Reflection Writing Assignment on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders

Introduction

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people hold a specific identity as original residents of the land in Australia. Many communities and individuals around the world, maintain a strong relationship with their language, traditional lands, and culture along with contributing to economic development, environmental management and cultural identity of Australia. In international law, distinctive rights are held by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander as Australia's first people (Anon., 2018). This Reflection Writing Assignment is related with analyzing the aboriginal community of Australia by analyzing their sociology-demographic characteristics in brief manner. Further, the differences between the broader Australian community and aboriginals, have been also been made which helps in identifying the reason behind the specific identify given to aboriginals. The aboriginals have to face a number of social and personal issues. This Reflection Writing Assignment reflects the one of such main issue in a critical manner. At the end of this Reflection Writing Assignment, a conclusion has been drawn to provide an overview of the main findings of the study.

Description of Aboriginals

The indigenous community of Australia is known as Australian Aboriginals. They came around 50,000 years ago from Asia to Australia and before 20,000 years that, came from Africa to Asia. A number of aboriginal tribes scattered around the globe at the time of settlement of white people in Australia. These tribes used to speak around 250 different languages. The culture of aboriginals was rich and expressive in symbols. In 1788, the British had bought different languages.t a lot of bacteria and viruses with them. Thousands of aboriginal people suffered from smallpox and other major diseases and died. The tribes were forced to drive off their lands to the ground of other tribes. The aboriginal population was at its lowest at 93,000 in 1900. At present, the total number of aboriginals are supposed to exceed more than half a million out of the total 23 million Australian population (Commission, 2018).

The main socioeconomic characteristics of the Australian Aboriginal Community as discussed in this Reflection Writing Assignment are as follows:

Belief Systems: The oral tradition of Aboriginal Australians is based on the reverence for the land and on the trust in Dream time. Such communities consider death as an evolution to another good life which is not necessarily different from the one they had. Some people tend to believe in having more than one soul or spirit in a single person. 

Music: Aboriginals have invented their unique folk music styles and instruments. The national instrument of Australian Aboriginals is known as the didgeridoo. The state and federal governments also had set up an organization known as Aboriginal Center for the Performing Arts to nurture and preserve the talent and music of aboriginals (Berndt & Tonkinson, 2018).

Art: The art of Australian Aboriginals has a tremendous history of thousands of years. The aboriginal artists try to continue such traditions by using both traditional and modern material in the networks. A number of aboriginal arts have been developed and taken an important place at the international level including dot art and watercolor paintings.

Comparison between Aboriginals and South Australians

Accent: The accent of the people of South Australia is totally different from the aboriginals because of their environment, atmosphere, and educational backgrounds. They are known to speak the fluent and finest English all over the world. They also tend to speak the words more with expressions instead of full pronunciation. It is observed in this Reflection Writing Assignment that opposite to this, aboriginals tend to speak their own languages which around 250 in counting. They also tend to know a little about the English language which is considered almost negligible (Korff, 2018).

Culture: Most of the south Australians are Christians and follows the related culture. They have their own traditions which are becoming more popular by using the modern advancements and traditions.

Education: Due to getting appropriate opportunities for education, south Australians are able to get the higher education. In opposite to this it is discussed in this Reflection Writing Assignment that due to the traditions cultures and the inappropriate opportunities of education, the aboriginals are not able to get the basic education to improve their standard of living (Serkland, 2017).

Acceptance: Due to the well-behaved manner and the knowledge, the South Australian is treated with respect in their society as well as in all over the world. But, the aboriginals, due to their poor living conditions, lack of knowledge and poor health conditions are not treated with respect and dignity (Anon., 2018).

Art: The aboriginal communities are very rich in art. They have impressive art and music styles which are often used by South Australians and other communities of the world with a considerable respect. Most of the traditional dance and music style of Australia are derived from the aboriginals as they are considered as first people in Australia. They are still protecting the traditions provided by their ancestors.

