Report: Impact of European Settlement on Indigenous Families (ECE 7)

This report, prepared for an Early Childhood Education (ECE 7) course, examines the profound and lasting impact of European settlement on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Australia. The report begins with an introduction that sets the context for the discussion, emphasizing the changes brought about by governmental policies and practices. The first part of the report delves into the specific areas affected by the settlement, including family structure, health and wellbeing, the loss of culture, language, land, and kinship, as well as education and employment, and self-determination. The second part of the report includes elements and standards of cultural identity and cross-cultural understandings, and the learning framework of EYFL. The report also includes a personal reflection on the author's cultural background and how it has evolved through interactions with diverse communities. It also explores cultural competence, the cultural diversity of New South Wales, and available community services. The report concludes with a case study analyzing a scenario involving an Aboriginal family and the challenges they face in an early childhood setting, offering suggestions for promoting cultural understanding and sensitivity. Overall, the report underscores the need for further reinforcement and inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples into mainstream society.

Running head: EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
Early Childhood Education
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Task 1
1. Report on impact of European settlement on Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islanders
Introduction
The aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islanders are the original inhabitants of
Australia. Since European settlement and colonization, due to the governmental legislatures,
policies and approaches, they have gone through many changes including their family
structure, health and wellbeing, loss of culture, land, kinship and language, education and
employment and Self-determination.
Discussion
Family Structure
The family structure of the Aboriginals and the Torres Strait islanders have gone
through much struggle due to the governmental policy of assimilation (Bono 2017). Through
this policy, the government was able to forcibly remove aboriginal children from their homes
and families and placed them with European families, in order to teach them European
culture, language and way of living. This led to serious distress among the aboriginal
population, leading to trans-generational trauma, loss of culture and identity, mental health
issues that still persists.
Health and wellbeing
The aboriginal health and wellbeing took a downward turn since colonization and
assimilation policy is one of the greatest reason for that. Apart from that, the lack of
governmental policy regarding aboriginal health, the loss of culture and familial bond, loss of

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land and the violence faced during the colonial time led to extensive physical and mental
health weaknesses, the aboriginal population has relatively lower average age than the non-
aboriginals (Axelsson, Kukutai and Kippen 2016).
Loss of culture/ language/ land/ kinship
The assimilation policy and many other policies that followed, was a machinery of the
government to systematically remove all traces of aboriginal culture, language and identity.
Many of the aboriginal communities became extinct, many languages were lost forever,
aboriginal people lost their children and families and they were pushed off their lands with
which they were closely connected to (Reid 2018). These affected the aboriginal health,
wellbeing and chances of development as they moved to more remote locations.
Education and Employment
The aboriginal population experienced lower standard of education and lack of
employment opportunities during and after European settlement. There were no policies and
institutions that provided proper education. Only European education was available.
Employment for the aboriginals were all time low as they did not have proper education and
training required for employment. This also affected their health and social status. Poverty
was extensive and diseases pervaded the community and even today, education and
employment is still relatively low in the population group.
Self-determination
The self-determination of the aboriginals were nonexistent during and many years
after the colonization. They had no role or opinion about the governmental policies that
concerned them. Only recently, their right of governance and decision making about their
own political status, economy, society and culture has been recognized. In many phases of

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life, aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are being included into the structure and
sustainable working relationships between the aboriginals and the others are developing.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islanders are at extreme disadvantaged position and need further reinforcement and inclusion
into the mainstream society.
2.
Part 1: Elements and standards of cultural identity and cross cultural
understandings
Standard number Element number Element wording
6.1 6.1.2 The expertise, culture, values
and beliefs of families are
respected and families share
in decision-making about
their child’s learning and
wellbeing
1.1 1.1.2 Each child’s current
knowledge, strengths, ideas,
culture, abilities and interests
are the foundation of the
program.
6.2 6.2.3 The service builds
relationships and engages

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with its community (National
Quality Standard, 2019).
Part 2: Learning framework of EYFL
Number and wording of Principle.
Principle 4. Respect for diversity
Practice Cultural competence
Learning Outcome Children have a strong sense of identity (Belonging, Being &
Becoming- The Early Years Learning Framework For
Australia, 2017)
Task 2
Q1. My cultural background is Anglo Australian. My mother tongue is English. I live on the
central coast Australia. It is a coastal town. My upbringing has been on European style. Our
family is a predominantly English family and thus most of my values and beliefs are based on
that. In the early years of my life, I did not have much idea about diverse cultures. I believed
in individual achievement. The most significant event that changed some of my early values
and beliefs happened during my schooling years. As New South Wales is home for large
section of indigenous population, I had many peers that belonged to different communities.
Through their company, sharing stories and visiting their houses has created my current
values and beliefs which include cultural open mindedness and an inclusive approach.

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Q2. My early values and beliefs led me to think that that the Aboriginal and the Torres Strait
islanders were somewhat responsible for their own condition. In family and social gatherings,
we used to talk about how government is taking innumerable measures for their development
and I used to think that they are not using them enough. Towards the end of my schooling
years, my values and beliefs changed as I had multiple opportunity to experience first-hand
about the struggles and barriers that these people had. I also learnt from my friends why
many of their community were not willing to take government help. This changed my views
about them and presently, I am more empathetic and understanding of their condition and
willing to work for their overall improvement.
Q3. In order to build my cultural competence, I would like to build my knowledge about
aboriginal folklore, bedtime stories and children tales. These would help me understand their
worldview and culture more closely. This would also help me to engage with the aboriginal
children better. I would like to develop cross cultural communication skills that will be
helpful for my future practice.
Q4. New South Wales is multicultural state. The majority of the population is English,
Australian, Irish and Scottish, all of whom speak English. Other cultures like Chinese, Italian,
German, Indian, Lebanese and Greek reside here and speak both English and their mother
tongue (Quickstats.censusdata.abs.gov.au, 2017). Immigrants like Filipino, Vietnamese and
Persian also reside here. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population also lives here and
constitutes a small percentage of the population. While most of the population speaks
English, languages like Cantonese, Arabic, Mandarin, Vietnamese and Greek are also quite
widely spoken. The major aboriginal people belong to the Wodi Wodi people of the Illawarra
region. They speak Dharawal languge while the northern coastal areas are occupied by the
Bundjalung people (Donaldson, Bursill and Jacobs 2015).

