"Aboriginals are interested not only in boomerangs, gum leaves and corrobores! The overwhelming majority of us are able and willing to earn our living by honest toil and to take our place in the community, side by side with yourselves"

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“Aboriginals are interested not only in boomerangs, gum leaves and corrobores! The overwhelming majority of us are able and willing to earn our living by honest toil and to take our place in the community, side by side with yourselves”

Unknown, Magazine Unknown, edition no 3, June 1978 page 1.

The idea of Aboriginal reconciliation was brought about by a Royal Commission Inquest into the high death rate of Aboriginal Australians being held in custody, however the official reconciliation campaign began in 1991 with a ten year time frame to advance reconciliation to make the Australians Government address cultural, social and economic needs of Aboriginal Australians.  With over 50,000 years of settlement before the “white invasion” it was time to fix the issue of discrimination and hardships that Non-Aboriginal Australia had caused  towards the Aboriginal Australians.

When Australia was first federated in 1901 Aboriginal Australians were the last thing on every Australians mind. This was reflective of the attitudes that Australian society held at the time. The majority of early settling Australians held the attitude of Aboriginal Australians being seen as inferior beings, savage, primitive and uncivilised. This is because the Aboriginal culture is very different to the European way of life in that Aboriginals are influenced by the physical and spiritual world and their knowledge in life is derived from experience rather than a schooling and academic education. As time went on Aboriginal affairs became more of an issue for non-Aboriginal Australians.

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Aboriginal Australians have been subjected to much discrimination over the past 30 years, yet this is improving within society. The discrimination that the Aboriginal Australians have had to endure over the years is immense. The stolen generation where Aboriginal children were taken away by the Government because Aboriginal parents were deemed to be unfit to look after there own children is probably the most well known case of this. The stolen generation report caused disappointing consequences within the wider Australian community because it revealed the torment non-Aboriginal Australians put Aboriginal people through. Australians also selfishly excluded Aboriginal Australians from ...

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