Aboriginal Law & Torres Strait Islander Issues

This assignment delves into various aspects impacting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia. It examines the perspectives on Aboriginal law, particularly regarding violence against women and children on the Southeast Queensland frontier. Additionally, it analyzes health promotion strategies, issues affecting Aboriginal grandparents raising grandchildren, and the prevalence of mental illness within Indigenous prison populations. The assignment also highlights environmental risk factors impacting Indigenous health and explores the intersection of language, culture, and land ownership in shaping their experiences.

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Assessments
Student : Jewel Vafee - S1710650
Course : Diploma of Nursing
Course
Offer : 17VDONB7
Course
Unit : CHCDIV002 Promote Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander cultural
safety
Assessmen
t type : Theory Assessment
Displaying 1 to 14 out of 14 total.
1. Identify a piece of legislation in the context of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait
Islander cultural safety in your State/Territory. Describe the key objectives/objects
outlined in the identified Act in relation to Aboriginal cultural safety.
The Torres Strait Islander Cultural Heritage Act 2003 binds all people including those
from the state, the Parliament’s legislative power, the commonwealth as well as other
states. The main objective or purpose of the act is to provide recognition, conservation
and protection effectively to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural heritage

(Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships (Queensland
Government), 2017).
The key principles or objectives are:
1. Providing recognition, conservation and protection of the cultural heritage
through respect of knowledge, customary practices and culture of the Torres
Strait Islander people.
2. The people of the Torres Strait Island should be considered as primary
guardians, knowledge holders and keepers of their cultural heritage.
3. Provide respect, preservation and maintenance of knowledge, practices and
innovations of the inhabitants of the Torres Strait Island. Promoting
understanding of their cultural heritage.
4. Promotion of activities directed towards recognition, conservation and
protection of the cultural heritage as it will help to reaffirm the obligations of
the Torres Strait Islander people to their customs.
5. Establishment of effective and timely processes for handling activities that
harm the cultural heritage of the Torres Strait Islander people.
2. Describe in your own words, the following concepts of diversity of Aboriginal
and/or Torres Strait Islander cultures (in 30-50 words each).
2.
1
System of Kinship:
The kinship system enables the Aboriginal people to understand the relationship
they have with one another, the roles and the responsibilities they have to take in
raising their children. Modelling of positive behaviours like sharing and caring,

helping to build good behaviour, identity and self-confidence of the children are
some of the important features. Grandparents play an important role in passing
down family traditions and cultural knowledge to their grandchildren. It helps to
build both family and community strength. The Aboriginal culture acts as a
protective force for their children (Parker and Milroy 2014).
2.
2
Dreaming:
Dreaming is multilayered, holistic framework or approach that combines the
physical, spiritual and personal dimension of the aboriginal culture along with
their past, present and as well as their future lives. The Aboriginal communities
who carry out traditional culture practices remain relevant to with the spiritual
connection in association with their dreaming. Spiritual connection to the
dreaming enables the Aboriginal communities to raise their children and impart
values of group adhesion, community loyalty and interdependence (McRae-
Williams, E. and Guenther 2012).
2.
3
Aboriginal languages:
In the past, more than 100 different languages were spoken by the Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander people. Presently, only 50 languages exist with only 20
languages spoken as the first language by the Torres Strait Island inhabitants. The
Torres Strait Islan community consist of two main traditional languages. These are
the Meriam Mir and Kala Lagaw Ya (Hamacher et al. 2016). The language of the
eastern islands is Meriam Mir, while the traditional language of the central and
western islands is Kala Lagaw Ya. Meriam Mir consists of two dialects: Mer and

Erub, while Kala Lagaw Ya has four dialects: Mabuyag, Kalaw Kawaw Ya, Kawrareg
and Kulkalgau Ya.
2.
4
Importance of law (traditional law):
The Aboriginal people had a set of laws set out by them and termed as the
traditional law. It includes the features associated with unacceptable and
acceptable behaviours in their community. These traditional laws were very
important as it helped them to maintain a safe society without any misdeeds like
theft, adultery, insults, homicide, abduction, physical assault, among others.
Moreover, not sharing the food with someone was also considered an offence
under the traditional law. The traditional law was handled by the elders in the
Aboriginal community (Connors 2012).
3. Briefly describe the impact of European settlement on the Aboriginal and/or Torres
Strait Islander people and communities in relation to loss of land and culture (in 60-80
words).
European settlement had a severe impact which was highly devastating for the
indigenous people of Australia. This resulted in dispossession of their land and loss of
culture. The European settlers sold off the land of the natives. The settlers established
many industries in the lands of the native people. As the settlers encroached more into
the lands of the native people, it resulted in loss of indigenous food supplies, loss of
sacred sites and hunting practices. This resulted in the death of a number of indigenous
people due to shortage of food supply and eventual malnourishment. The loss of

