The main issues in Indigenous Australia

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The main issues in Indigenous Australia

Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders are the original habitants of Australia. They have been living in this country for more than 60.000 years.1 At the time the Europeans came to settle the Indigenous population decreased dramatically. Reasons for this decline include the battle for land and the introduction of foreign diseases. Although this is more than 200 years ago, the problems within the Indigenous community have not been resolved yet and the Indigenous people's position in the mainstream Australian community is still marginal. Their health conditions are appalling. There is a lower attendance of Indigenous children in school; there is high unemployment among Indigenous people and their disproportionate involvement in crime is a serious problem. The Australian government is attempting alleviate the situation, but is it really getting better?

In this paper I will explore several important issues in contemporary Indigenous Australia. In particular, this paper examines the problematic issues surrounding land rights, health and criminality. I will discuss these problems and analyse the government's engagement. I will discuss how his engagement seems to address these issues and what this engagement suggests about the status of Indigenous people in current-day Australian society. I will argue that lives of Indigenous Australian people today is still unequal compared to those of the non-Indigenous Australian people and that the Australian government has a great role in this process. However, the Australian government does not appear to be alleviating the situation contributing to a better life for Indigenous people.

When the British settlers arrived in Australia in 1788, they assumed that the land was empty because there was no indication of ownership or identifiable signs of government. Even though the continent was never judicially adjudged Terra Nullis (no men's land), the Europeans conquered the land as if Indigenous people had no rights to their land.2 For years the Indigenous people were subordinated and denied a rightful place in the Australian nation. But in 1976 with the appearance of the Aboriginal Land Rights a new stage in Aboriginal empowerment commenced. 3 Finally the Indigenous people in the Northern Territory were able to negotiate with the government about their land if they could proof their traditional connection with the land. Within the victory of the Mabo case in 1992 the High Court recognized the spiritual connection the Indigenous people had with their land and that the land was not empty. 4 This did not only contain rejection of the notion of Terra Nullis, it also extended "native title" over Australia. This was the recognition of the Indigenous people as the original inhabitants of Australia, but did not contain exactly how many rights they had. That is why the Keating Government introduced the Native Title Act in 1993.5 This was one step forward for equal rights for the Indigenous people. Sadly the response of John Howard's government after the Wik case in 1996, was the 10-point-plan in 1997 that changed the Native Title Act.6 To many this change was seen as discriminatory against the land rights of Aboriginal people. Yet, the Howard government argued that the changes were balanced and essential to deliver certainty to pastoralists.7 Nowadays, still 32% of the Indigenous people live in major cities and 16% in very remote areas. In contrast, 69% of the non-Indigenous people live in major cities and 2% in very remote areas.8 A similar set of problems with inequality occurs in the area of Aboriginal health.
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The second and one of the main problems is the health condition of Indigenous people compared with the health conditions of non-Indigenous people. The Indigenous population has higher rates of illness than any other group in Australia. The major health problem is diabetes. In 2004-2005 diabetes was reported by 6% of the Indigenous people. That is around 3.5 times more than the occurrence of diabetes amongst the rest of the Australian people.9 Beside diabetes, Indigenous people are more likely to die from other diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer and communicable diseases than non-Indigenous people.10 Statistics from the ...

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