Analyzing History: Engineering Practices & Indigenous Australians

This report explores the historical treatment of Indigenous Australians and its profound impact on ethical engineering practices. It highlights the distrust, apprehension, and misunderstanding that have historically plagued interactions between Indigenous communities and external entities, particularly in the context of engineering projects. The report emphasizes the importance of trust, open communication, and cultural sensitivity when engaging with Aboriginal communities, advocating for strategies that respect their traditions, address their concerns, and ensure confidentiality. By learning from past mistakes and fostering a collaborative environment, engineers can contribute to a more equitable and sustainable future for Indigenous Australians, with Desklib providing resources for further learning.

Literacy Report
1

Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Report.........................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................8
2

Introduction
This report provides the discussion regarding the history of the treatment of the indigenous
Australians over the last decades. The history has a severe impact on the engineering
practices which affects the aboriginal communities and the representatives.
3

Report
Australia has always been in a midst of premium health facilities and world-class education
system. As recent survey describes the population of Australian aboriginals has crossed over
21 million and thus they are increasing every day. It is very difficult for people who are not
aboriginal to understand what has happened to them, aboriginals have been creating their own
ways to create and survive in the society for over 60,000 years. Later on, people started
making contact with them, starting from Indonesia there were other countries trying to make
contact with them.
Many countries invade them because they were not able to understand their lifestyle and
resources that have made them capable to fight with all the diseases. When British and
European countries invaded the country they killed most of the native people. Their lands
farms, water bodies, food and clothing everything were destroyed. Later in centuries the
history was rediscovered and sustained to study the legends. But there has always been a risk
of vandalism, invasion and breaches (Twain, 2018). There has been an emphasis to study
their engineering and animal husbandry related with their techniques it is just to see that
whether the knowledge is still there or has it got lost in the time.
4

Impact of history on the ethical practice of engineering:
The practice of engineering is highly inspired from the previous history and the legends that
follow them. Thus in order to make a new engineering plan, there should be learning’s from
the history and what has happened in that time that has made a particular project successful or
unsuccessful. Thus to study the impact let us bifurcate the facts into 3 parts.
Distrust- Earlier in history it is seen that there has been a huge distrust of the people amongst
them thus leading to great conflict and making things go out of hands. This has led to an
invitation to outside invaders such that they were not able to understand the current trends
and started destroying each other’s projects. This has given us a learning that whenever there
is a great project that is under construction and involved with many people, it is said to trust
each other and reducing the possibility to invite outsiders to take our technology and destroy
the lifestyle of the society. There has been a legend that this distrust has to lead to European
invasion also, but these facts are not proven as of now. Engineers are needed to trust and be
with each other as much as they can.
Apprehension – There will always be a situation of apprehension in any society, this is the
base of any society to make and move. In indigenous Australian society also although there
were great technologies and resources but the fear of outside society and fear to share their
knowledge has led them to a small group which is just 2.2 % of total Australian population.
Many natives took severe steps that have led to death and abusive society (Our shared
history, 2018). Thus learning from them it is a huge point of discussion to see that there is no
need to be afraid to share new things and apply knowledge from the outer world. Make
strategies so fight the apprehension so that this can be used to frame and progressive society
in future so that future generations can also learn from that information.
Misunderstanding- Whenever there is a society there is the possibility of differences in
opinions and nature of people. Learning from the indigenous Australian people it can be said
that the deep and clearer the views are with each other the more the society can be kept intact
and growth can be seen (Moreton-Robinson, 2015) The misunderstanding among the
civilization of people in Sydney attracts European civilizations; they understood the current
trends and invaded the lands of Sydney and destroying every single resource in it including
people, animals, live stock. etc. This is a major lesson to future engineers to keep the society
intact and value them, moreover making reforms that cover needs of all and does not give a
path to competitors to influence or destroy our resources.
5

Communicating with Aboriginal communities
Communication with aboriginal communities is a task of great patience and strategy. These
communities do not accept the style and trends of the people outside their society. Especially
when the people are from such society that has been facing thrash and hardships of the
society. Australian aboriginals have been part of a neglected and invaded society that’s why
they are quite repulsive to society (IEACI, 2016). Thus to deal with them we need to put a
personal communication such as keeping a low voice tone so as to make them comfortable to
talk, try to take some native person that knows their language.
Try using gestures and images to make them understand the purpose of visit try not to
intervene in their personal space and giving them time to understand and grasp the
knowledge. Listening to their point of views and making them comfortable with the new
knowledge and trends you want to introduce. Make a comfortable physical space and a low
eye contact so as they do not feel intimidated and afraid of outsiders. Take some time to build
a decent rapport between you and them as they try to make more contact and share their
knowledge.
If they are not comfortable they will never share their knowledge and if our purpose is to
introduce new things then it is very important to adhere to above-mentioned points. Try to
ensure confidentiality between them; this can be done by taking both male and female
interpreters such that they can provide gender comfort amongst everyone. Moreover, people
will feel more personal touch and will share more (Davis, 2017). Thus engineers are needed
to make their strategy in such a way that it covers and comforts all the levels and sections of
the society. This is also helpful in covering all the age group of the society. Aboriginals are
sometimes very specific in terms of their comfort zone.
Going through the past happenings with the indigenous people and the way their culture and
society was led to a massive destruction path it is said to be very important to see the adverse
effect that has put on the society and thus to bring them out of such trauma and introduce new
and improvised trends it is needed to keep a trustworthy and respected environment with each
other. The more the backup is strong the better we can apply the policies to the society. This
can be done by taking hand in hand all the sections of the society whether they are rural,
urban, aboriginals, technical or non-technical. Drafting strategies should cover the past issue
with counter-reforms to avoid their possibility in future.
6

Conclusion
This report clears the concepts of the indigenous Australians in the Australian economy over
the last years. The effective impact of the ethical practices on the several practise of the
engineering is also cleared from the provided report.
7

References
 Davis, M., 2017. Engineering ethics. Routledge.
 IEACI, 2016. A Beginners Guide To Incorporating Aboriginal perspectives into
Engineering Curricula. Available at:
https://indigenousengineering.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/eac-v4-small.pdf
[Accessed on: 11.05.2018].
 Indigenous Engineering, 2016. Project Deliverables. Available at:
https://indigenousengineering.wordpress.com/2016/05/02/project-deliverables/
[Accessed on: 11.05.2018].
 Moreton-Robinson, A., 2015. The white possessive: Property, power, and indigenous
sovereignty. University of Minnesota Press.
 Our shared history, 2018. Available at: http://www.shareourpride.org.au/sections/our-
shared-history/
 Queensland Health, 2015. Communicating effectively with Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander people. Available at:
https://www.health.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0021/151923/communicating.pd
f [Accessed on: 11.05.2018].
 Twain, M., 2018. A Brief Aboriginal History. Available at:
http://www.aboriginalheritage.org/history/history/ [Accessed on: 11.05.2018].
8