How are Aborigines treated in Australia?

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â˜…â˜†Wabbyâœ¿â€

Badly.

I've heard some nasty stories. Like how they buy meths and lemonade and mix it together. They lie on the grass after it's been mowed and get high off the grass cuttings.

I think some of them like their way of life.

To the answer who said they didn't know what native group have been treated well, try the Maoris. They get hand outs and their foreshore is being protected because of the Taniwhas .

Rygar

This question would be better stated as "How do Aboriginals perceive themselves?"

And the answer would be poorly.

Nobody "treats" Aboriginals.
They are not animals requiring care and support.

As human beings, they choose to become contributing members of society or not in exactly the same way anyone else does.

What they do with their lives is ultimately up to them.

Cheers :)

Live_For_Today

Why some say they are treated poorly, just keep in mind that quite a few Aborigines don't want to improve their conditions and were even given homes to live in and all they did was wreck them and damaged them. They just want to get drunk all the time and the ones in Cairns often go to their local store and buy some methylated spirits and orange juice, which they mix together and get very drunk in the parks and end up sleeping in the parks.

sebe

very badly

Mum of 1 and #2 due June 7th

They are treated poorly and the majority of them don't look after themselves.

Ken E

The fact is that various Australian Federal and State governments have been at their wit's end to try and improve life for aboriginal people for decades. Nothing seems to work. The ministry covering aboriginal affairs has been known as the "poisoned chalice" among politicians for years and the ambitious ones want nothing to do with it.

Sometimes government policies have been mistaken but at the time they were thought to be correct. This included the removal of children from aboriginal parents, a policy which was carried out up to about 30 or so years ago.

While this was evidently wrong, it was not adopted out of great prejudice, but some of those who applied it may have been prejudiced. All that said, at the time of the enquiry into the "stolen children" several years ago a number of those who actually implemented it said very clearly and distinctly that some of the children that were taken owe their lives to the fact and they would have done the same thing if faced with the same conditions at the time.

There are a string of disappointed and scarred teachers, nurses, police and other people who have worked in some aboriginal communities. I have heard and read several stories and I personally know one woman whose story is close to tragic as a consequence of her teaching position in one community.

A number of aboriginal communities have been established in areas where there are no resources to speak of, this particularly includes some communities in the Northern Territory. These communities are within or close to the traditional areas of the older people in these communities. The region may have been capable of supporting a few dozen people in a nomadic life, but it cannot support hundreds in a settled community. While cattle raising is possible, it is not sufficient to support hundreds of people. The result is mass unemployment and no prospect of work in the nearby area. The next community may be hundreds of kilometres away and may have the same problems. It does not matter where you live or what "race" you are, the devil finds work for idle hands.

In 1978 - 82 my late Uncle Colin was a track inspector for the Queensland Railways in a north-western town. The railways at the time provided employment in track maintenance for a large number of labourers. Not all of his workers were aboriginal men but about half were. In about 1980 the railways began to replace gangs of labourers with machinery in that area. Uncle Colin wondered what many of his men were going to do, because most of them, aboriginal or not, were barely literate.

The awful truth is that many aboriginal children and their parents have had a pretty casual attitude to attendance at school. This springs from a disdain for whitey's ideas and also from a custom among some groups that children were permitted to do pretty much as they pleased until they were about 12 or 14 and then were expected to act as adults. Desultory attendance at primary school leads to certain consequences. Among these is the inability to get worthwhile jobs.

The contention that aboriginal people have some special "spiritual" connection with the land just by the fact of birth is neither more nor less than racism. What connection does an aboriginal child born in say Sydney to parents from perhaps northern NSW have with the land? The idea is absurd.

Quietman40

The same way Native Americans were treated over a hundred years ago in the USA. Which is to say p*ss poorly. And the Native Americans aren't treated a WHOLE lot better today. But the Aborigines treatment in Australia is truly abysmal.

FORKY

WHY is it always how they are treated,how can we help them,what can we build them,etc how about how can they help them selves,how can they contribute to building better futures for them selves-like everyone else has to do,i know this sounds harsh but lets face it the handouts have never worked and has only contributed to a victim mentality,I'm all for helping someone if its helping them help them selves and giving them the tools to stand on their own 2 feet,the aboriginal people have been treated badly in the past but they need to start moving forward and start helping themselves.