Life Expectancy: the life expectancy rate of the people of South Australia is more than the aboriginals as because of the lack of infrastructure, nutritional supplements, poor sanitation arrangements, and living conditions. They also do not want to come out from their atmosphere and to get engaged with the non-aboriginal people to improve the same. This is the main reason behind the lack of development and growth of aboriginals (Paradies, 2008).

Social Issue

Karl Max has given a social theory named as classic sociological theory which is mainly based on social conflict and critiques. AS per this theory discussed above in this Reflection Writing Assignment, social issues can be defined as the problems and challenges which are caused by the arrangements and behaviors of the society and its members towards a particular community or an individual person. The aboriginal community is one of such communities which are still living as per their old traditions and are not compatible to accept the common culture accepted by the other Australians. Thus, such communities have to face a number of issues to survive in the present world and education is one of them. The aboriginals did not use to go to schools as they used to learn hunting (boys) and cooking food (girls). They also did not know about the common English language. Their way of talking, traditions, language, culture, and way of thinking is still not developed and this is the main reason that they have to face problems at the time of going schools for education (Hudec, 2013).

The Aboriginal children are found unhealthy and suffering from a number of diseases due to their poor living conditions. Thus, the other Australian students do not prefer to talk with them and to help them out in learning.  Along with this, aboriginal children are unable to find their own environment in the schools and thus do not tend to feel comfortable with others.

The society also treats them in a very bad manner and thinks that they are not capable to perform well in the academic carrier. Thus, aboriginal students do not get proper opportunities to show their skills and talent. Most of the aboriginals are found black and thus they are always neglected and disrespected by the society on the basis of their skin color.

The lack of education in aboriginals has become a social issue as the lack of education results in a lack of development and growth. They are not able to compete with the fast changing advancements and technologies of the world. They are also not aware of well-being and living a healthy life. However. The Australian government is trying to take corrective actions to improve this situation but the viewpoint and perception of the society are required to be changed so that aboriginals can also get the rights and respect they deserve (Byard and Simpson, 2005).

Critical Reflection

Australian education system is not equal for the children of all communities. The engagement of student informal educational setting and the rate of retention of schools for aboriginal children is lower as compared to the other Australians. As per the social theory given by Durkheim, which is based on the social factors, there are a number of social factors which may become the reason behind this inequality.  The theory above in this Reflection Writing Assignment propose that the languages barriers and conflicts can be faced by the students as the aboriginal children are not able to understand the normal English and vice versa. Most of the aboriginal children are found to speak aboriginal English in classrooms which is strongly similar to Standard Australian English. The differences between both are considered in a negative manner at the time making use in classrooms. Denouncing such differences with the confirmation of the validity of language shows a lack of respect and understanding about the culture of aboriginals. Which can highly affect the sense of identity of an Aboriginal student? This racism is often being presented within the policies of Australia which are related to the education system as well (Anon., 2018). As per the theory given by Karl Marx, in order to move forward, the society or a community has to face social issues and critiques from members of society. The theory of Karl Marx given above in this Reflection Writing Assignment elucidate that the cultural issues resulted by the mistreatment and inter generational trauma can often be seen in the ideologies and thinking of the children which can affect the atmosphere and learning of the overall classroom. In addition to this, there are many cultural factors which can influence the mobility of the family, can result in the absence of the students and time intervals in their schooling. Through factors of cultural identity and culture nor being understood and accepted by the schooling system of Australia, aboriginal students are being denied adequate and appropriate education (Santoro et al, 2011).

The main problem barriers faced by the aboriginal community in education can be distinguished in the categories as given in the following section of this Reflection Writing Assignment:

Teaching Materials

Teaching material in English: In remote or rural areas, the first language of the aboriginals is not English. This problem is less in regional and urban areas.

Irrelevant context: Most of the stories told by the teachers are not related to the lives of aboriginals and hence such stories are or a little use or no use for them.

