Economics Assignment: Closing the Gap for Indigenous Australians, 2019

This essay critically examines the economic disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, focusing on the impact of colonization and its effects on Aboriginal history and culture. It begins with a reflection on the seven phases of colonization and their links to Aboriginal history, dem...Read More

An essay on closing the gap between the indigenous and non-indigenous people of
Australia
Submitted By
Student’s Name:
Date: 2nd March 2019

Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
Main Body.............................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................5
References.............................................................................................................................................7

Introduction
This study is an attempt to reflect an indigenous Australian’s hope to close the true gap
clearly demonstrated between the indigenous and non-indigenous people living in India
especially from the economic viewpoint. The reason behind this gap is attributed to the seven
distinct phases of the colonisation of the Australia and its consequent link to the seven phases
of aboriginal history that provides the basis to understand the perspectives and culture of the
Indigenous people of Australia. Further it examines the effect of the colonisation on the
business of the Indigenous people due to the various critical issues occurred or faced by them
and the analysis of the same from the aboriginal perspective and finally suggests the
necessary course of action that seems justified from the aboriginal perspective so as to
resolve the critical issues faced by these indigenous Australian people in their business and
finally provides the conclusion as to how the key cultural attitudes, bias and self-concept
influence one’s own thinking about economic issues (Abdullah & Said, 2017).
The history of colonisation in Australia began first in the year 1825 when Van Diemen’s
Land was colonised as a penal one to prevent the French people from claiming the Land.
In 1827 when WA was colonised when it’s governor showed a very highly enthusiastic
approach towards its resources available in form of river and fresh water, lime and clay and
consequently became an English colony.
The second phase made the south Australia a new British colony in the year 1836 that was
the result of the administrative and commercial partnership between the South Australian
colonisation commission and the British government.
Then the New South Wales was colonised by the Arthur Philip with the help of the more than
1000 people with 11 ships and developed as a British colony.
In the year 1851 the Victoria grew as a British colony of 54000 people by being separated
from the New South wales and it was a non-convict colony and not a penal one.
In 1959 Queensland became a separate British colony by being separated from New South
wales that was the result of signing the patent letter by the Queen Victoria.
Finally, in 1901 Australia got the status of the Federal nation because of the vote of the WA
to join the rest of the Australian federation.

The seven phases of the aboriginal history are dreaming, invasion, genocide, protection,
assimilation, self-determination and reconciliation.
The process of dreaming was started in the colonised period of 1827 when because of
resource availability, the concept of colony came into the mind.
The phase of protection is well depicted from the colony established in the year 1825 to
prevent the French people from claiming the Land.
The phase of invasion is depicted from the colony established by Arthur Philip.
Except the colonisation that took place in the year 1901, 1825,1827 rest evidence ed some
sort of genocide by the English settlers to demonstrate their power.
The process of self determination is depicted from the establishment of the Australian
federation in the year 1901.The same year also evidenced the process of assimilation amongst
the indigenous people.
The process of reconciliation is the gradual one and it shall take few more generations and a
time taking process
These caused them to accept the European culture and make them to work as stock hands or
labourers and gradually they became dependent on the British settler (Boghossian, 2017).
Main Body
The major impact of the colonisation in the lives of the Australian Indigenous people could
be said to be mixed in nature. The immediate effect was that these people were deprived from
the use of their own fertile land and the major livelihood was lost. Finally, the epidemic
brought a much big disaster in their life. Slowly and gradually it made them highly dependent
on the British settler because of which their free thought and intellect was stuttered moving in
search for the employment. But as an employee too they had to struggle for various issues
and the pay differences and the nature of the jobs offered to them. But in 1965 when equal
pay opportunity was offered to them thorough the legislation then only they could start
thinking of starting and contributing to the Australian economy (Borit & Olsen, 2012).