* mandie *

unfortunatly too bloodly good!
they have an easy an life, n don't go gettin on ur high horses n say they arn't, do u live them day in day out? i do
have u been out the their communitys n see how they live??
i have n trust me they are far better off then u think.

Appallingly. Absolutely appallingly.

I could go into details, but you would be too shocked and appalled.

I really can't think of any indigenous peoples of the world who have been treated well.

They are treated very poorly and always have been. They have now been denigrated into 2nd class citizens and carry a huge chip on their shoulders.
Cant blame them tho when their land was invaded, taken from them and they were thought of as another species of animal!!!
Now they have largely become welfare recipients, living on the verges of society not accepted by the main stream of the population and not able to take their future in their own hands.

auburn

In some cases the Aborigines have been treated badly but you cannot listen to the majority of hype that is televised overseas about their treatment. Unfortunately a lot of Aboriginal people (not all) will not help themselves and this has to be seen first hand when you visit places that have large amounts of them.
I am not trying to excuse any poor treatment they may have received and have some friends who are aboriginals who are truly lovely people but what you see in newspapers and on tv is not necessarily the way it is.

Every document filled out in australia has special sections for torres strait islander and aboriginals to fill in as they get special concession for about everything here. Scholarships have a special section that is only awarded to aboriginal students who are also more likely to get any other scholarship on offer.
So things are not always what they seem

And a very well said to Ken who couldnt have said it better.

JLL1976

Sorry to say... not well at all. When not being subjected to misguided and heavy-handed paternalism, they are out -right ignored and neglected.
There is a lot of prejudice aganist Aborigines too. I once spoke to a man who was Aboriginal who looked almost Indian. He said that if he let people think he was from India he had no problems at all. People were nice to him, he could get work etc etc, as soon as they found out he was in fact Aboriginal they changed and life became difficult for him.

But Why??

Well overall they are the most disadvantaged groups in Australia. And the 2nd worse health level of any indigenous group in the world.
Aborigines lost their self determination upon the colonisation of Australia two centuries ago.
There are a million problems associated with all of this. Because of the settling of this country all the Indigenous people were displaced, unfortunately. Our Government has tried to fix things or at times scrape things under the carpet by pretending to give Aborigines back their self rule only to dangle the carrot too far from their grasp with self management, not really self determination.
SRA's have been put into place in certain regions (Shared responsibility agreements), these are agreements between the Australian government and Aboriginal communities to assist disadvantaged Aboriginal and Torres Staright Islander residents. Some have worked out, some have been total disasters as it is a form of discrimination towards the Indigenous people, as some mundane and ridiculous tasks are asked in return of financial help. Funny enough though, they got results. There was an event took place in a remote town where a swimming pool would be granted only if the children were sent to school. It was famously known as the "No school, no pool" SRA.
In July this year there was intervention in the Northern Territory regarding the sexual abuse of children and other problems refering to health and education up there. It has been something that has had to be addressed, but not soon enough. It could be argued that this is also discrimination against Aboriginal Australian's, however even some Aborigines have welcomed it. Although if the army did that to white Australia, it would be a different kettle of fish.

jennifer h

This is very hard to answer , I have lived amongst aboriginals and I know a lot of people that work helping them. there is a lot of issues. they have a high demand for medical treatment but the government works hard to keep on top of much of the problems but they have a long way to go .Many of the aboriginals live of the land . the land is their cultural experience and they have no desires to live like the white man. Some of the communities are completely different to others . Some of the aboriginals have mining rights so get payed quite well from mining companies . Others have missionary workers so the church plays a big role for them . Most of the Aboriginals I have had contact with a really lovely people but some also have alchohol problems but most of the communities are dry so no alchohol at them. I can't say they are treated badly but I can say there is work to be done.

lottieLUNATIC

This question is too simplistic to answer properly. There are urban, rural, remote and traditional Aboriginal Australians. Each group are diverse within themselves. There were over 200 language groups at the time of the invasion and from then on these groups were mixed, scattered, tossed off their country and separated from their kinship groups. Country and language are at the centre of the lives of Aboriginal Australians. Generations of marginalisation and disadvantage have had great impact on Aboriginal Australians. Paternalistic government policies have not been successful, only when government acknowledges past atrocities and damaging social policies can there be progress. There are issues with addiction in some communities, I see this as a result of the hopelessness of intergenerational trauma and the inability of government to work collaboratively with Aboriginal Australians to identify priorities.

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