access to food and clean water resulted in a number of fatal diseases affecting these
people. They were also forced to live in churches and government reserves. They were
also prohibited from speaking their language and following their social or cultural
practices. They had to adapt the European language, dressing styles, cultural values
and religion (Nadew 2012).
4. Briefly describe the impact of racism and discrimination on Aboriginal Australians
(in 50-70 words).
The impacts associated with racism and discrimination on Aboriginal people was: poor
access to resources and services. This resulted in poor living and housing conditions,
lack of utilities and poor access to healthcare facilities. Psychological stress affected the
emotional and social well-being of the people. This resulted in tobacco and alcohol
consumption eventually affecting the safety of the community. The natives suffered
various mental illnesses like depression, anxiety and also used drugs. Various health
risks were also involved like cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, among
others (Durey, Thompson and Wood 2012).
5. Provide 1 (one) example each of how power relationships and power gradients have
been manifest in recent and in early colonial times.
In Ethiopia, power relations are learnt at a young age through family structures where
men are considered superior to women and elders are considered superior in every
aspect from the younger generation. These power relations learnt in the family
structure are also embodied in the political sphere and this hierarchical structure

affects the flow of democratic governance in the country. The low socio-economic
status of the Ethiopian women and disempowerment led to their poor health. Men are
more privileged in getting primary education compared to the women of the society
(Molla 2013).
Political and various social dynamics, along with the colonial rule caused the
development of inequality among the Africans. During the British colonial rule, this
inequality resulted in unequal distribution of land. In Zimbabwe, land is a very
important source of resource and power relations caused poor access to land from the
middle of the sixteenth century till the 1950s. This resulted in poverty, poor
development, lack of education, food shortage, and unemployment among others
(Lund and Boone 2013).
6. Identify and describe 3 (three) factors that disproportionally affects Australian
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in terms of health.
Environmental health factors involve the biological, physical and the chemical factors
of the surroundings. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are affected by
various diseases as a result of their remote settlements which are far away from
resources, hygienic conditions and healthcare facilities. They have poor infrastructure,
lacks maintenance and contact with tradesmen (Knibbs and Sly 2014).
Infrastructure and housing play a very important role in maintaining the health and
overall well-being of the people. Overcrowding and lack of proper infrastructures
including access to sewage, electricity and water supplies play an important role in

terms of declining health of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander inhabitants.
Poor nutrition is another factor that affects the health of the natives. Socio-economic,
social, environmental and geographical disadvantages are the root cause of poor
nutrition giving rise to obesity, malnutrition, cardiovascular diseases, tooth decay and
type 2 diabetes. Poor consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables; while consuming
large amounts of sweetened beverages and sugar rich foods led to the poor nutrition
status of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
7. Briefly describe the impact of trauma on a person’s ability for the following:
7.
1
Decision-making:
Decision making involves a series of complex processes like determining
alternatives, various probabilities and identifying consequences. However, the
mental state of an individual plays a very important role in their decision making
process. Posttraumatic stress disorders can affect various features that constitute
the decision-making capability of a person. These are attention, cognition,
memory and problem solving capabilities. All these are altered in a person
suffering from trauma (Aupperle 2012).
7.
2
Communicating:
There are different ways in which trauma can impact the communication skills of
an individual. These include: the inability of the individual to connect to the outer

world (sense of disconnect), unable to create good rapport with others, suffering
from helplessness, shock, lacking the ability to assert their own decisions.
7.
3
Understanding:
People with trauma suffer from a poor sense of understanding about themselves
and of their surroundings. They lack self-confidence and this contributes them to
be unsure about their surroundings leading to poor development in workplace
and in society.
7.
4
Retaining information:
Individuals suffering from trauma has difficulty to retain their information, which
are obtained from verbal sources. It affects their ability to generate new
memories. This is caused generally due to the lack of attention resulting from
impairment in the brain. This mainly affects a child ability to learn as lack of
attention results in inability in retaining and retrieving information (Aas et al.
2014).
8. Identify and describe 3 (three) ways to involve Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait
Islander people in the planning and delivery of services and programs.
Inhabitants of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island can be involved in various
programs and services.

