Background of Aboriginal People
The social policy could be defined as the study of the social requirements of different communities and the development of new administrative and legal arrangements for the development and well-being of the community. Community service officials should be well aware of the policy and its clauses to empower the community members of the community. Australia has developed many policies that aim to improve living standards and provide equal opportunity to the community (Ellinghaus & Judd 2020). This paper will discuss the Cultural Policy for Australian First nation people and its impact on the people of the community. This aims to provide care and support to the aboriginals and maintain equal living standards for all—framing social policy such as consulting the community members. The paper is going to discuss the policy. The report will also discuss the impact on the community for the policy.
Before the colonizers over today, Australia was inhabited by the Aboriginal people of Australia. They had more than 250 languages spoken with a strong connection to their ancestry. According to the beliefs of the additional people, their ancestors created the entire world. The British colonizers invaded this land in the year 1788 and took control of the region without any consent or Treaty of the Aboriginal people. This invasion created a devastating impact on the entire culture of the Aboriginal people and the Torres Strait island people. As per the perception of the White imperialist community of Australia, it was thought that the indigenous population of the land would soon be obliterated from the country (Assimilation Policy 2022). hence the white imperialist colonizers established various protection policies, which they claimed to protect the dying race of the Aboriginal people. The colonial government implemented a white Australia policy that completely overlooked the Aboriginal people’s cultural aspect. This was more of cultural imprisonment of the Aboriginal people has the state control the indigenous people’s lives and culture. As many believed, they found themselves superior over the about people and tried to impose their culture over them. The protection policies included the state determining various ways of controlling individuals’ lives. However, the white community saw a subtle rise in the mixed racial population of people with mixed ancestory of the white and aboriginal populations. During the first half of the 20th century, the Australian government wanted to create a uniform white culture within the country. The Australian government 1960s soon realised that the so-called “aboriginal problem would not go away. Therefore, the government decided to use the assimilation approach process to encourage the part-aboriginals to assimilate with the white community. Still, the full blood needs to be eliminated through the process of natural selection (Assimilation Policy 2022). various indigenous children were removed during the first 100 years, which resulted in the loss of culture and became known as Stolen Generations. There were special laws that took part aboriginal children or the half caste away from their parents to European ways to their children. Soon after, the notion of the assimilation process was started to be questioned by the general public of Australia as the policy took no account of the value or conservation of the aboriginal culture, nor did it allow the aboriginals to seek or maintain their own traditions and cultures it’s the policy of integration began to develop (Bonet & Négrier,2018). The assimilation process provided more importance to the non-aboriginal Australians and believed that aboriginal equality could only be achieved through the loss of the aboriginal identity. Which was completely overruled after the implementation of the integration policy. During the late 20th century, the Commonwealth authorities started to avoid one-word descriptions of various complex procedures and began to develop new approaches that could help them solve the long-term aims and cultural integrity problems
Assimilation and Integration Policies
Currently, Australia does not have any proper blueprint or framework for national cultural policy; however, the primary political parties have this included in their official platforms as a commitment to enhancing and emphasising the various aspects of the development of Australia culturally. The previous federal governments had taken different tentative steps toward providing some financial assistance for the artistic activities of the aboriginal community (Kamenetsky,2019). However, there are special designations passed by the Commonwealth and the state governments of Australia to establish different statutory’s authorities and agencies responsible for looking after the cultural affairs in different cultural regions. The special cultural laws and regulations were established after identifying how much devastation and annihilation of Australia’s old add original culture had been done by the unethical and unlawful cultural policies such as assimilation and white Australian policies. Prior to the recognition of the aboriginal cultures, The minority communities and the first nation people of Australia were completely ignored and prohibited from availing of basic human rights (Gopalkrishnan,2018). The European colonial rules have completely devastated the culture and heritage of Australian Aboriginal people. But after the recognition of the ethnic minority’s right to their own cultural development. The government has come to realize that multiculturalism within Australia needs to be preserved and held to propagate and promote the general culture (Paquette & Fallon,2020). As per the general directions of the cultural policy, there are board cultural objectives and fundings that have been described to preserve and support various cultural agencies to formulate different proposals to frame various policies and programs that the government could implement on a high priority basis. Their cultural policy is based on reigniting and spreading awareness about the aboriginal cultures and traditions to entertain and help the original cultures of Australia grow. This policy is based on the critical need for the protection of culture and tradition in Australia, which had been devastated by the previous policies.
Australia has come a long way since the monocultural ideology and has adopted its multicultural perspective towards the country. Thus the cultural policy of Australia has a significant impact only upliftment and protection of the cultures of the aboriginal community. Initially, during the previous two decades, the education among the aboriginal communities was very low, which has significantly risen after implementing the different cultural policies (Henriksen et al. 2018). A conglomerate of different government departments and organisations has developed. It makes up the responsibility of preserving and providing assistance for the cultural protection of the First Nation citizens of Australia. This has brought about the radical resurrection of the dying systems as well as has developed different cultural significance for the community (Ban et al. 2018). This cultural policy has provided a strong cultural voice to the First Nation citizens of Australia and led to the development of various cultural supportive organisations such as The Artbank, Australian Art, and the National institute of dramatic art. The department of communication of Australia has developed radio and television services for multicultural aspects. The aboriginal unity has become further strengthened economically after implementing the various cultural policies and funding (Huria et al., 2019). The cultural organisations have ensured that they empowered the aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, ensuring greater equality in Australia. The adoption of this process also led to the formulation of the racial Discrimination Act in the year 1975, which made discrimination in different parts of Australia against the law.
Current State of Cultural Policy in Australia
Moreover, by implementing the cultural policy, the First Nation citizens of Australia have been included in the country’s national heritage and helped in preserving their culture and traditions in the form of today’s national culture Australia. Apart from that, it also plays a vital role in protecting and promoting the indigenous heritage of the country while promoting the growth and development of the community as a whole. It is a well-known fact that the previous unfair and discriminatory regulations have had a devastating impact on the cultures of Australia.
The implementation of cultural policies in Australia has created a significant social impact on Aboriginals’ and Torres Strait Islanders’ lives. Previously the communities were barred from any social or cultural programs in Australia, such as having the right to vote or the right to have passports. Until the year 1967, the indigenous Australians were not counted in Australia’s national census and were skipped separate from the citizenship of Australian communities (Yigitcanlar et al., 2021). They were not even included in the decision-making process, and the white imperial colonizers often took the decisions by the government or the state. The latter had little knowledge about their cultural values. However, after the implementation of cultural policies, Australia’s indigenous population got a new voice and got more firm grounds to stand upon. Now they are also applicable for various rights and protection of the law. The implementation of by turn policy has helped the aboriginals fight racial discrimination and be part of the mainstream Australian culture.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it could be concluded that the life of the originals has been greatly devastated by the colonial invaders. They took over the land of the indigenous Australians. European invasion in the Australian lands has significantly damaged the indigenous culture and traditions and often derived it towards their inevitable destruction. However, the recent cultural policies of various local governments and political parties have resulted in a certain growth and development of the cultural values of the indigenous people of Australia. Even though the lack of proper federal cultural policy often leads to lot of problems such as conflicts of interest hence there is a strong requirement of development of a cultural policy at the federal level of Australia
Reference
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