The Impact of Colonization on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People in Australia

Running head: SOCIOLOGY
Sociology
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1SOCIOLOGY
The colonization in Australia has always left an indelible mark on the lives of the
indigenous and Aboriginal people in Australia. These people have always been oppressed by the
upper classes of the society after the colonization. Before the colonization the white skinned
British imperial people always embarrassed them and tortured them at the highest point. It has
been observed that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders do not trust the social workers at all
(Gee et al. 2014). The reason for this kind of behavior will be addressed. The reasons for the
history of colonization as being considered as very crucial among the aboriginals will be
discussed as well. Apart from that, the culturally safe practice is also considered as a crucial part
for the development of the scenario (Price and Rogers 2019). The social workers should always
very sincerely, carefully and with much patience so they can do effective work among the
Aboriginals and the Torres Strait islander people.
Critics have highlighted this discourse by comparing it with the colonization process of
the Australians. During the times of colonization, the colonized countries were being considered
as the prisons during those times. The settler governments always used the colonized countries as
the prisons (Gee et al. 2014). They used to torture on the captivated local people in an extreme
way. These native people lost their lives most of the times. In the year 1778, England targeted
Australia and established their new colony in this country.
During those times, that place was known as New South Wales. The British colonizers
always took away the lands of these aboriginal people and they were left nowhere. Most of them
were beaten to death (Price and Rogers 2019). There was lack of food and hunger became a huge
problem. Many of the aboriginal people in Australia had to starve for uncounted days. The
immunity systems of these people were very poor and they had to die of illness. The situation
had worsened so much that people were turned into slaves who did not die in this extreme

2SOCIOLOGY
torture. The women and children were used for works like cleaning, collecting food and other
things (Dudgeon et al. 2014). Many people had also been used as the sex slaves as well. So, the
situation of the aboriginal people in the region was very pathetic where losing lives became a
common thing. However, the wheels had turned and the non-indigenous people in Australia
believed that they could save the aboriginal Australians by the assimilation process (Gee et al.
2014). Thus, the non-indigenous people could welcome the aboriginals into their ways of life.
This would surely be a good thing for saving so many lives.
Still there is a grave problem i.e. highly there within the society. This problem is
regarding the social workers. Most aboriginals do not like or trust the social workers because of
several reasons (Price and Rogers 2019). The critics have researched in their own ways to find
out the proper reasons of this. There are certain barriers as to why the aboriginal people of
Australia do not like to take help from the social workers. They believe that these social workers
are up to doing some harm to these aboriginal people. The aboriginal people definitely suffer
from several health issues and they are victims of some chronic diseases indeed. However, this
distrust should be overcome so better facilities could be provided to them. Critics are of the
opinion that these aboriginal people suffer from post traumatic stress disorder because of their ill
experience for their previous experience with the white skinned people. They believe they are all
of them are same and they are there to harm them. To solve this issue, more people from the
aboriginal background should come up and join the social working groups ((Dudgeon et al.
2014). They will be able to convince their fellow people that social workers are only there to
provide them with all the help they need.
All the human service workers in the contemporary practice settings should always be
aware of the fact that the aboriginal people are deprived of the proper education and they can