Economics: Cultural Marginalisation of Communities Assignment 2022

Running head: ECONOMICS ASSIGNMENT
ECONOMICS ASSIGNMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

ECONOMICS ASSIGNMENT1
Introduction
Cultural marginalisation of communities has never been a raiser of eyebrows. Ever
since humankind had the conception of hierarchy in societal structuring and class, somehow,
it became innately embedded in the collective cognitive consciousness that a certain group of
people hold absolute power over the rights of a set of other groups of people. Historically, the
most gruesome instances of marginalisation and social exclusion have always been of the
indigenous people of a particular nation and even in the current context, they continue to be
in the worst strata even amongst the poorest and the most disadvantaged with almost no
rights been identified for them, being denied of a socially accepted cultural inheritance and a
systemic discrimination cum exclusion from political and economic rights and powers, as
reported by The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII 2009). The case of the
indigenous Australians was not very different from the generic. This essay is focused on
looking at the history of the Aboriginal and the Torres Strait Islander communities of
Australia and by identifying key aspects of their marginalisation and exclusion throughout
history as well as by studying relevant academic literatures, providing a comprehensive
course of action for the implementation of a much needed constitutional reformation
statement in a modern day business context.
Thesis statement
It is prudent, given the current business and commerce environment, to identify the
place of the Aboriginal and the Torres Strait islander communities in this world as well
implement key elements of the “Uluru Statement from the heart”.

ECONOMICS ASSIGNMENT2
Discussion
The colonisation of the Australian aboriginal population was a stepwise process. The
beginning of the colonisation process was marked by the “incursion by the colonising group
into a geographical area” (Alford & Muir 2004, p. 102). It was swiftly followed by a ruthless
destruction of the indigenous socio-economic, linguistic and religious structures and
afterwards, by an increased external political control which included refusal of basic political
rights and suppression of voice by considering their cognitive abilities to be underdeveloped
(Roberts & Martin 1981). These stages were marked by high poverty rates, unemployment,
low overall health profile, increased psychological issues and substance dependency as well
as low self and community esteem (Watson 2014). The subsequent stages of the colonisation
saw an increasing dependency of the indigenous population on the mainstream communities
for basic amenities and inadequate provision of medical and educational services. As time
progressed, the gaps between the indigenous and the mainstream population increased and at
a point, as an aftermath of the whole colonisation point, racial segregation became one of the
most detrimental factors for the indigenous Australians.
As Altman (2018) elaborates in his paper, there are an approximately 1200 discrete
indigenous communities in the remote parts of Australia and each community accounts for an
average of almost only a hundred people each. The total Australian indigenous communities
were all formed as a product of the colonisation of the indigenous population and even until
the 1980s they were denied the basic rights and amenities like healthcare, education, proper
housing as well as income support that the urban and non-indigenous Australian population
enjoyed the luxury of (Altman 2018; Trewin & Madden 2005). Given that the provisions
came in late and it was also difficult to deliver all the services to the whole population, a
large part still misses most of the amenities or whatever is being provided as provisions.
Therefore, a need for sustainable development of the indigenous population was prioritised.