Regulations Related to Providing Food and Beverage to Indigenous Children
QA1- Educators mullst develop the educational program that would help in enhancing the child’s learning in relation to identity, relationship with community, health, and well-being, enhance confidence and communication skills. These skills can be enhanced in the child when the educator will undergo certain practices like answering the child’s question open-endedly, interacting with them and getting some feedback from them (ACECQA, 2022).
QA5- Educators must have a positive and responsive attitude while interacting with children this would help in developing trust in the child’s mind that eventually will make the child feel safe, secure and confident (Early childhood Australia, 2022).
Regulation 79 of legislation states that educators and care providers provide food and beverage to children of different diversity according to dietary requirements. Moreover, the food provided to them must fulfill their cultural, religious needs which help them in maintaining cultural diversity.
Regulation 155 of National regulations state the duties of the care providers with regard to the steps taken to encourage children to express themselves by allowing them to take experience from activities that enhance their self-reliance, maintain their dignity, guide them to acceptable behaviour, and gives importance to their family and cultural values, age as well as the ability of the child (Queensland legislation, 2021).
- The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984
This Act helps in protecting the areas and objects which are important for aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia from the eternal threat, damage by people from other populations.
Legislation2. Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
This legislation would penalise people who will damage or pose threat on the places of indigenous heritage values which are listed under National Heritage List (Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment, 2021).
- The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984
Aboriginal Australians celebrate NAIDOC Week which stands for National Aborigines and Islander Day Observance Committee. This celebration represents the history, culture, and achievements of indigenous populations across Australia. The celebrations take place in a different city each year, decided by the National NAIDOC Committee, where poster competition and the award ceremony are held, and many art fairs, truth-telling, and healing ceremonies take place in the form of poetry. To make pre-school children aware of the event many activities like making handprint flags, dot paintings, making dampers are carried out (NAIDOC, 2022).
In 1770 Lieutenant Cook acquired the east coast of Australia for the British Crown which encouraged others to establish a penal colony in Australia in 1788 to establish themselves in Australia. Thus with the arrival of Britishers, many diseases also came to the indigenous land like influenza, measles, smallpox, tuberculosis, whooping cough, and the common cold, devastating the lives of the first Nations population. In 1789 it was observed that a number of people died due to smallpox explosion in the Sydney area, hence impacting the lives of indigenous people badly (Australians Together, 2021).
The connection of aboriginal people with their land is crucial and spiritual as well no matter where they live. For them land is the means to survive, to be healthy, it provides them comfort and helps them to sustain their culture and identity which when lost pose a great threat to the lives of indigenous people in Australia. They were subjected to mass killings; injustice spread all over and was being displaced from their native land (Victorian Public Sector Commission, 2019).
Historical Impact of British Colonization on Indigenous Populations
The stolen generation were the people who were taken away from their families when they were children due to the result of government policies. These children were then adopted by the white people that resulted in the breaking of family ties, loss of culture eventually impacting the lives and well-being of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Western alcohol came with the arrival of Britishers in 1788 and pubs get opened. The labours working for Britishers were paid in alcohol or tobacco. The arrival of alcohol poses a great impact on the community as aboriginal people started taking alcohol to high-risk levels, consequently started harming their lives. These people stated smoking 3 times more than other populations impacting the lives of children (Queensland Government, 2022).
Aboriginal people get exposed to deadly diseases like smallpox after 15 months of the arrival of Britishers in Australia in 1789. The impact of this disease was seen on the aboriginal population rather than Britishers as they were exposed to it in their early childhood. The indigenous populations started dying as they did not have any resistance to the disease thus, 70% of the population were dead due to the disease. Many people were left without family which was the effect of disease (National Museum Australia, 2018).
