During the term, of course various topics have been taught by lecturer about Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal such as Western Education, Dispossession, loss of connection to country, racism, and stolen generation. In the whole course the topic which has resonated with me the most is stolen generation. Stolen generation means practice of take away the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal children from their original culture and family. The incident of separating children from their parents is happens in the years 1804-1969. More than 100000 children and teenagers were taken away from their parents (Terszak, 2015). These children were removed from their parents to provide the opportunities for education, protection from, poverty, abuse, and act of racism. Stolen children were taken and raised by state institutions and some by churches (Day & Francisco, 2013). Some of them were adopted or raised by the white parents. The forced removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families still had a profound psychological impact on these communities.
After understanding the full incident of stolen generation, I feel like how anyone can even think of separating children from their families. Family is a very essential part of everyones life especially for children. When I first hear about government stolen generation policy I got completely shocked, government is for the betterment of the resident of country how they can do this kind of act, how the government can think of developing policy of removing children from their family. According to me, the act of removing children form their families is a crime and government cannot deny the fact that they have done wrong to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population by taking away their children.
When I come know about this concept the first thing which come to mind is what if someone stole or remove my child from me how would I feel. The feeling which I experienced just by thinking about the incident has completely stuttered me I got goose bumps. I even cannot think of giving my child to somebody unknown to me, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents has experienced the situation in real. Later in 2008, the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s has made a speech in parliament to apologise to the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal population for the act of the government which they have has done in past. However, this apologise is not enough to heal the emotional and physiological impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Young, 2011).
The government takes this action because the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal population in Australia are treated unequally the condition of the people is not good and they are suffering from discrimination. To heal the conditions of Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal the government has made the policy to remove children from their parents and provide them a better life but in place of healing they has given them dip wound that cannot be healed by any medicine. The Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal are facing problems of inequality in every aspect of their lives especially in health. The health conditions of Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal is not good in Australia.
While conducting research on it is been found that, Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal are the indigenous people of the Torres Strait Island. Torres Strait Island is a part of Queensland, Australia. They are distinct from the other aboriginals of the Australia. In present, Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people are living at the different parts of Australia, which comprised of various groups, which have their own distinct history, language and cultural traditions. The health conditions of Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal includes emotional, physical, cultural and social wellbeing (Lowe & Yunkaporta, 2013). It was found in that many Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal are facing the problem of poorer heath in comparison to other Australian, they are often dying at much younger ages. It is been found out in the research which is been conduct by me while reading various journals in comparison to the other Australian residents the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal are more likely to have mental health problems, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, mental health problems and repertory diseases (Jongen, McCalman, Bainbridge & Tsey, 2014). The national indigenous health strategy defines the health of the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal, the strategy states that not just physical wellbeing can be consider as a whole concept of health for Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal but it is also include emotion social and cultural wellbeing of the whole community. In simple words Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal health concept is much more border than the health of an individual alone it includes the community as a whole.
While reading about the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal I come to know about one bad incident, which has taken place in Australia against Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal population that has provide very bad impact on the people who belong to this particular society. In between 1910-1970, many aboriginal children were forcefully removed from their families and this happen due to the various policies implemented by the government and in present time, we can find the impact of that particular incident on the indigenous communities, in their families and on their culture (Young, 2011). The term which is been used for this act of government is Stolen Generation. The stolen generation are the children of Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal Australian descent who were forcefully removed from their families by the church missions, state and federal government (Terszak, 2015). The few lines related to the topic influence me so much to read the topic further. While continuing the topic, the policy because of which the indigenous children are removed from their families is Assimilation. Assimilation is based on the assumption that the white people are superior then the black people. The children who were taken from their parents as a stolen generation were taught to reject their real identity that is their indigenous heritage and force them to adopt their white culture. The authorities also changed the name of the stolen children so they can adopt their white culture. The children were forbidden to speak their traditional language (Day & Francisco, 2013). Among those stolen children some of are adopted by white families and many of them were placed in institutions where they were treated very badly. The Assimilation policy provides it more focus on those children who are half-caste children. Half-caste children mean the children with lighter skin colour. The half-caste children were considered valuable by the authorities because these children can be easily assimilated into the white community due to their lighter skin colour.