Promotion of healthcare services, including the aboriginal elders and the government
will ensure identifying indigenous problems and finding out solutions.
Indigenous volunteers can participate in providing a trusting environment that will
enable in proper interpretation of highly sensitive cultural issues.
Another way is to hire native Aboriginal people in healthcare services that will enable
to provide a lasting therapeutic relationship to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander
patients.
9. Many aged Aboriginal people have a major role in raising their grandchildren and
great grandchildren. Briefly describe how this cultural factor may impact on the service
delivery to Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander clients in an aged care context (in
40-60 words).
The Aboriginal grandparents spend a lot of time in raising their grandchildren. The
grandparents take the role of parents in raising their grandchildren. They provide them
with education, care and impart cultural values. The grandparents can acquire the
authority to care for their grandchildren through various federal courts, through the
NSW child protection act, in a semiformal manner or in an informal manner. However,
there are a number of grandparents who raise their grandchildren without any legal
recognition. The legal nature of the grandparents is essential because it enables the
grandchildren to return and arrange for health services for their aged grandparents.
They are unable to sign consent forms, which causes barriers in obtaining aged care
services for the elderly grandparents (du Preez, Richmond and Marquis 2017).

10. Identify 2 (two) critical issues that may influence building therapeutic relationship
with an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander client.
As the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people live in remote areas, they lack
proper healthcare facilities. However, even in the urban areas they are unable to build
a lasting therapeutic relationship with healthcare providers. One reason could be the
high turnover of staff in the healthcare facilities.
The nurses and the healthcare providers may not be culturally competent to
communicate with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The healthcare
providers should keep in mind the social and cultural customs of these people.
Other issues could be racist behaviour and discrimination meted out to these
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people by the healthcare providers. Moreover,
absence of any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff in the healthcare facilities
could also impact in building therapeutic relationships. Unaffordable costs of
healthcare facilities could also add to the problem.
11. Identify 2 (two) critical issues that may influence communication with Aboriginal
and/or Torres Strait Islander people.
Language may be an issue that can affect communication in association with the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Most of them do not speak English and
some of them speak English in dialects like Aboriginal English, Kriol and Torres Strait

Creole (Koch and Nordlinger 2014).
Another issue is time. In the western culture, there is a high regard for timely
communications. However, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have more
value for community relationships and family responsibilities than for time. They
require time to understand properly and require consultation times which are flexible.
12. Describe 2 (two) strategies you could implement to overcome the consent issues
for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients (in 40-60 words).
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people follow a kinship system, where the
elders of the family take the major decisions. So, it is necessary to contact the right
person in making critical decisions related to a family members health. Presence of
Aboriginal staff also provides a sense of faith and understanding that enables the
patient to give consents for addressing critical issues.
Language also plays a very important role in giving consents for healthcare matters.
Learning the native language or hiring interpreters helps in better communication that
helps to overcome the consent issues for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
patients (Demaio, Drysdale and de Courten 2012).
13. Provide 3 (three) examples of strategies you could implement in your nursing
practice in order to support the development of effective partnerships between staff,
Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people and their communities.

One effective strategy in nursing practices that helps in developing effective
partnerships is cultural competence. Culturally competent nursing practices enable
better communication, enhanced knowledge about culture differences and
identification of social practices (Heffernan et al. 2012).
Development of respectful relationships also helps to establish an effective partnership
between nursing staff and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Carrying out
nursing practices that are accepted by the social norms of the indigenous society.
Language plays an important role in developing and maintaining partnerships. Learning
the indigenous language helps to communicate better and helps to develop a trusting
relationship that is the root for developing an effective partnership.
14. Identify 3 (three) resources you could utilise to promote partnerships in promoting
Aboriginal cultural safety.
Strategies that can be utilised for promotion cultural safety of the inhabitants of the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island include:
1. Hiring the aboriginal youth and elders to promote Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander cultural knowledge and social practices.
2. Development of school programs that provide information about Aboriginal
culture practices and customs.
3. Promotion of aboriginal language in schools and healthcare facilities.

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Disengaging from trauma. Neuropharmacology, 62(2), pp.686-694.
Connors, L., 2012. Women, children and violence in aboriginal law: some perspectives from the
southeast Queensland frontier. Past Law, Present Histories, p.125.
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