Unfortunately I wasn't at uni this week as I am preparing to head overseas for the holidays!
But for a quick entry I thought you might be interested in my Aboriginal Cultures essay. It focuses on the emotional and social well-being of Indigenous Australians in relation to the land. It is a bit long but I received a HD and think that it is very interesting!
Enjoy!
5. One of the significant characteristics of Australian Indigenous worldviews is a specific relationship to land or ‘country’. Aboriginal people say, “The country needs its people. Healthy country means healthy people”. Discuss in relation to emotional and social well-being.
The Aboriginal people of Australia have tried consistently to explain their connection with the land to non-Indigenous Australians but most are yet to grasp the depth and sincerity of this connection. For Aboriginal people the land, or country, is life. The land is proof that their belief system is true. Each landform, each animal has meaning and a creation story from The Dreamtime. However, the importance of this spiritual connection has been overlooked. There is a blatantly obvious prejudice towards Indigenous Australians; even the Australian Government has abandoned ideas of self-determination amongst Indigenous communities. Somewhat because of prejudice, substance abuse has become a health issue in terms of the social and emotional well-being of Aboriginal people. Health worker Giancarlo Mazzella says, “It’s getting worse, there’s been a huge underinvestment in mental health. What we see is clear: the young don’t have any hope, they don’t have goals. They’re losing their language and their culture. Violence is all around them. There’s no safe, basic shelter for people, no shelter from the storm.’ As a society that has been oppressed, young Indigenous Australians are oppressing themselves. Young Aboriginal people seem to be struggling to learn their own culture and understand their belief system. ‘Social and emotional well-being’ for Aboriginal people encapsulates not only the health of the individual, but the health of the community. Essential to the well-being of the community is the connection between the people and the land. According to Aboriginal belief systems, or The Dreaming, everything depends on something and all living things are connected. For the land to be healthy, it needs to be looked after by the people and for the people to be healthy, they need to be nurtured, protected and guided by the land.
The land sustains Indigenous lives in all aspects, spiritually, socially, emotionally, physically and culturally. Protecting and caring for the land is a key feature in Aboriginal belief systems, it is this act that strengthens their culture and their well-being. Aboriginal people have lived on the country for over 40 000 years. Since the European colonisation, Westerners have influenced an extensive amount of damage to Australia. This corroborates the respect and understanding of the land that Aboriginal people possess. Creation and Ancestral stories from the Dreamtime give significance to all aspects of the land. However, Aboriginal people believe that for their Creation stories to be passed on to future generations, the sites associated with the stories must be maintained. This has, to a certain extent, caused the plea for Aboriginal land rights to their sacred sites. It is crucial to understand that Aboriginal people do not rely on the land for economical reasons alone, Aboriginals are inseparably bound to the land. There is a spiritual link between Ancestors through areas of the land that cannot be shifted to another place. Country is a source of identity. “Country is multi-dimensional-it consists of people, animals, plants, Dreamings, underground, earth, soils, minerals and waters, air…People talk about country in the same way that they would talk about a person: they speak to country, sing to country, visit country, worry about country, feel sorry for country and long for country.” Aboriginal people require a strong relationship with the land to remain healthy, both socially and emotionally, however even with this information many, if not most, Indigenous people are still living in severe disadvantage. This can be accredited to the fact that Aboriginal people do not have much say in their own rights, this is partially because the Australian Government has rejected Self-determination.
Self-determination is, minimally, about effective problem solving and decision making. The right to self-determination also centers on the acknowledgment that Aboriginal people are Australia’s first people:
‘[Self-determination is] an ongoing process of choice for the achievement of human security and fulfillment of human needs with a broad scope of possible outcomes and expressions suited to different specific situations. These can include, but are not limited to, guarantees of cultural security, forms of self-governance and autonomy, economic self-reliance, effective participation at the international level, land rights and the ability to care for the natural environment, spiritual freedom and the various forms that ensure the free expression and protection of collective identity in dignity.’ According to the Australian Government, however, Self-determination can imply that a government must overlook their responsibilities and because of this, it has not been properly tested in Australia despite previous governments adopting the term.
