The Aboriginals People And Cultural Samples †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Aboriginals People And Cultural. Answer: Introduction Unlike most countries whose history is clearly written down, most Australians have a sketchy understanding of their indigenous traditions of their countys first people. The Aboriginals people occupied Australia before the Europeans arrived. The British were the first people to arrive in Australia as they were searching for new colonies after losing America during the American Revolution. The first British fleet of ships docked into Botany Bay on the 18th January 1788 but later shifted to Sydney Harbour on 26th January. It is believed that the main reason why the British sought out Australia was to decongest their homeland prisons and to settle some of her pardoned citizens. As with other colonies, Britain started by invading the Aboriginals in evicting them from their lands, infecting them with diseases that their immunity could not fight leading to deaths and force some of them into slavery. Invasion After arriving in Sydney, Australia in 1788, the British did the same thing they did with the American Indians. They forced the Aborigines from the fertile lands. In the process, many indigenous people were killed as they tried to resist and to protect their lands. Many tribes of the Aborigines died out completely because of starvation. The food that they used to get freely from their land was no longer available. The freedom to roam freely in their land was curtailed ( Oxley Stewart, 2017). Those who survived were forced into slavery, women, and children subjected to harsh working conditions doing everything as some women were imprisoned and used as sex slaves. The Aborigines were subjected to poverty and very hard-working conditions (Gammage, 2011). Cultural Aspects The Aborigines had their own cultural believes long before the British colonized them. The arrival of the British posed a great threat to their culture. The British had a different perception of knowledge, which was different from that of the British. The British believed that their culture was more superior to that of the original occupants of Australia. They also had divergent views on how they viewed knowledge. (Behrendt, 2012) They completely wiped out the original education system of the aborigines and replaced it with their system of education. They that a person possessing their education was skilled and hence suitable to be employed in their farms. The Europeans marginalized the aborigines to the extent that up to date history tends to ignore their contribution and impact to the Australian culture and customs. Over 90% of the aborigines died because of starvation, diseases and death sentences ( Oxley Stewart, 2017). Health and Diseases Upon arrival, the British introduced deadly diseases that were not in Australia originally. The wave of epidemic diseases like smallpox, influenza, and measles spread out rapidly and annihilated many Indigenous communities, of which half of them were killed by smallpox (together, 2012). Women and girls who were imprisoned as sex slaves also contracted deadly sexual transmitted diseases which killed many of them and some infecting their spouses. According to Edward Wilson and Argus 17th March 1856, they wrote we have infected them with diseases which have rotted the bones of their adults and made such few children as are born amongst them a sorrow and a torture from the very instant of their birth. Most of the indigenous occupants of Australia died and most communities became extinct from the face of the earth. As most adults died of diseases, children died of malnutrition and hunger, as they had no one to take care of them (Hill, 2006). Conflicts The expansion of British settlements leads to opening of new colonies in Tasmania resulted to constant conflicts between the local aborigines and the colonial masters. The outcome of these conflicts was mass killings and massive destruction of property belonging to the aborigines. Competition for land and other natural resources that were available at that time accelerated the conflicts between the British and aborigines. The main reason for the competition was to create more land for the settlers who were moving out of Britain to Australia. Historical documents show that massacres of Indigenous people often took the form of mass shootings or driving groups of people off cliffs. This was in a bid to reduce the numbers of the aborigines so that Britain could exploit Australia without any interference (AIATSIS, 2009). Conclusion Australia was a key asset to Britain has she needed a place that would accommodate her citizens that were initially living in the USA after the American Revolution. In addition, in a bid to settle her prisoners, Australia proved to be a good alternative. The Aborigines problems began the moment the first ship docked in Sydney. Foreign diseases, constant conflicts, mass killings, and foreign culture quickly came in killing many of them. References Oxley, D., Stewart, H. M. (2017). Digital panopticon. Retrieved from https://www.digitalpanopticon.org/Convicts_and_the_Colonisation_of_Australia,_1788-1868 AIATSIS. (2009). Retrieved from Aboriginal studies Press: https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/articles/first-encounters-and-frontier-conflict Behrendt, P. (2012). Indigenous Australia for Dummies. Wiley Publishing Australia Pty ltd. Gammage, B. (2011). The Biggest Estate on Earth. Hill, E. F. (2006). Imperialism in Australia. Retrieved from Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism On-Line: https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/australia/hill-ssi/chapter4.htm together, A. (2012). Australians together. Retrieved from Colonisation: https://www.australianstogether.org.au/discover/australian-history/colonisation/