Discuss about the MGT230 Ethics Sustainability and Culture of Myung Hoon Lee.
Indigenous Australian people are present all over the country and are exposed to risks of various types from business operations especially those of mining (Howitt, 2012). Businesses need to plan their operations in a manner that understands land and responsibility without threatening environmental sustainability of these people. A company, therefore, needs to develop its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) that is able to establish a link of Indigenous Australians with those of principles relating to Indigenous sustainability. Such responsibility necessarily protects and does not threaten environment as prior to environmental sustainability. The scope of this paper includes pertinent issues regarding land and environment with ways the Company plans to preserve it. A brief discussion connecting with past trends affecting the community has been conducted to establish a historical connection.
Issue of Indigenous Australians relates to avoiding any possible scope of conflicts and to conduct operation in a peaceful manner.
Foundational aspects of Indigenous Australian cultures (the Dreaming & economic organisation)
The foundation of Indigenous cultures accommodates ceremonies and practices based on belief in Dreamtime. Their culture emphasizes worship for oral traditions along with land practices. There are a number of tribal divisions and language grouping from individually significant cultures. The Dreaming within their culture provides scope for worldview structures that encompasses a reality framework for understanding regarding the world with roles of humans within it. The framework provides an explanation for creation, the universe, and the way things come into existence (Ens, 2012). It provides a blueprint for living forms that were created through the Dreaming. Thirdly, the concept provides a set of rules for living beings within it, as a basis for existence, social relationships, and religious and economic activities. The term “Dreaming,” coined by European anthropologists, forms a basis for Aboriginal culture and explains the meaning of everything in it. It plays an important role in the Indigenous Australian Culture as it is not about dreams but it is the truth regarding the meaning of everything. Therefore, dreaming is the sum total of history related to Indigenous people, their tradition and religion rolled into various stories. It is often considered to be the worldview which structures Indigenous cultures thereby providing Indigenous Cultures with a framework for interpreting and understanding the world (Aboriginal Art and Culture, 2018).
Unemployment rates among Indigenous people are three times those of the non-indigenous population. The lower employment rates were the result of lower training, levels of education and skill levels related to human capital, higher levels of interactions with criminal justice system and arrest, lower level of job retention and discrimination (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2012). However, they still play an active and important role in the society. Their businesses are successful, having a unique advantage when needing to overcome challenges. Economic organization can be defined as the act of bringing coordination among the factors of production i.e. land, labour and capital. It performs the important function that is carrying production on a large scale. The economic organization runs with the help of an entrepreneur who can even be described as the captain of the industry. The economic development in the rich nations has been made possible with the help of the activities conducted by the entrepreneurs. Indigenous people created a complicated system for management of land. Fire was considered to be the biggest ally. In fire usage, Indigenous people could plan and predict the growth of plants and with the help of it attracts the animals for hunting (Korff, 2018)
History of Indigenous Australians
The history of Indigenous Australians is central to understanding the relationships between diverse populations. Before the arrival of the Europeans, for 60,000 years, the Indigenous Australians had a complex history. Colonization and invasion changed their history, from 1788 to 1890, followed by protection and segregation from the 1890s to the 1950s. It was believed that the protection of Indigenous Australians will result in their advancement to the extent when they will be able to fit in white community. Protection policies were designed for the purpose of preventing white and other males from conducting sexual liaisons with Indigenous Australian females. Segregation was considered to be the most successful way of limiting and treating the spread of leprosy among Indigenous people. The policies related to protection and segregation was enforced only till 1940s and after that was replaced by assimilation and integration policies (Heiss, 2018). There were efforts at assimilation through policies, practices, and legislation from the 1940s to the 1960s (Cullen?Unsworth, 2012). Integration, self-management, and self-determination were developed between 1967 and the mid-1990s. Integration was the result of right of citizenship granted to the Indigenous Australians. The policy of self-determination was adopted by the Labour Government for the future development of Indigenous communities. The policy further recognized that Indigenous Australians had the right to be involved in the process of decision making regarding their own lives. Moreover, the policy of self-management was created that focused on the management of government projects by Indigenous communities. It also focused on the local funding. Both self- management and self- determination were used by the government as the key principles in the policies related to Indigenous affairs (Working with Indigenous Australians, 2017). Reconciliation occurred in the culture from 1991 till the end of 2000. Aboriginal people have inherited a significant historical legacy from the effects on their lives of living in Australian society. Some effects are emotional, the results of family experiences and barriers to acquiring living skills for those separated from their families. They lack a sense of institutions and trust in them. Socio- economic challenges experienced by the Aboriginals can in large part be attributed to the effects of colonization, whereby they were not allowed to participate in economic activities. Policies and practices such as terra nullius that were developed during the period of colonization hindered the participation of Aboriginals in quality education as well. Allowing participation in only menial tasks led to their backwardness and inability to have lifestyles similar to those of other Australians. These hindrances to progress created a gap in Indigenous people’s ability to avail themselves of the basic opportunities of life. The health of the Aboriginal people has suffered from the long-standing effects of backwardness in their community. Improving the health of the community has been a challenge for the government along with companies in areas with a large concentration of Indigenous population (Drew, 2017).