The impact of the act of the government of been still notable the society of Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal are still were affected by this act. The aim of government behind stolen generation is not good and really inhuman act. If I put myself at the place of the mother or father whose child is been taken away from them give me goose bumps. Even I do not want to imagine that condition of leaving my child for one day to some who is unknown to me. The impact of the act is still in the mind of the people. I have read some articles on internet where the children who have get stolen from their parents share their experiences. Still the conditions of the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal population is not changed much they in past they face the issues of stolen generation and in present time they are suffering from other various problem from which inequality in health care stood as a main problem.
While conducting the research on the topic I come to know that the present conditions of Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal population is not changed, still they are facing the discrimination in every aspect of their life. In comparison to the Non-indigenous people, Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people’s health conditions are worse, the mortality and morbidity rates between Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people are very high. The Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people are admitted in hospitals at much higher rate than non-indigenous. At hospitals, also they receive poor health care facilities due to that the mortality rates increases (Verhoeven, 2015). The health care is considered to be a main problem for Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people. The inequity in health care clearly exist among non-indigenous and Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people. The Australian Bureau of statistics has conducted a survey in 2011 the report stated that the life expectancy ratio of Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people is 11.5 years lower than the non-indigenous people. The life expectancy ratio of Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal males is 67.2 years and of non-indigenous males is 78.7 years, and for Torres Strait Islander and aboriginal females the life expectancy ratio is 72.9 years and non-indigenous females is 82.6 years (Australian Government Department of health, 2018). While reading a research, I come know that due to remote, social economic disparity, geographic conditions and due to cultural differences the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal populations is experiencing a substantially higher rate of infant child mortality, low birth weight, perinatal mortality and age-standardizes death rates. These factors are also responsible for the infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, Chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disorder, diabetes mellitus, and sexually transmissible infections (Australian Government Department of health, 2018)
In Northern, territory of Australia Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal account for 97.5% and among them only 2.1% Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal speak English at their home. It is been found by me while studying the articles, that the linguistic is a main factor of culture, an unproductive communication leads to an intense disappointments in the healthcare outcomes (Jie-Li, 2017). The health care system of Australia is consider to be the world’s best health care system but it trends to provide less benefit to those individuals or patients with whom the health care provider fails to communicate. Effective communication with the health care provider will lead to the better health care facilities but due to the miscommunication the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal does not get proper health care. It is very important to address the cultural distance between healthcare professionals and Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal clients. The culture also refers to the people’s feeling of belonging to a group (McCalman, et.al. 2014). The physical and biological difference among non-aboriginal and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and population also trends as a point of difference. The people trends to trust those people who belongs to same region, same community, same religion and come from social class, because they share a same ethnicity and physiological features. It is been seen many times Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people refuse to get treated by white doctors (Jie-Li, 2017).
In 2008, The Australian Government has developed a framework to tackle the disadvantages received by Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal. The government has made the committed to develop the wellbeing and health of Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal by reducing a gap in health outcomes (AIHW, 2017). No plan can be fulfil without getting into partnership therefore the government of Australia has and Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community has developed a partnership among them to reduce the gap between the health care facilities. The National Congress of Australia first People have delivered a serious role by developing National Health Leadership Forum. The vision of health framework is to close the gap between the health inequalities Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginals. The health plan for Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal provide a focus on the wellbeing of Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people who are suffering with disability, or are young and for ageing people (Australian Government Department of health, 2018). The health plan they provide more focus on the childe health and consider child health as a broader issue. In 2008, the Government has committed to work with Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people on incredibly important task that includes achieve fairness in life expectancy and health status between Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal and Non-Indigenous Australians by 2031.
