Year 12 - 1/2 Yearly

Question 0

What is the current socioeconomic status of Aboriginals?

Answer 0

• Indigenous Australians experience disproportionate levels of educational, employment and social disadvantage.
• Many indigenous Australians also experience poorer health than other Australians, often dying at much younger ages.
• A healthy beginning in a nurturing environment, with protection from physical and mental abuse, and opportunities for personal development are all important for a long and happy life.

Question 1

What are socioeconomic indicators?

Answer 1

• Socioeconomic status - relating to or involving both economic and social factors.
• Include things such as level of education, housing, employment and financial stress.

Question 2

What is institutionalised racism?

Answer 2

Institutional racism describes forms of racism which are structured into political and social institutions.

Question 3

What is sovereignty?

Answer 3

Sovereignty is the quality of having independent authority over a geographic area, such as territory.

Question 4

What changes were made to the Australian Constitution in the 1967 referendum?

Answer 4

The following statements were ruled out of the Australian Constitution:

• ‘The government has the power to produce laws with respect to people of any race, other than the aboriginal race, for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws.’
• ‘In reckoning the number of the people of the Commonwealth, or of a state or other part, aboriginal natives shall not be counted.’

Question 5

How have aboriginal people tried to improve their political status?

Answer 5

• The Freedom Rides

• February 1965
• Sydney Uni students
• Bus tour of coast/west NSW towns
• Public attention to poor state of aboriginal health, education and housing.
• Lessen the socially discriminatory barriers which existed between aboriginal and white residents.
• Media coverage.

Question 6

Describe one government policy or legislation that addresses the legal status of aboriginal people.

Answer 6

• The Assimilation policy

Aimed to absorb aboriginal people into white society through the process of removing children from their families, and expecting the aborigines to embrace white beliefs and values.

It was expected that such integration would improve their way of life.

Question 7

How has the government addressed the political status of aboriginal people since the 1960s?

Answer 7

• The 1967 referendum

• The referendum was a vote to remove two statements from the constitution and Australian law.
• 90% of voters agreed to get rid of the statements.
• The 1967 referendum did not give aboriginal people the right to vote, did not grant them citizenship and it was not about creating equal rights for aborigines.
• It proposed to include aboriginal people in the census and it did propose to allow the Commonwealth government to make laws for aboriginal people.

Question 8

The UN declaration on the human rights of aboriginal people.

Answer 8

• The UHDR that recognises that if people are to be treated with dignity, they require economic rights, social rights, and the rights to cultural and political participation and civil liberty.
• Article 2 asserts that everyone is entitled to these rights “without distinction of any kind such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status”.

Question 9

Compare and contrast the experiences of the Australian aboriginals and the New Zealand Maoris in relation to the effects of colonisation.

Aboriginals

Answer 9

Aboriginals

• The first fleet arrived in Australia in 1788.
• The Europeans had no understanding of the people and could not communicate.
• The Europeans took control over the land without consent.
• The aboriginal population was greatly impacted by colonisation; massacres, introduced diseases, introduced species, alcoholism, guns and warfare.
• Aboriginals were hunters and gatherers.
• Used as slaves.

Question 10

Compare and contrast the experiences of the Australian aboriginals and the New Zealand Maoris in relation to the effects of colonisation.

Maoris

Answer 10

Maoris

• Abel Tasman first encountered New Zealand in 1642.
• New arrivals had little to no understanding of the people or the land.
• Europeans took advantage of the natural resources available from New Zealand.
• Do you population through massacres or displacement.
• The Maori were greatly affected by colonisation. Loss of land, heavy mortalities from introduced diseases, and loss of life through wars and displacement.
• Maoris were hunters and gatherers.
• Used as slaves.