Indigenous Australian Culture, History, Importance

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Introduction to indigenous Australia

Before I enrolled in this particular unit, my perception of indigenous Australians was strongly euro-centric. That is, I thought of these people as being nothing short of savages, who were never able to advance beyond the Stone Age on their own. I believed that, even up to these days, indigenous Australians roamed the Australian bush, while looking for eatable plants and insects and while indulging in never-ending tribal war with each other.

Nevertheless, after having been taken through the unit, I did learn a great deal about Australian indigenous population. For example, I have learnt that, contrary to what I used to think of it, this population is far from being homogeneous – it is not only that 410,000 Australians of indigenous background belong to two anthropologically and culturally unique groups (Aboriginals proper and Torres Strait islanders), but that a number of qualitative divisions exist among Aboriginals proper, as well (Merlan 2005).

I also learned the history of indigenous Australians’ abuse by White settlers, which contributed to the fact that even today, the majority of native Australians lag behind Whites in terms of what accounts for the level of their educational attainment and the quality of their living standards. Nevertheless, I cannot say that due to the factual information about indigenous Australians, I have obtained while studying the subject matter, I began to revere these people uncritically. Partially, this can be explained by the fact that I happened to be a rationally minded individual who believes in the full objectiveness of history’s laws.

What is culture, identity and identification/Cultural competency

It goes without saying, of course, that during the course of the session’s consequential phases, I did learn a great deal about the culture of indigenous Australians. Moreover, I have acquired an understanding of the actual reasons why this culture differs rather strikingly from the culture of White Australians or from the culture of many recently arrived ethnic immigrants to Australia.

Unlike what it happened to be the case with cultures, concerned with subjectivizing the nature (such as Western or my own Arabic culture), the culture of indigenous Australians thrives on these people’s tendency to think of themselves as nature’s integral parts, which explains the ease with which White colonists were able to rob aborigines of their land – indigenous Australians never considered the land as something that could be owned, in the first place (Redford 1990).

This implies that, in order for a particular individual to be able to gain actual insight into the very essence of an unfamiliar culture, he or she would have to study what accounts for this culture’s anthropological and psychological triggers. After all, it was due to White people’s acute lack of an understanding of indigenous psyche’s workings that, up until comparatively recent times, they never ceased trying to ‘correct’ Australian aborigines (Williamson 1991, Jacobs 2005). Therefore, it represents the matter of foremost importance for just about anyone who strives to become culturally competent, to be able to choose in favour of a proper culture-assessing methodology.

Understanding cultural competency/Approaches to enhance cultural competence

As I have implied earlier, the foremost key to enhancing the level of one’s cultural competence is his or her understanding of a simple fact that cultures never cease being reflective of the qualitative subtleties of their affiliates’ psycho type. This is the reason why it would prove quite inappropriate to discuss a particular culture as ‘thing in itself’, which remains unaffected by the spatial emanations of a surrounding reality (Durham 1990).

Therefore, when it comes to enhancing the level of one’s cultural competence, it is important to be able to adopt a thoroughly contextualized/interdisciplinary methodological approach. The integral element of adopting such an approach is embracing the ways of intellectual flexibility, which in turn implies the sheer inappropriateness of discussing the subject matter in absolutes, such as denying the possibility that the specifics of people’s biological constitution may have an effect on the essence of their culture, for example (Lynn & Vanhanen 2002).

In my opinion, in order for a particular person to be able to grow appreciative of an unfamiliar culture, he or she should simply be provided with an opportunity to indulge in close and personal socialization with this culture’s carriers for a continuous period. However, under no circumstances should the process of intercultural socialization be affected by considerations concerned with the promotion one or another ideological agenda.

Reconciliation in Australia

Up until comparatively recent times, indigenous Australians used to be subjected to various forms of socio-political mistreatment, on the part of Australian Whites. Therefore, it does not come as a particular surprise that, as of today, many of them continue to experience the sensation of resentment towards those, whose ancestors considered themselves being on a mission of spreading the ‘light of civilization’ to the ‘primaeval savages’.

