Australias trailor park trash), the means are in place for them to make something of themselves, they just don't want to.

Answer 6

Australian aboriginals have full and equal civil rights exactly the same as other Australians. They, like everyone else in Australia are protected by strong racial vilification and anti discrimination laws.

There are large numbers of Aborigines who are fully integrated into the general Australian community and work and raise their families in the suburbs and cities just like everyone else.

There are also large numbers of aborigines who choose to live in aboriginal communities and they are completely free to live there or not as they wish.

Conditions in many of those communities are far less than ideal, but the poor conditions are not a deliberate policy. The basic problem is that the communities are almost always in very remote areas where there is little or no work and people don't have enough to do. They receive unemployment benefits the same as all Australians are entitled to and have money, but nothing much to spend it on except alcohol. This leads to some very serious social problems which are proving extremely difficult to solve. There are schools but attendance is poor so literacy and numeracy are well below acceptable standards; there are alcohol and drug problems and child abuse is prevalent; there are severe health issues caused by lack of education, achohol abuse and the diffficulty of getting enough health professionals in extremely remote areas. The people in many communities have imposed alcohol controls of varying effectiveness but a great deal more needs to be done by both Aboriginal society and government to stem what seems to be a downhill spiral.

It seems strange, but some problems are exacerbated by Aboriginal civil rights. It's difficult to control some of the problems without treating Aboriginals differently from Australians living outside the communities. The solutions need to come freely from the Aboriginals themselves and that isn't happening to the extent needed to solve the problems.

The comments of Scott A are inaccurate and unfair.

Decades ago, there was a policy whereby the government removed mixed race children in an attempt to assimilate them into the white community. It was a misguided policy but done with the best of intentions and was a product of its unenlightened time. The government believed (with fairly good reason in many cases) that the mixed race children were not welcome in aboriginal communities and sought to place them with white families where they would be welcomed, nurtured and educated. Time has shown however, that many children were forcibly removed from their mothers and that some went to homes where they were abused and otherwise illtreated. As the facts have emerged over the last few years, Australians are very ashamed of what happened then, but it's not possible to turn back the clock.

Scott A is very wrong indeed when he asserts that it was an attempt to 'white out' the aborigines. It was as I've described and full blood children were not included in the removal scheme. Also, I have no idea where he gets his notion of  'reformation camps'. There was never any such thing. That kind of inaccurate, extreme and biased statement does a great deal of harm to the very real and sincere efforts Australians are making to improve the lot of the aborigines who live in remote communities. If money was enough to solve the problems, they would have gone years ago. Vast sums disappear into a seemingly bottomless pit and more yet is needed to be spent, but money will never be the solution.

More:

A significant barrier to finding workable solutions is the victim mentality of too many aboriginals. It's very easy to say we drink too much, we're violent to one another and everyone else, we sexually abuse our children, we bash our wives and we don't send our children to school but it's all the white man's fault. Their people have been treated appallingly in the past and we can't change that, but the solutions lie in the future and they must begin to take responisibility for their actions and the way they live their lives. My views on that point are shared by most Aboriginal leaders but it doesn't seem to be accepted by many in their community and the backward looking attitudes of bleeding heart whites don't help.

EDIT:

Where in my answer did I deny that children were wrongly taken forcibly from their parents? Where did I deny that many were abused? Where did I deny that Aborigines have been treated shamefully? The people who get all of their information and attitudes from a single book or movie are allowing themselves to be blinkered to the fact that there was another side to the story. I merely attempted to tell it how it actually was, not how history has been re-written to say it was.

And, Wasn't Me - The White Australia Policy was nothing whatsoever to do with our indigenous people. It was everything to do with keeping non-white immigrants out of Australia. Anyone who is in any way familiar with my attitude to immigration from everywhere of people from every race will know that I would find that policy abhorrent.

I agree 100% with what you say about Aboriginal people being made to work for whites for little if anything more than rations, and being subject to curfews and all of the other ill-treatment that was meted out to them. That is all too true and it is a shameful part of our history, but that's what it is, history. It isn't happening now and most of your own leaders agree that Aboriginal people now need to take responsibility for how they live their own lives.

I fully understand your anger at the way your people have been treated in the past, but I'm afraid that you and many other people have been fed a somewhat warped view of history. Your confusion over what the White Australia policy was is just one example.

Answer 7

Sorry,but ozmaniaz has no idea about what happened with the Stolen Generation.I do suggest that you read Rabbit Proof Fence or watch the movie.It is a very accurate view of what happened.

EDIT: The Bringing them home report is a "real" official documentation about Aboriginal people.Here is a link

http://www.humanrights.gov.au/social_jus...

This report shows that the things some of us are claiming here are indeed true and not fictional.

Answer 8

I agree with "Sanhendri", they do not on the whole want to assimilate with whites.   As long as we keep giving them handouts why should they work?      

We have over the years thrown many millions of dollars at the aboriginals to no avail.  There are some that will get off their butts and get on, but these are the minority and are soon brought down by their family members.