Lack of ‘black faces': the teaching materials including textbooks, films, and other stationery are based on the white models. Thus the aboriginals are not able to recognize their characteristics and faces. A number of academic researchers have shown that such students fail to perform well in their academic carriers (Bainbridge et al, 2014).

The absence of aboriginal history: The textbook of 21^st century shows the aboriginals as "appear only momentarily". On the other hand, the textbooks cover the history and development of non-aboriginals, their experiences, and learning's in a detailed manner. Thus, the students are not able to relate themselves to the learning's and are not able to get the knowledge in a proper way. 

Teachers

Lack of aboriginal teachers: In 1998, only 0.7% of the total teachers were from aboriginal community in Australia. The non-aboriginal teachers are not able to teach with a broader range of cultural perspectives of aboriginal culture into the schools and enhance the network with aboriginal communities around the school (Barney, 2016).

Disengaged Teachers: There are a number of teachers who do not continue to provide their services for a long time. This can cause in facing problems by the aboriginal students as it is not easy for them to accept someone as their teacher and then replace such person with another one (Rudolph, 2011).

Poor Teaching Quality: The results of social surveys show that more than 25% of teachers agreed that they need more professional training for providing aboriginal education to the students. The aboriginal teachers also agreed upon that they did not receive any professional training at the time of their academic education.

Lack of Full-time teachers: Most of the time the aboriginal students are eager and keen to learn and grow, but cannot get success because of lack of the full time and skilled teachers in teaching the concepts. Rural and remote area of Australia is suffering from huge teacher shortage which is continuously increasing as old teachers are getting retirements from their jobs (Kroff, 2018).

Parents and Students

Uneducated parents: The parents of the aboriginal students are found uneducated in most of the cases and they have the perception that if they would their child to a school that he/she will not come back again to help them out and to live with them. This mentality works as a big barrier in the education of aboriginals.

Bad Experiences: The parents also possess some bad memories about their school time where they did not used to get anything to learn about their culture and were not given chance to speak in their language and express their opinions. Thus, they do not allow their children to face such experiences (Dodson, 2010).

Living Conditions

Overcrowding: The living space of the aboriginals is generally very crowded and it is difficult for the students to complete their homework and learn the lessons and chapters in such overcrowded houses.

Poverty: Aboriginals are suffering from poverty which prevents them to get good medical treatment of their health diseases. Hearing loss is one of the major disease found in aboriginals which affect their capability of learning up to a great extent (Lohoar, et al., 2014).

Communities and schools

Lack of infrastructure: There is a lack of infrastructure in education facilities provided by the government in remote areas in comparison to the urban areas. And if all the aboriginal children of a place do not attend school, there are not sufficient classrooms and teachers to accommodate all of them.

Segregation by the level of skills: The schools of the aboriginals are generally found to struggle in managing their routine expenses and to balance the high performers with the low performing students with the same resources. In addition to this, high school fees is another issue which is to be faced by the parents of aboriginal children (Lloyd et al, 2015).

Emotional attachment: Most of the aboriginals are not ready to leave their community for the sake of learning a new culture, knowledge, and information. They prefer to be connected with their traditional values and way of living (Dresie, 2018).

Thus, the aboriginals have to face a number of the issue at the time of learning and getting knowledge according to the present time.

Conclusion

On the basis of the above study in this Reflection Writing Assignment, it can be concluded that the Australian government and society is regularly trying to increase the participation of aboriginals in the social activities so that their community can get its identification. The article briefs about the aboriginal communities along with its features and differences with the non-aboriginals. It also describes the main issues faced by them. However, there are a number of social issues discussed in this Reflection Writing Assignment that are to be faced by the aboriginals and education is most important among them as education provides a base to grow and develop. This issue is directed by the personal thinking of aboriginals as well as by the education system and social services run by the Australian government to develop the lives of such communities. The main sub-issues are being discussed in a critical manner in order to explain the topic. All the information is derived from the authenticated sources like government publications and journal articles published on the development of aboriginal communities.