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Assessment 2 Option 2 Profession-Specific Exercise

1. In what ways will a knowledge of frontier conflicts between Aboriginal
people and European settlers be important to your audience (recent
graduates) in their future professional lives?


The frontier conflicts brought upon an understanding of the importance of all
aspects of Aboriginal culture, especially their spiritual connection and
relationship to the land. Gaining a sound comprehension of this will help
teachers to take into account how this event affected Aboriginal Australians and
as a result will influence how they teach this topic. Furthermore, it will help in
being able to relate to Indigenous students and to improve non-Indigenous
students' engagement with Indigenous history. A sound knowledge of the history
of Australia will help me as a pre-service teacher to gain a better understanding
and be able to pass this knowledge on and teach it to my future students. It is an
important topic for young Australians to know and learn about in their younger
schooling years.

Prior to the arrival of Europeans on Australia's shores, the Aboriginal people
had called the continent home for over 40,000 years. Great cultural diversity
existed among Aborigines, with hundreds of languages and dialects in active use
by the 19th century. (Dafler, 2005)

Many conflicts have risen between the Aboriginal people and European settlers
over land rights for decades. The main view was that the Aboriginal people
believed land was a spiritual and sacred element at the centre of their culture,
which belonged to them. On the other hand, the European settlers or intruders
held a very different belief of the land; they viewed it as something they could
use in their benefit to exploit for wealth and profit upon. The varying beliefs over
the land lead to many disagreements between the Aboriginal people and the
Europeans resulting in the Europeans occupying the land throughout the
continent from 1804-1870s.
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European settlement spread across the continent from Sydney to Hobart in
1804, Brisbane in 1824, Perth in 1829, and later Melbourne in 1835 and
Adelaide in 1836. (Broome, 2010) Due to production and economic growth the
frontier expanded rapidly in the white peoples favour, approximately 4000
Europeans called squatters occupied over 400 million hectares of aboriginal
land, stretching from southern Queensland to South Australia by 1860.
(Broome, 2010)

As a result of the invasion, the indigenous people were forced to change their
lifestyles and move into a European way of life. They were told by Governor
Gawler they could not be happy unless they imitate white men. In doing so they
had to build huts, wear appropriate clothes, adopt the Catholic faith, learn to
speak the English language and make themselves useful by working. More than
500 Aboriginal men and woman worked seasonally in south-east Australia
during the 1840s (Broome, 2010)

The frontier conflicts between Aboriginal people and European settlers
stretched 151 years, which had many detrimental effects on both Aboriginal
people and their rich culture. Some say that the amount of deaths of Aboriginals
tolled up to 20,000. The consequences for the Aboriginal people were drastic,
with a loss of food supplies, the impact of diseases and frontier violence. There
were many killings by the Europeans however, some causes of these in
particular included, infertility, loss of hunting ground, starvation, despair, loss of
pride, and disease. The effect of disease was overwhelming as the Aboriginals
were not immune as the Europeans were, hence causing many casualties. Some
illnesses that impacted the number of deaths included small-pox, the common
cold, measles, venereal diseases and tuberculosis.

Australia's troubled history regarding Aboriginal education, a history that has
included attempts to eradicate entire cultures and languages through forcible
removal from traditional lands, removal of children from parents, and severe
punishments for speaking native languages (Hones, 2005) will help recent
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graduates in their teaching of history related subjects in particular and help to
explain to indigenous students about their ancestors and heritage. I believe it is
important to have a comprehensive understanding of these historic events as it
shows how these events shaped what Australia is today to make it such a
multicultural and diverse country. Yet also have an understanding of what native
Australians sacrificed in order for this to happen.

The moving film Rabbit Proof Fence, based on a true story set in 1931 portrays
the story of Aboriginal children taken from their families, relocated to far-off
schools, and forced to drop their culture and speak only English. As three young
Aboriginal girls who escape after being taken from their homes set off on an
adventure across the Australian outback, it depicts what life was like then for
Aboriginal people. This powerful film would be excellent to show students in
seeing the conflicts between Aboriginal people and European settlers, and how
this invasion affected their lifestyles and culture in the long term. This story of
children forcibly removed was repeated throughout Australia during the first
half of the Twentieth Century, resulting in the creation of a stolen generation,
bereft of their ties to traditional communities. (Hones, 2005)

The settlers endeavored to instill 'civilised' values in the Aboriginal people by
destroying their cultural roots. It was hoped that with a 'limited amount of
civilisation' they might in time become incorporated into European society.
(Hones, 2005) This knowledge will help Aboriginal students in finding pride in
the traditional cultures of the land and even non-Aboriginal students grasp an
understanding of this significant historical event in Australian history.
Furthermore, it is important to note, building students' self-esteem begins by
valuing their cultural heritage. (Hones, 2005) In turn a new and richer idea of
what it means to be Australian will develop.

The policies of forced removal produced the "stolen generations" of thousands
of indigenous children who were subjected to varying degrees of cultural re-
education, isolation, and in many cases physical and emotional abuse. (Dafler,
2005) These policies, which at various times anticipated both the biological and
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cultural elimination of Australia's indigenous population, were established in the
perceptions of white European settlers regarding race.
A momentous moment in Australian history was on the 13
th
of February 2008,
when the newly elected Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, offered an
apology to the Stolen Generations of Indigenous peoples. The purpose of the
apology was to bring the first two centuries of our settled history to a close.
(Giannacopoulos, 2009) Rudd created awareness by reflecting on their past
mistreatment and apologizing for the number of decades Aboriginal people
endured loss, grief, economic hardship and violence.
















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References:

Broome, R. (2010). Aboriginal Australians: A History since 1788. 4
th
Edition.
Location: Allen & Unwin.

Hones, Donald F. (2005). Aboriginal Education at Two Australian Schools: Under
One Dream. Location: Multicultural Education 13.1. (10-13).

Dafler, Jeffrey R., Callaghan, Gavan. Et al. (2005). Social Darwinism and the
Language of Racial Oppression: Australias Stolen Generations: a Review of
General Semantics. Location: (137-150).

Giannacopoulos, Maria. (2009). The Nomos of Apologia. Location: Griffith Law
Review 18.2. (331-349).

Australian Government. (2012). Apology to Australias Indigenous People.
Retrieved from: http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/our-
country/our-people/apology-to-australias-indigenous-peoples