Apparently, in order to ensure the successfulness of reconciliation between Australian aboriginals and the descendants of White immigrants, the latter must admit that their forefathers did, in fact, mistreat the representatives of this country’s native population. However, I do not think that this reconciliation can be achieved by the mean of endowing Whites with the sense of historical guilt for what has been done in the past – even before they were born. Therefore, I find it quite inappropriate, on the part of Australia’s prominent governmental officials, to engage in essentially masochistic ‘self-whipping’, while asking for the forgiveness of sins they did not commit (9 News 2008).

Instead, this reconciliation should be discussed as such that could only be achieved by the mean of both: non-indigenous and indigenous Australians coming to realize a simple fact that they live in one of the world’s best countries and that it is only after they cease throwing accusations at each other that they will be able to work together for the sake of making Australia even better (Moran 2002).

First Australians/ Australian history

There can be few doubts as to the fact that, after having attended lectures, I have grown to perceive Australian history as being much more complex than I initially thought it was. Whereas, prior to my enrollment into the unit, I was arrogant enough to think that this history’s beginning coincided with the discovery of Australia by Willem Janszoon in 1606, after having completed the unit I have learnt that it would be so much appropriate to refer to Australian history as being of essentially millennial nature. After all, it is now being estimated that the first human habitats in Australia had been established as far back as circa 40.000 B.C. (Gillespie 2002).

However, there was also another effect of the lectures I have attended on my perception of Australian history – the fact that these lectures convinced me even further that, prior to the arrival of European colonists, this history remained essentially ahistorical. The reason for this is simple – because indigenous Australians never developed a written language, there could be no historical records about Australia’s pre-colonial past, by definition.

Moreover, even if such written language did exist, there are good reasons to believe that aborigines would never utilize it for recording history per se (Kolig 1995). Therefore, even though I was indeed able to adapt quite a few progressive ideas, as to what should be considered Australian history’s actual timeline, I cannot say that the lectures proved particularly insightful in regards of how they addressed the issue of what should be considered the roots of Australia’s greatness.

Social indicators

The foremost thing that I have learnt about Australian society’s social indicators is the fact that there exists a dramatic gap between the living standards of indigenous Australians, on the one hand, and the living standards of White Australians, on the other (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2010). For example, the rate of indigenous Australians’ dwelling-related inadequacy appears to be significantly higher, as compared to the national average.

The same can be said about the rest of social indicators, on the part of Australian aborigines – even a brief glance at these indicators removes any remaining doubts as to the fact that indigenous Australians lag behind non-indigenous Australians (particularly White) in just about every societal aspect. Nevertheless, unlike some overly enthusiastic political activists, I would not be too quick blaming the legacy of British colonialism for the existence of such state of affairs. After all, unlike what it happened to be the case with the natives in Australia’s neighbouring countries, Australian natives do not even have to work to be able to sustain their physical existence (Dixon & Scheurell 2002).

Apparently, many Australian governmental officials do not realize a simple fact that by patronizing aborigines, by the mean of providing them with even more special rights and privileges and by taking care of just about all of their expenses, they create objective preconditions for these people to experience an acute lack of motivation to be trying to improve their own lives.

Human rights

Nowadays, it is not utterly uncommon to hear voices that refer to 2007 The Northern Territory National Emergency Response as another indication of Australian Parliament continuing to consist of racists. After all, by sending Australian troops of six hundred strong to the remote aboriginal communities in Northern Territory, in order to reinstall law and order there, Australian politicians have unintentionally exposed their formal belief in the concept of people’s equality and their commitment to the protection of human rights as being essentially artificial (Chappell, Chesterman & Hill 2009).

Nevertheless, I personally do not think of the earlier mentioned governmental interventionist measure as such that represented the violation of aboriginal people’s human rights per se. The reason for this is simple – in order for just about anyone to be entitled to possess human rights, he or she would have to prove itself human, to begin with. Given the fact that subjecting children to physical and sexual abuse has traditionally been considered one of the most despicable dehumanizing activities, it made a perfectly logical sense for the Australian government in 2007 to decide in favour of intervening – in that year; the aboriginal child-abusers in Northern Territories have proven themselves being nothing short of sub-humans. Consequently, they ceased being the subjects of the UN’s Human Rights Chapter.

