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Aboriginal Rights

Medieval alchemists would have been astounded that ‘flora and fauna’ could be turned into a human being with the simple tick or stroke of a writing instrument. Yet Australia’s indigenous population were considered as ‘flora and fauna’ up until 1967, when a referendum was held as to whether they should be afforded the same basic human right to be officially recognised and counted as Australian citizens. An overwhelming 90.77% (www.aph.gov.au), of Australia’s other eligible and recognised citizens thought that Australia’s indigenous population should be afforded the right.
While this referendum had corrected a long standing wrong, Australia’s indigenous population with their varied tribes, languages and customs still bear the brunt of marginalisation in all aspects of modern life. Poor healthcare, poor education, lack of opportunity for progress, lack of funding for continuity of culture and language, higher rates of imprisonment, systematic paternalistic interference and a general apathy for indigenous causes can be attributed to a system of racist beliefs and practices that continue to permeate Australian mainstream society and that this inherent racism is used by politicians to gain favour with the electorate.
While successive governments since 1972 have attempted to increase indigenous participation rates in all aspects of modern life through the use of specialised government departments, commissions and committees, Indigenous Australians are still detrimentally marginalised. Politically, indigenous Australians are an underclass through lack of education about the political system, through populist stigmatisation, through an entrenched class system, which determines where they reside, and therefore the amount of representation they receive in policy and decision-making and through an enormous disenfranchisement via abnormally high rates of imprisonment. Add to that a general malaise throughout the indigenous communities with regards to white man’s politics and...