Sociology Essay: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Culture

This sociology essay examines the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community in Australia, highlighting their rich culture and the historical injustices they have faced. It focuses on the non-profit organization KARI, exploring its objectives and services within the Greater Sydney area. The essay delves into demographic, geographic, and socio-cultural information, drawing on data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. It discusses the unique spiritual beliefs, educational challenges, and health disparities within the community. Furthermore, the essay explores the social institutions, government policies, and legislations impacting the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, including the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities Act and the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of preserving their culture and addressing ongoing challenges.

Running head: SOCIOLOGY
SOCIOLOGY
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

SOCIOLOGY 1
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Demographic information................................................................................................................2
Geographic location.........................................................................................................................5
Socio cultural information...............................................................................................................6
Social institutions information.........................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References......................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
The aboriginals and the Torres Strait islander community of people have been the subject
of much controversy and attention towards the end of the current century due to the reason of
their maltreatment in the hands of the colonizer of the Britain and the continued prosecution
within the land their own rightfully1. The rich culture of the aboriginal Torres Strait islander
people which dates back to the stone is partly near to extinction due to the oppression that is
suffered through the time. The essay highlights the aboriginal culture highlighting the
community agency that provides community services to the aboriginal community of people in
the Greater Sydney. The essay explains the objectives and the aims of the non profit
organization, KARI in the context of highlighting the culture and the identification of the
demographic, geographic and the socio cultural data related to the aboriginal and Torres Strait
islander people in Australia.
Demographic information
The diversity group that has been chosen for this assignment is the Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander people. According to the data gathered from the Australian Bureau of Statistics,
the aboriginal community of people consist of the majority of the population in the northern
territory and the Sydney2.
1 Balme, Jane, and Susan O'Connor. "Dingoes and Aboriginal social organization in Holocene
Australia." Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 7 (2016): 775-781.
2 Taylor, John. Spatial mobility of working age Aborigines in settled and remote Australia: a
preliminary analysis. Canberra, ACT: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research

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In the context of the community services towards the aboriginal population, the essay
highlights the work and the aim of the KARI of western Sydney.
The diversity group of the Aboriginal consist of 140 people. KARI, the nonprofit
organization have established their offices in Sydney Metro, South West Sydney. The group of
people consist of both the aboriginals from the urban and the rural region. In the context of the
gender distribution, the city of the Sydney witnesses more number of female than the male
working in the community services for the wellbeing of the diversity group3. The context of the
spirituality and the predominant religion within the aboriginal community in Australia have
many of the forms. In the context of the location of the Sydney, the aboriginal group of people
refers to spirituality rather than the religion. According to Strong, Steven and Evan Strong
(2017), the religious beliefs of the aboriginal community people, the religious beliefs are
generally derived from the sense of the belonging to the sea, the land and the nature. The
aboriginal community of people tends to follow their own religion regarding their spiritual
beliefs and the influences of the ancestral spiritual belongings.
As per the census of the 2011, more than 15% of the aboriginal and Torres Strait islander
people belonging to the age 15 years and over reported the gross personal income related to
$1000 on a weekly basis. More than 56% of the aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people
(CAEPR), Research School of Social Sciences, College of Arts and Social Sciences, The
Australian National University, 2018.
3 Ens, Emilie J., et al. "Indigenous biocultural knowledge in ecosystem science and management:
review and insight from Australia." Biological Conservation 181 (2015): 133-149.

4SOCIOLOGY
reported to have experienced an equalized income of the household on a weekly basis among the
amount $200 and $7994.
In the context of the education and the system of the knowledge impart among the
aboriginal people there lies various of barriers and challenges towards the education system of
the aboriginal. According to Gray, Alan and Habtemariam Tesfaghiorghis (2018) the aboriginal
and the Torres Strait islander people have long been discriminated from proper educational
services. The children of the aboriginal population were put in the residential school hampering
their life and relationship with the family5. The system of the education has a very few aboriginal
teachers followed by the poor quality of teaching and lack of proper educational materials. These
factors contributes to the gap in the education and knowledge among the aboriginal and the non-
aboriginal in Australia. According to several reaserches, the disability rates among the aboriginal
and Torres Strait islander people has been comparative higher than the non aboriginal population
due to their unhealthy living and drinking habits. Furthermore the factor of race plays a very
important role towards the discrimination and the degrading mental health of the aboriginals and
the Torres Strait islander people of the country.
Geographic location
4 Strong, Steven, and Evan Strong. Out of Australia: Aborigines, the Dreamtime, and the Dawn
of the Human Race. Hampton Roads Publishing, 2017.
5 Gray, Alan, and Habtemariam Tesfaghiorghis. "Social indicators of the Aboriginal population
of Australia." (2018).

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KARI is one of the new and the rising platform of the aboriginal services. Established in
the year 1999, it is the largest foster care agency of the Aboriginal. The goal of the organization
includes ensuring the community of the aboriginals to access regarding the culturally specific
foster are services, and access towards the holistic and the quality services. The non profit
organization strive to offer a range of the award winning services that begin within the general
community engagement6. The services of the organization progresses to the models regarding the
early intervention and the target to deliver the effective and fruitful foster care program. The
organization in Sydney aims these with the end goals regarding the preservation and the
restoration of the family.
The main commitment of the organization is to provide some of the high quality
programs and sustainable services that intends to benefit the community which is unwavering.
KARI, has been long recognized as one of the leading service providers for the aboriginal
community. The organization seeks to help the community to flourish. The organization believe
in helping the families to grow and strong regarding the community7. With two of the main
6 Taylor, John. Spatial mobility of working age Aborigines in settled and remote Australia: a
preliminary analysis. Canberra, ACT: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research
(CAEPR), Research School of Social Sciences, College of Arts and Social Sciences, The
Australian National University, 2018.
7 Hutchings, Kate, et al. "Determinants of Attraction, Retention and Completion for Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Higher Degree Research Students: A Systematic Review to Inform
Future Research Directions." Research in Higher Education 60.2 (2019): 245-272.

