Essay Genocide and Modernity

-White settlement affected the Indigenous people in a number of ways”{They} made them (the Aboriginals) outcasts on their own land*” by calling it terra nullius under the English Law, despite knowing the existence of the Aboriginals. Terra nullius is a latin term that means “land that belongs to no one.”They believed it belonged to no one because the Aboriginals didn’t use the land in the same way as the British. The Aboriginals believed that Mother Nature would provide them with what they needed, so they didn’t need to hunt and mark the land. The British completely ignored the deep spiritual connections the Aboriginals had with the land. They cut down trees, put up fences and built towns. They believed they had to own the land. But the Aboriginals were outraged when saw the settlers building farms where they had originally been hunting and gathering at, this was because there wasn’t enough food for them. They killed many white settlers in revenge and a clash of cultures began. Pemulwuy was an Aboriginal warrior that lead raids against the British. He also speared John McIntyre, Governor Phillip's gamekeeper, in December 1790. When the Indigenous people resisted the British, it lead to many conflicts which eventually left a irreversible damage to the lives of Indigenous people.

Genocide is an action that is not unique to any one set of specific circumstances. It knows no bounds of time or location. From thousands or years ago to present day and on every civilized continent, the eradication of entire groups of people has occurred. The current definition of genocide was established by the United Nations in 1948: “(a) Killing members of [a] group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group” “with intent to destroy, in whole or in

Education is fundamental to growth, the growth of the individual, and the growth of a nation. Anthropologically this can be seen from the earliest of developments of human societies where practices emerge to ensure the passing of accumulated knowledge from one generation to the next. In the centuries since the invasion and colonisation of Australia in 1788, colonist authorities and governments have dominated the making of policies regarding most major aspects of Australian life, including the lives of Indigenous Australians. The enactment of these policies and legislation, whether targeted at society as a whole or directly at education, has had significant and most often negative causal impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, resulting in not only poor educational outcomes, but the loss of cultural identity, the development of serious issues in health and wellbeing, and the restriction of growth of Aboriginal communities. Moreover, there has been an ongoing pattern of the adoption of ill-informed policies in Australia, resulting in these poor outcomes and cultural decimation. Aboriginal people have developed a wariness, a mistrust, and even an attitude of avoidance to engage with non-Indigenous officials and those who they associate as their representatives, i.e. personnel working within

Since the beginning of European colonization in 1788, Aboriginal people have experienced displacement, have been the targets of genocidal policies and practices, and have had families destroyed through the forcible removal of children. Decades of colonial exploitation and a prolonged systematic attempt to destroy Aboriginal people and culture have led to legislations and policies that are punitive and restrictive towards Aboriginal people. Such legislation reflects the dominant society’s perceptions of Aboriginal people and how they ought to be

From the first of the British Invasion in 1788, a staggering assault over a multiplicity of years, the colonisation of Australia on the terms of Terra Nullius meant Indigenous Australians were doomed with cultural genocide and depleting numbers. This use of colonisation, was understood and used by the foundations which ‘provided the means by which concepts of what counts as human could be applied systematically as forms of classification’ (Smith, 1999, p.25) exploited through political “accomplishment” and taught by science ‘to shape relations between imperial powers and Indigenous societies’ (Smith, 1999, p.25). Unfortunately, the mindset of colonisation and the colonised continues in our contemporary society. For these instances, this practice of colonisation targeted Aboriginal people in a ‘deliberate and calculated’ approach, intending to ‘displace people from their land and resources’ (Sinclair, 2004, p.50) To attain this ambition, Aboriginal culture was to be destroyed, at first through antagonisms, and more recently through the use and creation of ‘mainstreaming’ policies. However, in light of the evolving nature of colonisation, there is and

The European colonisation of Australia was a long and violent process, in which the “White Settlers” took property from the Indigenous Aboriginals and forcibly dispossessed them of their land. Initially, Governor Phillip had made attempts to live amongst the Indigenous Australians, as Britain had recognised the rights of the Aborigines around the world for many years before settlement in 1788.

In the world, as a result of colonisation, many Indigenous communities had been impacted intensely. Cunningham, Chris;Stanley, Fiona (2003) defines an indigenous by the experiences shared by a group of people who have inhabited a country for thousands of years, which often contrast with those of other groups of people who reside in the same country for a few hundred years. In 1788 since the European invasion of Australia, for thousands of years the aboriginal peoples have been oppressed into a world unnatural to their existence. This essay will discuss on how most Indigenous peoples have suffered as a result of colonisation. This essay will firstly focus on colonisation of indigenous peoples, when and who was involved in doing so. How the ideologies underpinning colonialism have informed interactions between non-Indigenous and Indigenous peoples will be addressed at a general level. Furthermore, this essay will also discuss a comparison of how each groups of indigenous Australians experienced colonization together with the issue of dispossession from land, cultural and sovereignty and Christianity.