After doing the research for the project, my perception about the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people has been totally changed. In previous I do not like the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people I used to ignore them. I used to think that the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people are responsible for their conditions. When I was a child I used to think that the black people are thieves and they used to mugged people on the street, because they are not hygienic and used to wear old and smelly cloths. In the school also I used to stay away from the black children because they seem different to me. When the project is been assigned to me till date I used to think the same way totally against the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people (Vos, Barker, Begg, Stanley & Lopez, 2011). However, when I start doing research I come to know about the conditions of the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people. After going through several articles and journals on the topic, I found that we accept it or not there is a huge gap between the health as well as living conditions of non-aboriginal Australian and Aboriginal Australian. The cultural values of the Aboriginal society have been directly influenced by the British colonisation. The their spiritual values, land use, law, and their way of living their life is very different. If we are going to find out the difference between the aboriginal families and other Australian families, we can clearly see the difference by seeing their standards of houses. The living conditions of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander are very bad they are living at small houses with very less facilities. The families who belong to Non-Aboriginal families are living their life very lavish they have their designer house with few members. The families of Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal used to live in a small house and the area where they live is very unhygienic some places are not suitable for human being to recite. The conditions of the Aboriginal Australian are not good in every aspect they have to face the discriminations. After knowing the conditions of the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people there is, something is in my mind to apply in the my professional practice such as to treat the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people the health practitioners need to learn and admire the culture, belief system and disparities of Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people. Strengthening the cultural competency and health care professionals can be arise as an effective solution for diminishing inequality in the health care (Adams, Collins, Dunne, de Kretser, & Holden, 2013). It is important for the government to provide training to the health practitioners. To attain the equality in health care the government and Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal community and various organisations need to work together to offer solutions to develop cultural competencies, and the health providers need to work together to create innovative solutions. It is very important for the government to appoint same cultured doctors in the area where the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people are living. The problem of communication it is important of the health care provider to have the knowledge of the language of the people they are going to treat, if the health care provider does not understand the language the government can arrange a translator for them. To improve the condition of the Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal it is important that Australia work as a whole and consider them as an important part of a country.
Reference
Adams, M. J., Collins, V. R., Dunne, M. P., de Kretser, D. M., & Holden, C. A. (2013). Male reproductive health disorders among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men: a hidden problem. Med J Aust, 198(1), 33-38.
AIHW. (2017). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Performance Framework. Retrieved from: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/indigenous-health-welfare/health-performance-framework/contents/summary
Australian Government Department of health. (2018). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Performance Framework. Retrieved from: https://www.health.gov.au/indigenous-pdf
Australian Government Department of health. (2018). Indigenous Health. Retrieved from: https://www.health.gov.au/indigenous
Day, A., & Francisco, A. (2013). Social and emotional wellbeing in Indigenous Australians: identifying promising interventions. Australian and New Zealand journal of public health, 37(4), 350-355.
Fredericks, B. (2013). ‘We don’t leave our identities at the city limits’: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in urban localities. Australian Aboriginal Studies, (1), 4.
Jie-Li, Li. (2017). Cultural barriers lead to inequitable healthcare access for aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islanders. Journal of Nursing Research, 4(4), 207-210.
Jongen, C., McCalman, J., Bainbridge, R., & Tsey, K. (2014). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander maternal and child health and wellbeing: a systematic search of programs and services in Australian primary health care settings. BMC pregnancy and childbirth, 14(1), 251.
Kinnane, S., Wilks, J., Wilson, K., Hughes, T., & Thomas, S. (2014). “Can’t be what you can’t see”: the transition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to higher education. Journal of health and education system 4(3), 8-10
Lowe, K., & Yunkaporta, T. (2013). The inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content in the Australian National Curriculum: A cultural, cognitive and socio-political evaluation. Curriculum Perspectives, 33(1), 1-14.
McCalman, J., Tsey, K., Bainbridge, R., Rowley, K., Percival, N., O’Donoghue, L., & Judd, J. (2014). The characteristics, implementation and effects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health promotion tools: a systematic literature search. BMC Public Health, 14(1), 712.
Terszak, M. (2015). Orphaned by the colour of my skin: a stolen generation story. Routledge.
Verhoeven, A. (2015). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health. Retrieved form: https://ahha.asn.au/sites/default/files/images/phn_discussion_paper_three_-_aboriginal_and_torres_strait_islander_health.pdf
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