As per the report provided by Henry, Dana and Murphy (2018), it has been found that there are more than 350 million indigenous people over 70 different nations all around the word, each one of them practising an unique traditions, culture and retaining political, social and economic characteristics which are different from the ones of the dominant communities in which they survive. The communities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander of Australia are one among them. They are very strong, rich and diverse. Their identity is key to this priority and with the same, is intrinsically related to the learning the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, their traditions and the comprehensive view of the world. This paper is going to elaborate on the same. It is going to assess and analyse the diversity in the culture of these communities along with the impact of this on the Australian education (Topp, Edelman & Tayloe, 2018). With the same, it will also present a brief overview of the importance of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, their practice and beliefs on education and learning as well. Furthermore, this paper shall also shed light on the impacts that colonisation has, especially on the education and learning in present date.
The indigenous people of Australia are the two different cultural groups that is made of the Aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islander people (Coffin & Green, 2016). But it is to note that there is significant diversity within these two groups that is exemplified by more than 250 different language groups spread all over the country. An indigenous Australian refers to the person belonging from the Aboriginal or from the descent of the Torres Strait Islander who is been regarded as the Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and is considered as such by the entire community in which he is living (Carey et al., 2017). They enjoy living and diverse cultures. The communities there differ according to the environment, the geographic location as well as the resources- each one having their very own unique cultural practices, knowledge, languages, beliefs, material cultures and knowledge. The Torres Strait Islanders, no matter where they live, call the Torres Strait islands as their home. In contrary to the Aboriginal cultures and people, the islanders also are benefitted from the diversity with their very own languages, cultural beliefs, and knowledge (Harrison & Sellwood, 2016). Although the Aboriginal people and the Torres Strait Islanders have different cultures and societies, their experience of oppression, disadvantage and dispossession as an outcome of the colonisation and invasion has provided a political bond and a shared identity for various indigenous people (Ward, 2017). They now live, work, travel and study in several parts of the country. Before the colonisation, the Aboriginal families had a system of social identification that is recognised as a family’s connection to the land, people and the water. The elements of such systems survive for varying the degrees among every families. The social structures of theirs are further guided by the several different laws of the environmental conditions. All these conditions together depicts the mutual relationship in between the natural resources as well as the aboriginal peoples.
As per the findings of the report of Australian Reconciliation Barometer of 2016, the racism faced by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is very high and the trust in between them and the other Australian people is very low (Paradies, 2016). With the same, the goodwill for the reconciliation is very strong and powerful. Most of the Australian continue to believe the fact that the relationship is very important and that all the Australians must learn regarding the cultures and the histories of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. According to the recent data of 2016, it has been identified that about 95% of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders believe that it is vital to have knowledge about their histories and cultures and 85% of the other Australians belonging from the general community also believes the same (Mooney et al., 2016). Furthermore, 58% of the Australian believe that they have very low or absolutely zero knowledge about the histories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and 67% of them have low or absolutely zero knowledge about the culture of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Pascoe, 2012). Along with that, there is a very strong support all over the states and the territories for the histories of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in order to be a compulsory parts of the Australian school curriculum. About 59% of the Australian who depend of the school education and the other research as the main source perceives the relation as to be very vital. Furthermore, other 44% of the Australians who depends on the media as the main source perceive the same. According to Lindstedt et al. (2017), the young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are more possibly to hold a higher trust for the other Australian communities as compared to the older generations. About 56% of the people belonging from the age range of 18 to 39 years from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community hold a very high level of trust for the Australians who are non-indigenous.
Hence, the Australians today, think that it is very important to learn regarding the cultures and the histories of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and show a very strong support for important standards of the school curriculum in such areas. Studies have also highlighted that the formal settings of education in Australia often provide much more productive attitudes towards the reconciliation in comparison to the media (Carey et al., 2017). It provide more supportive environments for learning in order to properly teach every Australians about the contributions, histories and cultures of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
In the year 1788, the European settlers had colonise Australia. It was then when Australian land was known to be “terra nullius”- which means the land that belongs to none (Reynolds, 2018). Since the European colonisation, the Aboriginals have always been faced to the negative political attitudes which ignored and disrespected the cultural rights of the Aboriginal people. The early colonial governments had introduced several legislations and policies which controlled each and every aspect of the lives of the Aboriginal people. Their cultures where never been respected and the colonisers were consistently working towards civilised people by replacing the prevailing systems of politics. The colonial political policy have contributed towards the social disruption of most of the Aboriginal societies all over the nation (Martin, 2016). The aboriginals have been forced to a high range of colonial legislations and policies all through the colonial history. One of the most infamous of these was “Queensland Aboriginal Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act of 1897” (McGregor & Furay, 2016). It was the act that followed the authorities in order to oppress where these people could work, live and the one they could associate and engage in marriage with. It used to regulate the Aboriginal people to death from the birth. Furthermore, it is also to note that Aboriginal missions were established all through the Queensland by the governments and Christian groups (Wilks & Wilson, 2015). Although they declared to offer protection from the vices of the European society, these missions eliminated the people from the nation as well as cleared the path for settlement and dispossession at the same time. These missions have also provided a readymade source of the cheap labour for the state. The missions grouped the diverse Aboriginal cultural groups into a single institution. Such practices and policies disadvantageously changed the obligations and the culture in between the country and the countrymen. It started a social collapse that have led to the loss of spirituality, connection, economy, status, and lands of the Aboriginal people. With the same, the shared experiences of assimilation and segregation had brought in new shared sees for the aboriginal people. Such new collective experiences of Aboriginal as well as the political allegiances have played an important part in the politicisation of the Aboriginal groups.
The Aboriginals have learnt many things from the contemporary and historical events and they have also fought to be engaged and influence the policies that have an impact on the cultural plight of theirs.
Impact of colonisation on education and learning today- The Australian education system has greatly shaped by 200 years of colonisation. In today’s day, the Australian society have put on several economic growth on the front burner (Gibson et al., 2015). The institutions of the western European have influenced the indigenous styles of knowing and in the Australian countries, it has resulted in several barriers that restrict the contribution and participation of the Aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islander in the systems of education (Campbell et al., 2017). Internationally, the indigenous people are attempting towards bringing into the introduced education systems culturally proper learning and teaching practices in order to ensure that there is a more integrated approach to education and it could transform into the norm instead of being the deviation. The relation in between the indigenous knowledge and the concepts of western European of knowledge and understanding necessity to place in a framework of the mutual interaction in order to ensure that only the indigenous people would benefit and so do the non-indigenous students and the educators.
Hence from the above discussion it is to state that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have faced several challenges because of the colonisation of Australia by the Europeans. They have caused a lot of troubles for these local Australian Aborigines and this have significantly decreased their population as well as has damaged their ancient bonding of family. It has also removed thousands of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders from the land on which they have had lived for over centuries. However, there is a huge impact of these groups on the education system of today’s Australian society. They have recognised their importance and value them as a part of their country. The education system of Australia has ensured to make the studies of the cultures and histories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders a compulsory part of the curriculum as well.
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