Aboriginals do not have any language to express themselves thus they use symbols or icons to portray their culture and stories. Aboriginal art is known as Dreamtime or Jukurrpa and Tingari. The sacred colour used by aboriginal people was given to them during the Dreamtimes that are black, red, yellow, and white. The colour black marked the campfire of the Dreamtime ancestors. Yellow tells about the water and marked on the snake ancestor. Red represents energy, fire, and blood- Djang whereas sky and stars are represented by white colour shows the ancestors who went back to the sky after creating the earth.
In order to make children aware of aboriginal art and colours it is required by the educator to indulge the children in games where they have to understand the symbols used in indigenous art. Additionally, they can understand the meaning of colours used in this art by making asking them to make paintings using those colours. Moreover, teachers can make the students understand the story using symbols used by indigenous people.
Kinship is that cultural artifact that shapes the people. Kinship is based on different aspects like relationship with blood, marriage, association, and spiritual importance. The kinship in the indigenous society describes the relationship between the members of the family, ways of living, laws that will help them to strengthen the human lives and restore the cultural values in the community. Kinship helps in deciding the marriage partner. Moreover, kinship also helps to understand the rights and duties of the members during all the ceremonies, rituals, and religious practices since birth to death of the person in the family (Fleming, 2021). Hence, it is important to keep intact the culture of the community.
The issue related to traditional kinship in modern-day Australia is the lack of frameworks that would help in guiding child welfare people when they work with kids and younger generations.
In this case, it is required to make Jessica’s mother understand that having friends with different cultural backgrounds or religions would not make children lose faith in their own religion. Moreover, it is required that Jessica’s mother must encourage the child to understand the beauty of different cultures and she must give respect to the other culture. However, Jessica’s mother must give her the knowledge of the catholic culture and encourage her to behave morally which might help in broadening her psychological development.
As an educator, it is required to make Cam’s father understand the importance of the native language. Moreover, it is required to make him understand that if Cam will speak and share some experience in his native language then it will be helpful for him to grab English easily. It will also help to boost his confidence level. Knowing a native language also provides benefits in the future as he will be able to get a good job or can deal with people in a better way.
References
ACECQA. (2022). Quality Area 1 – Educational program and practice. Retrieved from ACECQA: https://www.acecqa.gov.au/nqf/national-quality-standard/quality-area-1-educational-program-and-practice
Australians Together. (2021). Colonisation. Retrieved from Australians Together: https://australianstogether.org.au/discover/australian-history/colonisation/
Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment. (2021). Indigenous heritage laws. Retrieved from Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment: https://www.awe.gov.au/parks-heritage/heritage/laws/indigenous
Early childhood Australia. (2022). Quality Area 5- Relationship with children. Retrieved from Early childhood Australia: https://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/professional-development/nsw-oshc-quality-development-program/quality-area-5-relationships-children/
Fleming, E. (2021). Why is kinship important in Aboriginal society? Retrieved from SidmartinBio: https://www.sidmartinbio.org/why-is-kinship-important-in-aboriginal-society/
NAIDOC. (2022). Plan your event. Retrieved from NAIDOC: https://www.naidoc.org.au/get-involved/plan-your-event#:~:text=Here%20are%20some%20ideas%20on,and%20Torres%20Strait%20Islander%20history.
National Museum Australia. (2018). Smallpox epidemic. Retrieved from National Museum Australia: https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/smallpox-epidemic
Queensland Government. (2022). Alcohol and other drugs and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Retrieved from Queensland Government: https://cspm.csyw.qld.gov.au/practice-kits/alcohol-and-other-drugs/working-with-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-communit/seeing-and-understanding/aod-and-aboriginal-culture#:~:text=The%20’poison%20grog’,-Back%20to%20top&text=The%20British%20also%20introduced
Queensland legislation. (2021). Education and Care Services National Regulations. Retrieved from Queensland legislation: https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/pdf/inforce/current/sl-2011-ecsnr
Victorian Public Sector Commission. (2019). Aboriginal Culture and History. Retrieved from Victorian Public Sector Commission: https://vpsc.vic.gov.au/html-resources/aboriginal-cultural-capability-toolkit/aboriginal-culture-history/