In my previous post, we saw how the Australian Aboriginal People were treated unfairly in the past and how remnants of colonial law continue to affect them. This affects their community greatly as they are subjected to unfair treatment and as a result, can have issues regarding their identity as well as mental health. But in recent years, there has been more awareness of Aboriginal people and their treatment. This has resulted in some policy level change as well as societal progress to try and address these issues.

 

The fight for equality does not come easy for Aboriginal people. Only recently, in 1992, did they get rights to their native lands, after a monumental court case which lasted 10 years. Eddie Koiki Mabo, who is actually a Torres Strait Islander, together with four plaintiffs stood against the ‘terra nullius’ ideology that their colonisers had adopted. This was the first time Australian natives were able to claim rights to their land and this right was established concretely the next year in the Native Title Act.

 

There are other reforms made too, for example, the renaming of natural sites from their colonial names back to ones in Aboriginal languages. Though this might seem like a rather small and inconsequential step, it acknowledges that these places once belonged to Aboriginal people. Moreover, it addresses the fact that colonial roots in the system must be removed and the identity of Aboriginal people must be given back to them. However, simply renaming these lands is not sufficient in addressing land rights issues. Looking back at the example linked above in Queensland, although the land has been renamed, mining activities in these lands continue and appeals submitted by Aboriginal activists have gotten rejected and dismissed. Could this point to the renaming of Aboriginal land being some sort of performative action, one to cover up the real problems that go unaddressed?

 

There have also been reforms made to the educational system in Australia to include Indigenous history as part of the curriculum. When speaking to my friend who currently studies in Australia, she mentioned that there is time allocated during history lessons to learn about the impacts of colonisation. But she also pointed out that the effectiveness of these lessons varies between teachers and schools. I found similar points made in this article as well as the fact that teachers who are not trained properly about the subject might gloss over it easily. Moreover, the education minister and officials who review the system are doing little to improve this quality of education and are dismissive of the importance of learning Aboriginal culture.



Honestly, I wanted to do a post that would be more uplifting, to show that Aboriginal issues are finally being addressed adequately and their lives are improving for the better. But I soon realised as I was doing research, that so much more has to be done in order to fully remove the discrimination that they face. One thing that struck me was that there is an increasing number of Aboriginal people elected into parliament. Hopefully, with this increased representation, Aboriginal people’s voices are heard and their concerns are addressed properly in the future!

 

~ Yalini

(Cover Picture: “Black Lives Matter – Melbourne (Australia) Rally” by matt hrkac is licensed under CC BY 2.0)