1. Literacy Assignment (Sample)
Starting in primary school, all students are taught about Australian aboriginals: how they were treated when Australia was colonized, a little about their way of life, how they were treated and some more about how life was for them during the colonial days. There seems to be a section about this in Australian schools every year until graduation and it’s mostly focused on the ill-treatment of the aboriginal people during the colonization of Australia.
When Australia was colonized and federated, the aboriginal people were excluded from citizenship, they were excluded from schooling and had no representation within the government. During these years the aboriginal people were treated like savages that were incapable of looking after themselves and must therefore be ‘taken care of’ by the government. This was done over the years by means of reserves, segregation, using them as cheap labour and famously by taking away their children to be brought up by white Australians (the Stolen Generation) (Korff, 2015).
In the later years of Australian history, aboriginals continued to suffer. The aboriginal people continued to lack government representation, resulting in limited rights or ac- knowledgment of ownership of land. Many were displaced as a result of how their ancestors had been treated, having been taken from their ancestral lands to be put on reserves, or as a result of families broken by the stolen generation. This, mixed with the racially prejudice climate of the time lead to the aboriginal people having limited opportunities, leading to many lacking in the essentials of life and many resorting to crime or antisocial behaviour (Korff, 2015).
How the aboriginal people of Australia were treated during the colonial days and the years that followed were a dark part of Australia’s history, this is something that I be- lieve and I agree that Australians should be taught about it. The issue I have with this is that, from my experience in school, there is only a focus on what happened to the aboriginals and there is little proper coverage of their culture.
In the 1990’s there was a controversial situation in WA in which Homeswest, in a bid to reduce the agency’s debt, issued a large number of evictions. These evictions met with a lot of claims of racial discrimination, as a large majority of the tenants that were evicted were aboriginal. Homeswest, in defending their actions, stated that these evictions were based upon three factors, regardless of race; these factors were tenants not paying rent, tenants being antisocial in regards to their neighbours and tenants not maintaining properties to an adequate standard. While reading into this event it is evi- dent that the decisions and guidelines used for the evictions were not directly discrim- inatory, it is fair to expect a tenant to fulfil these three factors. The issues arise when the cultural aspect of the aboriginal households is raised, namely the sense of com- munity that leads these evicted people to be accepted into other households, leading to increased strains and often further evictions. This shows that there was a lack of un- derstanding of the potential cultural issues in regards to how this was carried out. It is also worthy of note that while reading about this issue all the focus was made on the responsibility that Homeswest had towards the aboriginal people and very little men- tion of these tenants having to be responsible for their own actions (Beresford, 2001).
The problem with focusing primarily on the hardships and injustices that were perpe- trated against the aboriginal people and not properly teaching students about their ways and beliefs is that the population do not grow to understand their culture and how to interact with them in such a way as to be culturally understanding and respect- ful. We are taught in such a way as to understand the past mistakes and yet not how to properly work alongside the aboriginal people.
My personal experiences involving aboriginals have been overwhelmingly negative. When I was a child I was randomly assaulted by a group of aboriginal kids while I was at a small fair / show, there was no provocation and the only warning I had was a string of racial abuse from behind me prior to being struck in the face by a number of kids within said group. In another incident I had rocks and racial abuse hurled at me after walking past a group of aboriginal kids seemingly because I am white.
Aside from abuse and violence directed at me, growing up in Australia a vast majority of the public violence and verbal altercations I have experienced have involved abo-
riginals. These altercations have been perpetrated by an aboriginal or group of aborig- inals against other races or against each other. These altercations have occurred with- out regard for who is around, often seemingly without provocation and when someone tries to stop them they scream racism.
While I say this I do believe that like with all things it’s the loudest and the worst of things that stand out the most in these situations and I have also met aboriginal people that were amongst the most honest, caring and talented people I have met in my life.
A resource that we were provided to assist with this reflection task was a document regarding appropriate terminology when interacting or discussing the aboriginal peo- ple. This document is a prime example of how social justice and political correctness has gotten out of hand. While on the surface the document appears to be a set of do’s and don’ts in regards to appropriate terminology for communicating in a culturally respectful way, if read into further you begin to realise that it is written in such a way as to teach the reader to be respectful to aboriginals despite themselves.
The document in question deals with words that you can use and words that you can- not use due to negative connotations or cultural issues involved with said words. At first this seems like a helpful little reference on how to be respectful; that is until you reach sections such as the use of the term “Dreamtime”, a word which according to the document should not be used as it implies that it refers to a set period of time that has ended. The document then points out that this is one of the terms that is used by the aboriginal people, thereby implying that they do not understand the implied con- notations of their own terms and that we should, knowing better than them, not know- ingly use these terms.
I believe that learning from the past is an important part of ensuring the same mis- takes are not made in the future. That said I do not believe in the idea that people should hold onto the guilt of the actions of those in the past, these unfortunate parts of our history show the importance of working in an ethical manor while taking the cul- tures of different people into account so as to work towards the benefit of all involved.
Working together with people of different cultural backgrounds often means working with people that operate in different ways, sometimes these differences are small and sometimes these differences can be large. Some cultures place a heavy importance on timing and deadlines (time is money) where others treat time as a flexible entity as long as tasks are completed (jam karet – time is rubber). To be able to smoothly work alongside, for or lead people of different cultures it is important to be able to be re- spectful and understanding toward cultural differences.
Having a proper understanding of these cultural differences is an important factor in- volved in working ethically as an engineer. Being able to understand the cultural needs of the people you are working for or around is core to being able to make ethi- cally sound decisions that ensuring the processes and end product of your works are suitable for the people involved and affected by them. This applies to works in Aus- tralia that involve the aboriginal people, whether it be works that involve their com- munities, families or sacred lands, it is important to understand the needs of the peo- ple involved so as to work both socially and ethically responsibly.
In summary, I believe that we should learn from the sad mistakes of the past and be aware of cultural differences that are inherently a part of all multicultural nations. I believe that this should be done without emphasis on any particular race or culture, everyone should be aiming to work with the needs of others in mind so as to achieve a benefit for all people involved or affected by any works or even social interactions. Also, while I believe that it is important to take others into account it is also important that people take responsibility for themselves and their actions as while cultural dif- ferences can lead to problems, they do not constitute an excuse to shirk responsibility of one’s own actions.
2. References
Beresford, Q. (2001). Homeswest versus Aborigines: housing descrimination in West- ern Australia. Australian Aboriginal Studies, 40.
Korff, J. (2015, 11 25). Aboriginal History Timeline (1990-1969). Retrieved from Creative Spirits: