Report on Current Issues in Professional Practice
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Added on 2020-04-15
Report on Current Issues in Professional Practice
Added on 2020-04-15
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Running head: CURRENT ISSUES IN PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE0Aboriginal and TorresStrait Islander People
CURRENT ISSUES IN PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE1Question 1This report will focus on the issues face by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander(ATSI) people that are living in Australia and evaluate their current position. Further, thereport will analyse the impact of current regulations and policies established by thegovernment for Aboriginal people and evaluate their strength and weaknesses.ATSI people are known as the first inhabitants of Australia. Traditionally, individualswith specific skin colour or ‘Aboriginal blood’ were considered as the Aboriginal but moderndefinition has been changed. Now, the Federal Government provide the definition whichdefine Aboriginal person as individual who (Australia Human Rights Commission, 2005):Is of Aboriginal ancestry;Recognises as Aboriginal person; and The community in which he/she lives has accepted him. Historical ContextThe ATSI communities of Australia are the oldest living cultural history in the world;the Indigenous culture is around 50,000 years old, and many experts argue that they are about65,000 years old (Australia Government, 2015). The Indigenous culture has survived thislong because of their capability to change and adjust as per time. Land is a fundamental partof Indigenous culture, and it is the core of their spirituality. The Aboriginal people weresemi-nomadic hunter and gatherers who lived as clans in different territories which weredivided based on mountain, lakes, and rivers. The Indigenous people were divided into about600 clan groups. In 1770, British arrived in Australia and claimed it in the name of UnitedKingdom (Dudgeon, Wright, Paradies, Garvey & Walker, 2010). The consequence of British arrival brings a wave of new diseases in Australia such assmallpox, measles, chickenpox, and influenza; these illnesses spread between Indigenouscommunities and especially between the large population territories. The diseases cause thepopulation of Indigenous peoples to drop substantially. The British took tradition lands ofIndigenous people which were situated near agriculture lands and water sources. Between1788 and 1900, the combination of factors such as diseases, direct violence and loss of landreduces the population of Indigenous people by 90 percent; in 1920, the population reducedbetween 50,000 and 90,000 (Hughes, 2007).
CURRENT ISSUES IN PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE2Current ContextThe impact of colonisation is still negatively influencing various aspects of ATSIpeople. The government has started giving recognition to Indigenous people and begun toimplement new regulation to protect and promote their rights. But the situation of Aboriginalpeople is still poor in Australia since they face various economic, social, political, legal,physical and mental issues (Esler, Johnston, Thomas & Davis, 2008). After Mabo case, thegovernment started to accept the ownership of Indigenous people on traditional lands, but itdid not have a substantial influence. The population ATSI people in 2011 was 669,900 whichconsist about 3 percent of the total population of Australia (Australian Bureau of Statistics,2016). Currently, the Indigenous people face various issues in Australia that adverselyinfluence their physical and mental health.Question 2IssuesThe ATSI people face various issues in Australia due to the negative effect ofcolonisation, racism, lack of health care options, and other poor government regulations suchas:Low life expectancy rateHigh rate of suicide, incarceration and youth incarcerationDiscrimination in employmentLack of healthcare options that increase vulnerability to dangerous diseasesSexual violence and domestic violencePhysical and mental health issueThe government of Australia has implemented various regulations to uplift Indigenouspeople condition, but they have failed to do so. Most of the Aboriginal people sufferedthrough physical and mental problems because of lack of facilities. Following are social,political and economic issues faced by Indigenous people in Australia.Political IssuesIndigenous people experience extreme level of racism throughout Australia,especially in southern states. The Aboriginal people face racism in schools, hospitals,courts and other public agencies. The racism causes mental trauma in Indigenous
CURRENT ISSUES IN PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE3children that adversely influence their education and create mental problems(Donelly, 2015).The rate of ingenious incarceration is substantially high in Australia; they represent 3percent of the Australian population still more than 28 percent of Australian prisonsare Aboriginal. The number of Indigenous incarcerated women is more than 34.3percent of total women prisons (Korff, 2017a). Even after the establishment of many regulations for the protection of land rights ofAboriginal people, most of the Indigenous individuals are not able to claim theirtraditional lands because of the mining corporation. The government proceedings andrequirements for proving the ownership are complicated which made it difficult forIndigenous people to claim ownership over traditional lands. The rate of crime against Indigenous people is substantially high in Australia; most ofthe Aboriginal children experience or suffer from crimes that negatively influencetheir point of view towards life.Economic IssuesThe low income and education facilities made it difficult for Aboriginal people toinfluence and engage with society. The Indigenous people have the lowest economicstatus than compared to other societies in Australia.The Aboriginal people face many difficulties that create barriers to their educationlike (Bennett & Zubrzycki, 2013):i.English teaching materialii.Inappropriate history of Aboriginal people in the books that did not depictrealityiii.Not enough Indigenous history in textbooksiv.Racism by teachers, staff and other studentsv.Poverty made it difficult for parents to afford study materialHigh rate of debt, homelessness, financial hardship, social isolation, familybreakdown, domestic violence, and lack of proper representation in the judicialsystem. Social IssuesDiscrimination between Indigenous and non-Aboriginal Australian duringemployment, education, healthcare, and other social situations
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