Australian Aboriginals: Injustice, Racism, and Cultural Sensitivity

Running header: AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL 1
The Australian Aboriginals
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINALS 2
The Australian Aboriginals
The program ‘The Tall Man’ shows several gruesome events happening to the people of
the Aboriginal community of great palm island in Australia. The video and media coverage
discloses how murder, injustice, racism, impunity of the government, false accusations of
innocent people, violence, humiliation, and corruption in the law enforcing system affected the
indigenous people of Palm Island. Such occurrences are so disgusting in society. In fact, upon
watching the video, it would be irrational to hesitate provision of gloomy and sad emotions
toward the manner in which individuals are being treated in the society today.
In the program, a 36 years old man called Cameron Doomadgee from Aboriginal
community was arrested for being drunk and making public noise and brutally killed by a
policeman named as Christopher Hurley (mediasite.jcu.edu.au, 2016, 00:32:00-00:42:00). This is
an unjust and irrational act among authorities. This resulted in riots after which an indigenous
activist Mr. Wotton, was falsely accused based on racism and jailed for stirring violence.
Following this incidence, it is clear that unjust and human exploitation based on racism is
dominating in society today. However, the Federal Court ruling condemned Queensland Police
for breaking the Racial Discrimination Act and compensated an amount equivalent to $220 000
to Mr. Wotton and his family (NITV, 2017). With respect to the court ruling, it is satisfying to
note that the court system empress accountability.
However, the entire narrative does not promote justice and equality as the state
government, and the Queensland Police Service appealed the court's orders afterward (Lily,
Sally, and Laura, 2018). Such an act displays an autocratic kind of governance. The president of
the Queensland Police Union, Mr. Leavers, protects the police officers claiming that they are not
racist. He said the police were working in difficult situations hence they are under pressure. Also,

AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINALS 3
he was very mad at the compensation payment. This clearly shows how impunity dominates
government officials. Yet not all government officials are autocratic in nature. For instance, three
parliamentarians impress a humanitarian act by criticizing the government's intention to appeal
the decision made by the federal court because the appeal could be hurtful to the community
members (Ella, 2017). The media coverage also shows police raiding the home of Yvette
Nicholas, a 19-year-old and frightening them by pointing guns at them then taking their uncle
and aunty. This is a big sign of humiliation.

AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINALS 4
Preparation for Working with Aboriginal Community in Australia
The Palm Island community is more sensitive to their culture. They have diverse values
and beliefs that provide a sense of meaning and uniqueness or identity. In fact, the Aboriginals
are deeply rooted within their traditions and religion. For instance, the religion of the Aboriginals
does not permit engagement in western medication culture (Waterworth, Dimmock, Pescud,
Braham, & Rosenberg, 2016). Such beliefs have a fundamental implication on the delivery of
services and the provision of extension services to such a community. Thus, the Aboriginals are
the most disadvantaged community in Australia. The community is faced by most of the health
challenges like obesity and diabetes (Towns, Cooke, Rysdale, & Wilk, 2014).
Furthermore, the traditions of the community tend to be conflicting with the British laws
that govern the entire nation. Therefore, the community tends to be resistant to the operating
government, which in turn, results in injustice incidences by the authorities in the country.
Aboriginals are emotionally tortured and have negative attitudes toward the government
(Bottoms, & Evans, 2013). Working in such a community requires one to understand deeply its
culture for better collaboration with the members of the community. This essay is, therefore, set
to explain how I would prepare myself to work with this community.
The first step shall be a self-examination. At this point, I shall engage in a series of
assessment methods to identify my strengths and weaknesses with respect to cultural competence
(Bessarab, Coffin, & Wright, 2016). This will give me a clear picture of the areas that need
development. Some of the factors to consider during the self-assessment program include my
competency in the language of the aboriginals, cultural operations, norms, ethics, traditions,
leadership, social aspects like interrelationships and finally their attitudes and beliefs towards
lifestyle aspects. A proper understanding of the community is, therefore, fundamental in the