Socio-economic disadvantage of Indigenous Australians
Socio- economic disadvantage can be defined as the multi- dimensional character which considers aspects such as poverty, social (negative) segregation, social marginalization, social class and institutional discrimination (Cederberg, Hartsmar & Lingarde, 2009). The Indigenous population had been socially and economically disadvantaged in the past and continues to lag behind other Australians. With past socio-economic trends being negative, the effects of the negative socio-economic trends of the past have percolated to create recent impacts in health and other socio-economic arenas. In mining areas of Australia, Indigenous people were disadvantaged and faced poverty and welfare dependency challenges. Colonization in the area led to the oppression of Indigenous population, which further led to dependency on the state (Halloran, 2004). Denial of Indigenous people’s right to self-determination forced them to depend on the colonizer for their welfare. Before colonization, Indigenous people had means of subsistence in the economy that had provided them with full employment for the past 12,000 years. Colonization denied them access to quality education and continuously subjected them to policy control and segregation. Employment for Indigenous people was limited to rural and domestic industries with a meagre amount of wages being paid to them. Later in the 1960s, equal wages were meant to be awarded to Aboriginals which caused downturn to the rural economy. The Community Development Employment Program (CDEP) had aspects of welfare colonization and was aimed at building economic equality (Australian Bureau Statistics, 2012).
A large number of issues were facing policymakers in Indigenous employment in the face of rising unemployment and job creation to meet the needs of the working age population. However, such policies and changes were unable to bring about any significant impact for the indigenous people (Whitford, 2010). The gap created in social and healthcare welfare was tremendous and increased substantially. Indigenous Australians, along with the UN, had worked for their existing human rights and for future protection of the same. Aboriginals had been denied access to traditional industries ever since colonization. Indigenous people were said to have a marginal economic position in Australian society with restricted access to the cash economy, discrimination in education and employment, and restricted places of residence as well as mobility, which was reflected by their marginal status. The current economic system within which Aboriginals live has emerged from conditions in which Aboriginals have lived for a period of two hundred years. The economic disadvantages have further percolated to lower levels of income, a lower labor force, higher rates of unemployment, and so on. Poor employment factors can mostly be attributed to indigenous poverty and their socio-economic disadvantages.
Businesses in several areas of Australia
Businesses in several areas of Australia are conducting mining activities that harm the cultural aspects of the Indigenous population, often hampering their arts and artifacts. As mining activities make extensive use of land, Indigenous people were often forced to leave their current places and migrate elsewhere (Davies, 2011). Lack of technical or professional education amongst them hindered them from having access to suitable jobs as well as health care facilities. Though displaced, companies are taking the minimum amount of steps to ensure viability of their population. Conducting of business operations have been threatening environmental sustainability and hampering respect of Indigenous Australian people to their land. Areas that had been inhabited by these population’s forefathers had been taken away by companies for their profit motives. Past circumstances have affected the current status of these people, and the lack in education and healthcare facilities especially have been detrimental to development of these population. Historic factors amongst these people have led to current and future capacities allowing people to participate in programs, ventures, employments, and so on. Aboriginal people have taken considerable action towards generating a positive impact on their life for better opportunities in education and healthcare facilities. Especially in the field of health, Aboriginals have made significant progresses. Policy changes and legislations in recent times have impacted development of a better society with improvement in their lifestyles. With contributions from private partnerships, there can be better impacts generated on this segment of the population.