Indigenous Australian contributions to Australian society

There can be few doubts that Australian aboriginal authors, artists, musicians and sportsmen did contribute rather extensively to the creation of Australians’ unique sense of self-identity and to the popularization of Australian culture, throughout the world. To support the validity of this claim, it will suffice to mention the names of even few of such world-famous aboriginals as Lisa Bellear, Roger Bennet, Wesley Enoch and Jane Harrison.

At the same time, however, it became a common trend among the Australian hawks of political correctness to assign Australian natives with a number of ‘cultural feats’ of an unmistakably dubious cultural value. For example, after in 1994 Glenn Murcutt (aboriginal designer) designed his house to appear as an aboriginal mud-hut, it resulted in the publication of dozens of ‘academic’ articles, the authors of which seriously discussed the existence of ‘Australian aboriginal architecture’. However, as it was revealed later, many of these articles’ authors had never even seen Murcutt’s hut with their own eyes.

By praising Murcutt’s ‘architectural masterpiece’ to the sky, they simply strived to prove their allegiance to the dogmas of ‘celebration of diversity’ policy ‘A house designed by Glenn Murcutt was completed in 1994… Although few critics have visited the site, the critique is constructed through a narrow range of authorized photographs and some key phrases such as “bridging between cultures” and “touching the earth lightly”’(Dovey 2002, p. 2). Therefore, without denying the fact that many aboriginal Australians are indeed being endowed with a creative/artistic genius, I nevertheless remain sceptical of the validity of this genius’ ideologically engaged appraisals.

Conclusion

I believe that the earlier provided journal-entries are being suggestive of the fact that, after having attended unit’s lectures, I was indeed able to increase the level of my cultural competence. This is because, as a result of having studied the subject matter, I was not only able to obtain a bulk of factual information about Australian indigenous people, but also to learn how to apply an analytical/critical approach towards evaluating this information’s significance. Given the fact that I dream of becoming a doctor – a profession that presupposes one’s ability to remain thoroughly analytical, while on the line of his or her professional duties, I think that by ensuring the critical sounding of my journal-entries, I proved myself being potentially qualified for the job.

References

9 News 2008, Full text of Rudd’s sorry speech, 9 News. Web.

Australian Bureau of Statistics 2012, The health and welfare of Australia’s aboriginal and Torres Strait islander peoples. Web.

Chappell, L, Chesterman, J & Hill, L 2009, The politics of human rights in Australia, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Dixon, JP & Scheurell, RP 2002, State of social welfare: The twentieth century in cross-national review, Greenwood Press, Westport.

Dovey, K 2000, ‘Myth and media: Constructing aboriginal architecture’, Journal of Architectural Education, vol. 54, no. 1, pp. 2-6.

Durham, WH 1990, ‘Advances in evolutionary culture theory’, Annual Review of Anthropology, vol. 19, pp. 187-210.

Gillespie, R 2002, ‘Dating the First Australians’, Radiocarbon, vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 455–472.

Jacobs, MD 2005, ‘Maternal colonialism: White women and indigenous child removal in the American West and Australia, 1880-1940’, The Western Historical Quarterly, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 453-476.

Kolig, E 1995, ‘A sense of history and the reconstitution of cosmology in Australian aboriginal society: The case of myth versus history’, Anthropos, vol. 90, no. 1/3, pp. 49-67.

Lynn, R & Vanhanen, T 2002, IQ and the wealth of nations, Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport.

Merlan, F 2005, ‘Indigenous movements in Australia’, Annual Review of Anthropology, vol. 34, no. 3, pp. 473-494.

Moran, A 2002, ‘The Psychodynamics of Australian settler-nationalism: Assimilating or reconciling with the aborigines?’, Political Psychology, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 667-701.

Redford, K 1990, ‘The ecologically noble savage’, Orion Nature Quarterly, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 24-29.

Williamson, A 1991, ‘Breaking down the myths of colonial schooling: The case of the Torres Strait islands in Northern Australia’, Comparative Education, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 297-309.

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