Aboriginal History: Life Stories and Aboriginal Views

I thought it would be appropriate to research the history of the Aboriginal People as I don't know a lot about it and feel when I am writing about them I don't have enough knowledge to portray the emotion and relevance I want to. I'd like to share the facts I found the most important and interesting for me personally. All information and facts are from the DVD Aboriginal History: Life Stories and Aboriginal Views. (1)

• Australia has been inhabited by Aboriginal People for 40,000 – 50,000 years or more.
  
  
• Australian history and events often ignore the Aboriginals and the White cultures celebrations tend to devalue Aboriginal cultures and beliefs.
  
  
• The re-enactment of the first fleet landing used Aboriginal people from Western New South Wales who were forced to go to Sydney to play the part of Aboriginal People in 1788. The families and friends of the Aboriginal people who were forced to go to Sydney never thought they would return.
  
  
• Federation – 1967. Aboriginals were not considered as Australian Citizens and had no rights to own houses or farms, to hold a passport, to vote or to take anyone to court. For Aboriginals to have the rights of Australian Citizens they needed a certificate of exemption. (see image below from http://artwranglers.com.au/wp-content/uploads /2008/11/exemptioncert1.jpg)
  
  When I fist heard about this Exemption Certificate I thought the Aboriginal people were given some kind of freedom and I thought this was a great idea until I read the Exception Certificate which stated "This is your chance to be free of the Aboriginal Protection Act....... and live like a White man." Why would the Aboriginal People want to live like a White man? My opinion quickly changed!
  
  Reading on... they needed permission to leave their own homes and go to work? But they are working for the White people and are usually used for cheap labour! My opinions went from bad to worse about this Exemption Certificate. But wait there are benefits! Where you need a Exception Certificate to just walk through town so they don't get arrested but only at particular times, and if you choose to go into a shop or a hotel the proprietors may not even serve you! What is the point? This is not freedom! And with this 'freedom' to walk through town at designated times you are prohibited to speak your own language, celebrate your culture in any way shape or form or even talk to your friends let alone your own family. There is definitely no 'freedom' at all in this Exemption Certificate.
  
  "If all conditions are met with and satisfactory upheld, you may also be eligible to live in town unsupervised.  Note: Strictly segregated housing areas. This is your chance to be free of the Aboriginal Protection Act and live like a White man. Dated the 10th day of March 1951."
  
  I am outraged at this and can't even begin to feel how the Aboriginal People were not only feeling at the time but still feel today. No wonder there is so much hatred from them towards the White people. If they did this to me I would feel the same, I feel very angry about this and I am not even Aboriginal in any way!
  
  

 

• 1930 – activists protesting for basic civil rights.
  
• 1788 white colonisation based on concept under English law that land was not permanently settled was terranalysis (land belonging to no one) and the Aboriginal people were told “You don’t live here any more" and were chased away with guns and if they didn't abide by this they were shot.
  
• The Whites used killing, overpowering, racism and put the Aboriginal People on missions and containing them. The Whites were forcing the Aboriginal people to conform to their way of living and not allowing people to practice their culture.
  
• Many Aboriginals especially children were used as cheap labour as the children did not have the right to attend schools.
  
• A woman spoke of how "a lot of us didn’t understand why we had to do these things especially because we haven’t done anything to the whites"
  - as their culture believes that you only get punished for doing the wrong things and they couldn't see what they were doing wrong. But they were not the ones doing wrong, it was the White Australians.
  
• 1915 every state in Australia had laws enabling them to forcibly remove Aboriginal children from their families and be placed into mainstream culture. The justification for removing their children varied; in some cases records simply read: “for being Aboriginal.”
  
• 1916 – 1969 more than 5000 Aboriginal children were taken and there was no reliable figures prior to this.
  
• Aboriginal activism intensified during the 60’s and 70’s with Aboriginals gaining the right of citizenship in 1967.
  
• 1993 - Reconciliation Year of the Indigenous People where equal pay, laws against discrimination had been achieved. “We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of living. We brought the disease and the alcohol, we committed the murderers. We took the children from their mothers. We practiced discrimination and exclusion. It was our ignorance and our prejudice and our failure to imagine that these things could be done to us.” This was a turning point in Aboriginal history “Mabo decision.”
  -This was the way the White Australians apologised for all the wrong they had done. Whilst these changes have occurred there are many changes to still be made. The challenge for Aboriginals is to now regain their Culture.

(1) Dobis, John. Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC). Aboriginal History: Life Stories and Aboriginal Views, Produced by Sandra Fulloon. 24 min. 1995. DVD