With accommodation and development of CSR and environmental sustainability norms, Indigenous Australians can be transformed. The aim of sustainable land management is managing land without affecting its biological diversity (Shaw, Barry, Issa & Catley, 2013). Companies need to maintain environmental biodiversity in terms of species, habitats, ecosystems, populations, and ecological integrity. Provisions need to be made for assimilating waste and reducing climate change, ozone depletion and natural capital. Indigenous people in the last 40,000 years have been excellent managers of land and their resources without overexploiting them. Such management required extensive knowledge along with responsible practices that mediate aspects of their lives and social organization. Indigenous people, unlike companies mining in the area, have emotional, economic and spiritual connections with their country. They share similar life with the species in their ecosystem. The Australian Federal Government respects Indigenous people’s knowledge of management of land, sea, fresh water, and biodiversity. The government is taking active steps in conserving their active biodiversity, but such efforts are made without cooperation from companies. Corporations need to consider the Indigenous population’s point of view and take their recommendations while undertaking CSR and environmental initiatives. ‘Big Food’ company incorporated its CSR programs in Australia by focusing on the views of Indigenous people and focused on youth development along with knowledge and skill development for the purpose of increasing education and employment opportunities among Indigenous youth. The activities consisted of promoting sport, developing mentoring and leadership skills, improving infrastructure and public space in Indigenous communities. Another business example is of Coca- Cola Company. It also considered that the Indigenous Australians suffered from the lower levels of education and therefore provided funding for Mentoring Experience program which was structured education mentoring program for the purpose of supporting Indigenous students in high schools and universities (Richards, Thomas, Randle & Pettigrew, 2015).
Analyse socio-economic aspects of the Indigenous population. They have been ignored in the past. Mining companies for the purpose of their business activity and operations have been faced with severe conflicts with the Indigenous population. They have been destroying several land structures, arts, and artifacts that form a crucial part of the culture relating to the Indigenous population. Therefore, while shifting Indigenous population, care must be taken to ensure that such arts and artifacts can be preserved. Company’s implications regarding CSR need to exclude points that reflect cultures of Indigenous people. Exploration for minerals by such mining organizations needs to be conducted in a conserved manner such that none of the arts and artifacts are destroyed. Recommendations include promoting business in the area, preserving the Indigenous culture, and providing prospects for employment. Employment will provide socio-economic benefits for uplifting general conditions of people in the area who have been displaced. Setting up of health centers and centers for education will provide additional benefits to the population. This will reflect respect towards Indigenous Australian peoples
References
Aboriginal Art and Culture. 2018. Dreamtime Meaning. Retrieved from https://www.aboriginalart.com.au/culture/dreamtime2.html
Australian Bureau Statistics. 2012. COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT EMPLOYMENT PROJECTS (CDEP). Retrieved from https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/Products/6287.0~2011~Chapter~Community%20Development%20Employment%20Projects%20%28CDEP%29
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. 2012. Increasing Indigenous employment rates. Retrieved from https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/71bb346a-1b83-4038-a2f7-647e65a21445/ctg-ip03.pdf.aspx?inline=true
Cederberg, M., Hartsmar, N., & Lingärde, S. (2009). Educational Policies that Address Social Inequality. Thematic Report: Socioeconomic Disadvantage. Retrieved from https://www.epasi.eu/ThematicReportSOC.pdf
Cullen?Unsworth, L. C. (2012). A research process for integrating Indigenous and scientific knowledge in cultural landscapes: principles and determinants of success in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, Australia. The Geographical Journal, 351-365.
Davies, J. C. (2011). Attention to four key principles can promote health outcomes from desert Aboriginal land management. The Rangeland Journal, 417-431.
Drew, N. (2017). Overview of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health status 2016. Retrieved from https://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/uploads/docs/2016-overview.pdf
Ens, E. J. (2012). Australian approaches for managing ‘country’using Indigenous and non?Indigenous knowledge. Ecological Management & Restoration, 100-107.
Halloran, M. 2004. Cultural Maintenance and Trauma in Indigenous Australia. Retrieved from https://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/MurUEJL/2004/36.html
Heiss, A. 2018. Government policy in relation to Aboriginal people. Retrieved from https://www.sydneybarani.com.au/sites/government-policy-in-relation-to-aboriginal-people/
Howitt, R. (2012). Sustainable indigenous futures in remote Indigenous areas: relationships, processes and failed state approaches Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10708-010-9377-3
Korff, J. 2018. Aboriginal land management & care. Retrieved from https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/land/aboriginal-land-care
Richards, Z., Thomas, S. L., Randle, M., & Pettigrew, S. (2015). Corporate Social Responsibility programs of Big Food in Australia: a content analysis of industry documents. Australian and New Zealand journal of public health, 39(6), 550-556.
Shaw, W. H., Barry, V., Issa, T. & Catley, B. (2013). Moral Issue in Business. South Melbourne: Cengage Learning Australia.
Whitford, M. M. (2010). Australian indigenous tourism policy: practical and sustainable policies? Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 475-496.
Working with Indigenous Australians. 2017. Integration, self-determination and self-management 1967 to mid 1990s. Retrieved from https://www.workingwithindigenousaustralians.info/content/History_6_Integration.html
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