The health of Indigenous Australians has long since been recognised as being impacted by inequalities and injustices that go against todays socially acceptable norms (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2007). When colonisation occurred, Aboriginal Australians suddenly found themselves and their way of life under threat. Their country was taken away from them and were forced into subjugation through a series of introduced ‘policies’ designed by a government who wanted to control and isolate them. For example, the Assimilation Policy covered the period between 1951–1965 was introduced by the Australian government to create a uniformed, white Australian culture (Australians Together, 2016). It was based on the premise that

One of the important things is the diseases bringing from England, according to Wikipedia: “Nevertheless, deadly infectious diseases like smallpox, influenza and tuberculosis were always major causes of Aboriginal deaths. Smallpox alone killed more than 50% of the Aboriginal population. Reynolds, and other historians, estimate that up to 3 000 white people were killed by Aboriginal Australians in the frontier violence.”(Wikipedia, 2015) the original people haven’t met it before so they don’t have the antibody for that kind of diseases. They don’t have the choices to select but suffered the big calamity which is unfair to the Aboriginal people. On the other hand, British killed lots of Aboriginal Australian because of racialism and land grab. Given there were 3,420 official dispersals across 40 years, the historians argue “the settlers' 43% must approximate to another 2,580 attacks”. (Paul Daley, 2014) It shows that the settlers are not getting along with the original people and there are not have law to protect the safety of Aboriginal people from racialism and massacre. Because indigenous peoples have no private values, they think acquisition of white’s food and hunting white’s poultry are their rights but for the white people they are stealing their work achievement. Due to these different opinions Aboriginal Australian just suffered the sharp decrease in population for many reasons the British

Since European colonisation began most Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders people has been on hardship. They were not granted citizenship rights until 1967 and waited until 1972 to be paid equal wages. During this colonisation period Aboriginal people has faced into many difficulties such as legal and political discrimination, social, cultural, loss their traditional languages, separation from families and children, abuse,

Before the class began this semester, I was unaware of all the genocide cases and their concepts that constitute what a genocide truly is that have occurred within the world’s existence. The UN Convention defines the term genocide (rape and killing) into five specific categories of the terminology. Out of the five elements described, the first, second, and fourth elements are the categories that I mostly saw demonstrated throughout the studies that we discussed within the class. These elements proclaim that genocide means the killing, causing of serious bodily or mental harm, and the imposing of measures intended to prevent births, all within the specific targeted group. These demonstrate the main attributing factors that not only occur within a genocide as it is undergoing, but also the notions behind why the genocide occurred to begin with.

The genocide committed during Second World War is one that still scars the human psyche to this day. The horrors of the Second World War lead to Raphael Lemkin’s creation of a new word, “genocide” in 1944 (Conversi 2006: 320). The definition of genocide is still under dispute by academics (Dallaire and Coleman 2013: 778; Manaktala 2012: 179; Hinton 2012: 11). For the purposes of this essay the definition used is the one created by the United Nations following the signing of resolution 240 (Stanton 1998: 1). The definition in the current form reads, “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part a national ethnical, racial or religious group” (United Nations Resolution 260 1948: Article 2). Using this definition, the three best examples of genocide in this era are Rwanda (Magnarella 2005: 801), The Holocaust (Vardejo 2012: 81) and Armenia (Hinton 2012: 13). Using these three genocides, this essay will examine the three key causes of genocide in the modern era. The first being hardships both economic and created by war that ultimately lead to a genocide. The next is the creation of an ‘us vs. them’ ideology which leads to the dehumanisation of the victims. The final cause is the enlightenment concept, which supports the perpetrators belief that they are doing this for a better world.

When Governor Arthur arrived on the shores of Tasmania there were only “…five thousand at first contact” where they were the last “full-blood” Aborigine (p.129). The governor was given instructions to “…to protect them in their persons” and “…lawful means prevent and restrain all violence.” (p.130) Reynolds stated that the governor’s intentions could not “…survive the brutal realities of the bush” (p.132) where settlers were being killed by colonies of Aborigines in their “…so called districts.” (p.131) Reynolds stated that Governor Arthur communicated through his advisors for advise on how to handle this solution and even offered a settlement for the Aborigines with a “…remote corner of the island strictly for them” (p.133), however this did not go to plan and he became more aggressive with his communications and declared that it was a necessity to drive out the “…black savages from the settled districts” (p.134), Reynolds noted that this decision was agreed upon by the Executive council who declared that they “…regret in advising these measures” but it was an “…inevitable necessity” “…to inspire them with terror” “…will be found the only effectual means of security for the future.”

Raphael Lemkin coined the term "genocide" in 1944. According to Lemkin, genocide signifies the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group and implies the existence of a coordinated plan, aimed at total extermination, to be put into effect against individuals chosen as victims purely, simply, and exclusively because they are members of the target group. This coordinated plan is committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. According to the United Nations' definition of genocide in their 1948 declaration of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, genocide is a crime under international law and classified as such:

The second part of this essay will discuss proposed mechanisms which will try and provide solutions, such as recognition, to the historical wrongs associated with colonisation. These mechanisms include the proposal of an amendment made to the Constitution, whereby Indigenous Australians will be granted constitutional recognition. Further, a proposed mechanism is the creation of a treaty between the Indigenous