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 21st
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.
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