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Q5. In NSW, community services like support and counselling for youths, children and
families are available including child and family protections. There are also health care
services that the aboriginal people can get (www.facs.nsw.gov.au, 2019). There are numerous
volunteering services like old age homes, childcare and community service for family and
children whose fathers or husbands are in prison. While both the population groups receive
community services to the same degree, aboriginal community services are more
concentrated on their wellbeing and cultural worldview. The focus is also on protecting
children and keeping them within the family.
Q6. a)
Name of the traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community and
language spoken
Wodi Wodi people, speaks Dharawal languge.
Is this language still spoken within this Community?
The elders of the community still speaks this language at times. Mostly people speak
English in their regular conversation.
Local Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander history of the people/clan, their art,
Dreamtime stories or music.
The Wodi Wodi people are sub-clans of the Dharawal people. They have occupied the
areas of Lake Illawarra, Shellharbour and Minnamurra. They are considered to be the ancient
and original inhabitants of the land. The ancient art of them includes drawings of animals.
Their dreamtime stories include the creation of land, people and communities, spirits and
guardians that created them, the natural forces and elements all of which play an important
role in their worldview (Kennedy et al. 2018).

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Describe the things that you did not know and were not aware of about this culture and
your community
I did not have any knowledge about the name of the aboriginal clans or the language
that they spoke. I was also not aware of the kind of art that they produced. Their dreamtime
stories and music are also different than my own culture and I had limited knowledge about
them. I was also not aware of the impact of diseases like diabetes and glaucoma that these
people faced as well as the effect of substance abuse which was quite apparent in them.
b) I would maintain the norms of greetings and show respect to the elders. I would not try to
pry into their closely guarded secrets. I would respect their opinion and ask them about their
input in the issues that are related to them. I would try to communicate through their non-
verbal communication methods as much as possible.
c) Yenu Allowah Aboriginal Child and Family Centre
75 Railway Road Mt Druitt NSW 2770, entrance at Luxford Road
Ph no.: 02 9625 6357
Task 3
Q1. Important information about the family
 The family consists of four people, the parents and two kids named Wini, age 4 and
Khodi age 2.
 The father is the only earning member of the family.
 They belong to aboriginal community and follow aboriginal tradition of dot painting.
 The parents are aware of the children’s needs and issues during their early years as
they face a new environment.

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 The children are accustomed to aboriginal way of living and speaking as Wini refers
to her cousins as ‘them mob’.
Q2. In the scenario, the staffs of the school was unable to display proper respect and cultural
safety to the children. The children were placed in a classroom that contained children
belonging to the English families. The very first instant was when the director shouted to the
staffs that the mother should be directed to his office for Aboriginal fee relief paperwork.
This shows blatant disregard of their status and an automatic assumption that they are unable
to pay for their children’s fee. The staffs did not have any resources with which the children
could feel connected to as most of them depicted white children, thus making them feel
disconnected to the place. The staffs also corrected Wini’s way of speaking and
pronunciation which made her feel bad. She also felt her family’s culture was being
challenged when they asked her to call the other children as kids.
The staffs should have been more prepared for their arrival and should have kept
some resources that would engage the children. The director should have invited their mother
to his chamber and talked about paperwork in a private manner. The staffs could have made
effort to understand why Wini chose to sit with the books and rather than correcting her
mistakes they might have asked her about why she was calling the other children ‘them mob’.
Q3. To promote understanding of aboriginal culture:
1. I would start with an activity for Wini where the children have to describe their daily lives,
terms of endearment and ways of living including their festivals or customs in the class. They
would share their greeting gestures so that the children becomes aware how people in
different culture have different approach to these aspects.

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2. I would politely inform Wini’s mother that there are many fee relief programs of
government and they fall under one of them. I would have asked her to consult with her
husband about the matter and inform if they needed to fill out the paperwork.
Q4. Code of ethics statement: Respect the uniqueness of each family and strive to learn about
their culture, structure, lifestyle, customs, language, beliefs and kinship systems (Australia
2000).
Q5: there are various reasons for Wini to be withdrawn:
1. She was not properly introduced to her classmates.
2. She could not find any belonging to the place.
3. She was being continuously corrected for her pronunciation.
4. She could not understand why she could not call the children in her own way.
Q6. 1. I would employ staffs and teachers who belong to the aboriginal community in order
to build a culturally responsive environment.
2. I would seek help from the Elders of the aboriginal community to engage the aboriginal
children.
3. I would enable training for the other teachers and staffs to behave in a more culturally
responsible and responsive way, to respect all cultures and create a better environment in
class.
Q7. The benefits are:
1. Improvement in respect for the aboriginal culture and greater knowledge about the culture,
its history and issues (Price et al.2019).

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2. Dispels negative stereotyping within the staffs, families and students.
Q8. The support I can provide are:
1. I would explain to them the rules and regulations of the school and assist them in grading
and lesson planning.
2. I would communicate with them patiently and will try to understand their way of doing
things (Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Cultural Protocols. 2015 Aboriginal And
Torres Strait Islander Cultural Protocols, 2015).
3. I would defend them and support them in the face of any discriminating behavior.
4. I would show respect to their culture through conversations with him.

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