‘It is the responsibility of government to ensure that all Australians have equality of opportunity and access to services. The Government is concerned that self-determination implies that a government must in some way relinquish responsibility for and control over those aspects of well-being over which it rightly has jurisdiction in common with its responsibility to all Australian citizens...’ It is a common belief that the loss of this right has caused much of the current disadvantage facing Indigenous Australians today. Self-determination would mean spiritual freedom for Aboriginal people and consequently the right to their land and free expression of their spirituality. For Aboriginal people Self-determination is vital to achieve all other human rights. Despite this, Self-determination is seen as a threat that could cause even more separateness between Indigenous Australians and non-Indigenous Australians. For example, the Australian Government reworded the ‘Australian Declaration Towards Reconciliation’ from ‘And so, we pledge ourselves to stop injustice, overcome disadvantage, and respect that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have the right to self-determination within the life of the nation’ to ‘And so, we pledge ourselves to stop injustice, overcome disadvantage and respect the right of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, along with all Australians, to determine their own destiny’.
Socially, Aboriginal people are immensely underprivileged. Indigenous people in Australia have higher mortality rates than non-Indigenous Australians, poorer health, lower employment rates, lower average pay, lower housing standards and even poorer educational outcomes. These problems have, in part, been influenced by dispossession of land and suppression of Aboriginal identity and culture. Aboriginal health in Australia is deplorable. The Indigenous life expectancy is far below the Australian average and the age is lowered again by the disproportionate amount of disease amongst Aboriginal people, often caused by socioeconomic disadvantage. Reprehensibly, cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes account for 40% of excess Indigenous deaths and over 21 800 preventable Aboriginal admissions to hospital each year. Not only is physical health a major issue amongst Aboriginal communities, but socially and emotionally, Indigenous Australians are undoubtedly disadvantaged as they are exposed to prejudice and racism. The pressure to centre remote Aboriginal populations into townships has increased despite evidence that this could lead to even worse health and social outcomes. Isolating remote areas contributes to many ecological issues due to the prior dependence on Indigenous land management. This poor or lack of land management causes animals, fires and weeds to damage the land if unchecked by ‘owners’. ‘For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples health does not just entail the freedom of the individual from sickness but requires support for healthy and interdependent relationships between families, communities, land, sea and spirit. The focus must be on spiritual, cultural, emotional and social well-being as well as physical health.’
Indigenous children and adolescents are under threat of losing their connection to their culture. This stems from colonisation and as a result, the fragmentation of their families and their cultural knowledge and practice and also the influence of Western and global pop-culture. Aboriginal youth experience a higher rate of alcohol and drug abuse, family violence, sexual abuse, suicide and socioeconomic disadvantage. Regardless of the few successes with government policies, services and programs to combat these social and emotional problems in Indigenous communities, Aboriginal youths consistently demonstrate poorer outcomes than non-Indigenous Australians in regards to social and emotional health. Studies have shown that 90% of youths aged 12-17, living in the Kimberley area, have had some experience with alcohol and furthermore, that the usage increases with age. A connection to culture, and therefore country, is crucial to promote the social, economic and personal skills of Aboriginal youth.