The significant barriers in the field of business as faced by the indigenous Australian while
doing business are lack of education, skills, networks and business pathways, low
accessibility to finance, understanding of the wealth and external prejudices.
It has been noticed that indigenous people have lower outcomes in terms of the educational
background. Secondly, they are lacking the necessary skills and competence to successfully
running their businesses as in some cases there are the first generation in the indigenous
family who are running their business in such a case it becomes too difficult to gain such
types of competitive advantage as it can become possible or expected from the experienced
ones.
The lack of adequate ways or means of finance is also a significant issue they have less
access to the equity and are considerably dependent on the fund owned by the family and in
this way lack of adequate finance is acting as a barrier to do the business successfully.
Finally, being the indigenous community, they must face the prejudices in terms of wealth
and social stigma. In terms of socio economic scenario generally they are being highly
neglected in terms of their wealth status (Flick, 2018).
The major courses of action as being suggested in this case to resolve these issues are being
elaborated in brief as under.
The first problem of lacking the adequate skills, education, network and pathways can be
resolved with the help of a strong government policy to establish the adequate number of the
knowledge centres from where they can acquire the necessary education and skill to gain the
expertise required to successfully run their business. In this regard it is also be kept in mind
that they need further guidance for their future business strategies too that can be served by
these centres.
In terms of accessibility to the major sources of finance it is expected that various incentive
schemes of grant and financial assistance should be introduced specifically for the businesses
run by the indigenous group of people and there should be adequate means to make these
indigenous people aware for the same.
There is a strong need to have a strong social policy so that the prejudices faced but this
community in the socio-economic scenario should be adequately addressed. This is required

especially when the businesses run by this community is significantly contributing towards
the development of the Australian economy and neglecting this issue can cause a significant
danger in the future Australian economy (Johan, 2018).
Though in recent years a lot of reformations and ways as suggested above have been
implemented by the Australian government, but still there is a lot to be done yet to see the
real dynamic effect of these efforts. The impact of the colonial rule in Australian and its
subsequent effect on the culture and tradition of the Indigenous people have made it so
influential that even now the community is facing the trouble of the same (Kaufmann, 2017).
Conclusion
From the above critical analysis and discussion, it is well evident that the indigenous
Australian community has been highly affected by the various phases of the colonialism in
Australia. Especially it has highly affected their tradition and culture. The effect on their
culture and tradition subsequently impacted the way of their thought of doing business.
Though it has its positive aspects too associated with the same as it became the reason for the
development of the modern Australian economy. But finally, it is to be kept in mind that the
Australia is the continent especially of the immigrants and the contribution of this immigrant
community like indigenous Australian in the development of the Australian economy can be
well demonstrated. Finally, the current scenario also is an example of the concept that our
economic decision is highly guided by our culture and the way of belief which are the
contribution of our social mindset. Hence until and unless there is a strong social mindset
present in any case it is a waste to think about the solution of the economic problems faced by
this indigenous community in the Australian economy. Hence it is expected that the
government of Australia as it is preferring this community after considering its contribution
in the current Australian economy shall continue its effort to resolve the issues faced by this
community.
The link for the one-plus program is given below:

References
Abdullah, W. & Said, R., 2017. Religious, Educational Background and Corporate Crime Tolerance by
Accounting Professionals. State-of-the-Art Theories and Empirical Evidence, 3(1), pp. 129-149.
Boghossian, P., 2017. The Socratic method, defeasibility, and doxastic responsibility. Educational
Philosophy and Theory, 50(3), pp. 244-253.
Borit, M. & Olsen, P., 2012. Evaluation framework for regulatory requirements related to data
recording and traceability designed to prevent illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. Marine
Policy, 36(1), pp. 96-102.
Flick, U., 2018. An Introduction to Qualitative Research. sixth ed. London: Sage Publisher.

Johan, S., 2018. The Relationship Between Economic Value Added, Market Value Added And Return
On Cost Of Capital In Measuring Corporate Performance. Jurnal Manajemen Bisnis dan
Kewirausahaan, 3(1), pp. 121-134.
Kaufmann, W., 2017. The Problem of Regulatory Unreasonableness. First ed. New York: Routledge.