6SOCIOLOGY
branches towards the service model of the Aboriginal, KARI offers a wide range of the services
and offers to the Aboriginal community. These includes the out of home care, leaving care
program, family support, recruitment for career, early intervention and the cultural unit. KARI
basically operates from the central Sydney since it is located in the heart of the continent where
majority of the community people belonging to the urban aboriginal community resides can seek
their help.
Socio cultural information
The aboriginal and the Torres Strait islander people of the country does not define their
aboriginality by the terms of the percentage of blood and their skin color. Their identities are
complex by nature and divers across the entire country. This furthermore includes the connection
towards the group of language, the value systems, the cultural beliefs, the indigenous ways of
being and knowing8. The factors of the social cultural norms regarding the identification of the
aboriginal and the Torres strait islander people includes the following framework9. These are as
follows. The aboriginal and the Torres strait islander have a unique descent, their language and
accepted by the community10. They consist of the community who are constantly discriminated
and has been facing violation regarding their race and origin. Some of the factors of the social
8 "KARI | Aboriginal Foster Care, Indigenous Social Support & Partnerships", KARI(Webpage,
2019) https://www.kari.org.au/about-kari-aboriginal-services/
9 Hutchings, Kate, Kerry Bodle, and Adrian Miller. "Opportunities and resilience: enablers to
address barriers for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to commence and complete
higher degree research programs." Australian Aboriginal Studies 2 (2018): 29.

7SOCIOLOGY
and the cultural norms that sets the aboriginal and the Torres strait islander people apart from
some of the other groups in Sydney includes the social acceptance, the standard of living, color,
health status and the stereotypes.
Social institutions information
Social Institutions like the Australian legal systems, federal governmental policies and
the educational systems or the social and the cultural institutions tends to affect the lives and the
status of the aboriginal people in the country. Till now the government of the country has
initiated in various of the policies and the legislations for the explanation of the rights of the
aboriginal people and closing the gap among the aboriginal and the non aboriginals of the
country. According to data, the aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health performance
framework has been developed by the government under the context of the policies and the
strategies aiming for the information of the policy development and the monitoring of the
progress of the health and the wellbeing together with the effective implementation of the rights
of the aboriginal community11. Some of the famous policies and legislator moves by the
government and the social institutions of the country towards the rights and the development of
the aboriginal and the Torres Strait islander people are as follows. The aboriginal and Torres
10 Somerville, Rebecca, et al. "Engaging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the
‘Proper Way’." Newparadigm: the Australian Journal on Psychosocial Rehabilitation 14 (2017):
1-4.
11 Strong, Steven, and Evan Strong. Out of Australia: Aborigines, the Dreamtime, and the Dawn
of the Human Race. Hampton Roads Publishing, 2017.

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Strait islander communities act of 1984 targeting land, justice and other matters. The aboriginal
cultural heritage act of 2003, aboriginal land act of 1991 and Torres Strait Islander cultural
heritage act of 2003.
Conclusion
This it can deduced from the above discussion that the rich culture of the aboriginal
Torres Strait islander people which dates back to the stone is partly near to extinction due to the
oppression that is suffered through the time. The rich culture of the aboriginal Torres Strait
islander people which dates back to the stone is partly near to extinction due to the oppression
that is suffered through the time. The aboriginal and the Torres Strait islander people have long
been discriminated from proper educational services. The aboriginal and the Torres strait
islander have a unique descent, their language and accepted by the community. They consist of
the community who are constantly discriminated and has been facing violation regarding their
race and origin. The essay illustrated the objectives and the aims of the non profit organization,
KARI in the context of highlighting the culture and the identification of the demographic,
geographic and the socio cultural data related to the aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people
in Australia.

9SOCIOLOGY
References
"KARI | Aboriginal Foster Care, Indigenous Social Support & Partnerships", KARI(Webpage,
2019) https://www.kari.org.au/about-kari-aboriginal-services/
Balme, Jane, and Susan O'Connor. "Dingoes and Aboriginal social organization in Holocene
Australia." Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 7 (2016): 775-781.
Ens, Emilie J., et al. "Indigenous biocultural knowledge in ecosystem science and management:
review and insight from Australia." Biological Conservation 181 (2015): 133-149.
Gray, Alan, and Habtemariam Tesfaghiorghis. "Social indicators of the Aboriginal population of
Australia." (2018).
Hutchings, Kate, et al. "Determinants of Attraction, Retention and Completion for Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Higher Degree Research Students: A Systematic Review to Inform
Future Research Directions." Research in Higher Education 60.2 (2019): 245-272.
Hutchings, Kate, Kerry Bodle, and Adrian Miller. "Opportunities and resilience: enablers to
address barriers for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to commence and complete
higher degree research programs." Australian Aboriginal Studies 2 (2018): 29.
Somerville, Rebecca, et al. "Engaging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the
‘Proper Way’." Newparadigm: the Australian Journal on Psychosocial Rehabilitation 14 (2017):
1-4.
Strong, Steven, and Evan Strong. Out of Australia: Aborigines, the Dreamtime, and the Dawn of
the Human Race. Hampton Roads Publishing, 2017.

10SOCIOLOGY
Taylor, John. Spatial mobility of working age Aborigines in settled and remote Australia: a
preliminary analysis. Canberra, ACT: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research
(CAEPR), Research School of Social Sciences, College of Arts and Social Sciences, The
Australian National University, 2018.