The inequality of health status between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians is not inevitable. They exist because of social inequality. There have been many inquiries into Aboriginal health since the 1970s. Because of these inquiries, strategies have consistently been recommended that target the poor social, environmental and economic conditions under which many Indigenous Australians live. It is four decades later and there have only been some, minor, improvements, such as educational attainment and participation in employment. Despite this, Indigenous Australians are continuing to live disadvantaged lives. The current pattern of alcohol abuse amongst Indigenous Australians cannot be understood unless looking at the historical context from which it emerged. Indigenous Australians had little exposure to alcohol before the European colonisation. After the ‘First Fleet’ however, alcohol became available and was reportedly used as payment for labour and sex with Indigenous Australians. As a response to the appalling effects of colonialism, including death, illness and dispossession, alcohol became a reliable drug to ease the pain for Indigenous people. Poor health due to alcohol abuse amongst Indigenous Australians is 4.5 times greater than that experienced by non-Indigenous Australians. There is a stereotype that follows Indigenous people concerning alcoholism. It is often portrayed by the media that all Aboriginals have alcohol problems, this is not the case. Generally, Indigenous Australians drink less than Non-Indigenous Australians, however, those who do are far more likely to drink at hazardous levels. Any kind of substance abuse amongst any culture is damaging. “You know how you destroy a culture? You make sure that the kids are born with alcohol foetal syndrome, they won’t be able to pass on the Dreamtime and the culture.” Allowing Indigenous Australians to live, work and access their ‘traditional’ lands is central to Indigenous social and emotional well-being. There is a significant amount of Indigenous Australians living in remote areas of Australia. This can be contributed to the ‘outstation or homelands movement’ which refers to the choice that many Indigenous Australians made in the 1970s to return to their country. For many Indigenous people the movement was an opportunity to reconnect with the land and cultural ways of living. This movement provided the opportunity to complete cultural and spiritual obligations like caring for country. Similarly to the outstation movement, the recognition of land rights and the native title rights again strengthen the relationship with the land that Indigenous Australians desire. Indigenous Australians are able to express their connection to the land through the rights gained through the native title claims. There is a growing recognition of the potential of a connectedness to country in relation to Indigenous health, socially, emotionally and physically. “The country needs its people. Healthy country means healthy people” demonstrates that Indigenous cultural and natural land management can have positive impacts on Indigenous health. The connection to country may not be achieved by simply living on the land but by also accessing and using the country as desired. There is however, a distinct difference between land resource management and caring for country. Natural resource management is based on Western views of the land as separate from humans and as an economic resource to be used to its maximum capacity. For Indigenous Australians, caring for country consists of “looking after all of the values, places, resources, stories and cultural obligations associated with that area, as well as associated processes of spiritual renewal, connecting with ancestors, food provision, and maintaining kin relations.” Everything is connected and has spiritual significance, respect is central to the Indigenous worldview. Allowing Indigenous Australians to participate on their land in land management allows them to not only express their spirituality but also provides employment and that alone contributes to Indigenous social and emotional well-being.
The social and emotional well-being of Indigenous Australians depends on their connectedness to the land. The consequences of rejecting or not being able to express their spirituality, and therefore their relationship with the land, are great. Health, relationships, education and abuse are all affected. The destruction of the land almost mimics the destruction of Aboriginal culture in Australia. Before colonisation, the land was respected and therefore conserved and protected. Now the land is used, reaped of anything that may be useful. After many years of being displaced, Aboriginal people are losing their culture and their relationship to the land. Aboriginal culture is complex, it is centered on respect. The land is the core of all spirituality and understanding the land is essential to protecting it. “We cultivated our land, but in a way different from the white man. We endeavored to live with the land; they seemed to live off it. I was taught to preserve, never to destroy.” The comment that, “The country needs its people. Healthy country means healthy people” means that in order for Aboriginal Australians to be healthy, both socially and emotionally, they must be allowed to practice their spirituality. It is obvious that a connectedness to the land is crucial in the health of Indigenous Australians, not only as individuals but in their communities. The social and emotional health of Indigenous Australians is unacceptable, especially when access to the land can help to change it. In other words, “Our identity as human beings remains tied to our land, to our cultural practices, our systems of authority and social control, our intellectual traditions, our concepts of spirituality, and to our systems of resource ownership and exchange. Destroy this relationship and you damage — sometimes irrevocably — individual human beings and their health.”–Pat Dodson.
References:
Gordon, S., Hallahan, K., & Henry, D. (2002). Putting the picture together, inquiry into response by government agencies to complaints of family violence and child abuse in Aboriginal communities. WA: Department of Premier and Cabinet.
Pat Dodson and Wayne Ellwood, ‘Giant Jigsaw Puzzle’, New Internationalist, Issue 186, August 1988
Zubrick, S., Silburn, S., Lawrence, D., Mitrou, F., Dalby, R., Blair, E., et al. (2005).
Gordon, S., Hallahan, K., & Henry, D. (2002). Putting the picture together, inquiry into response by government agencies to complaints of family violence and child abuse in Aboriginal communities. WA: Department of Premier and Cabinet. Zubrick, S., Silburn, S., Lawrence, D., Mitrou, F., Dalby, R., Blair, E., et al. (2005).
Lena Nyadbi
Michael Riley 
Gula Gula (Manking), 1989, earth pigments and natural binders on canvas, 90.2 by 180.5 cm
