Engineering Management: Reflective Essay on Treatment of Aboriginals

This reflective essay investigates the history of treatment of Indigenous Australians over the last century, focusing on ethical perspectives within engineering management. Structured using the DIEP (Describe, Interpret, Evaluate, Plan) framework, the essay addresses the impact of aboriginal treatment history on ethical engineering practices and its influence on cross-cultural communication. It describes the socio-economic disparities faced by Indigenous Australians, including the 'stolen generation' and ongoing racism, highlighting the impact of colonization on their lives. The essay interprets how this historical background affects ethical engineering practices, particularly in relation to cultural heritage management and the challenges engineers face in balancing project demands with respect for Aboriginal culture. It evaluates the role of cross-cultural communication in mitigating ethical dilemmas, emphasizing the importance of respect, open communication, and understanding cultural differences. Finally, it proposes a plan for enhancing communication with Indigenous Australians through cultural security, cross-cultural competence, and community engagement in project planning, advocating for empowerment and genuine reconciliation. Desklib provides access to this and other solved assignments.

Running Head: ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT
Topic- Reflective essay investigating the history of the treatment of Indigenous Australians over
the last century
Student name
University name
Author notes

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The reflective essay on investigation of the history of treatment of Indigenous Australians
over the last century is based on the ethical perspectives of engineering management and is
structured based on Describe, Interpret, Evaluate, Plan framework (DIEP) of reflective writing.
This paper also includes the cross-cultural communication aspects in regard to interaction with
Aboriginals and engineer representatives. As far my knowledge is concerned, engineers are to be
largely responsible for welfare, health and safety of the public in their professional practices. The
DIEP framework basically answers the two main considerations of the paper- one is the impact
of aboriginal treatment history on ethical practice of engineering and second, its influence on
cross-cultural communication.
First the history of treatment of Indigenous Australians over the last century is described
here. Indigenous Australians are in the lowest rung of the socio-economic hierarchy in the
country. According to Castellano (2014) extreme poverty and social inclusion are the words that
best describe their background. There is a strong line of demarcation in between the Non-
Aboriginal Australians and the Aboriginal Australians (Daley 2017). Be it in terms of health,
education, social status, employment status, economic prosperity, cultural integrity or
government support, aboriginal people find themselves far behind the non-aboriginal
Australians. The issue of ‘stolen generation’ was prominent in since 1910 and the aboriginals
fought for their equal rights back in 1967 and they were finally recognized provided the right to
vote and were included as the citizens of Australia (Dudgeon et al. 2014). But regardless of this
temporary political equality the Aboriginals are still fighting for their equality even today and
racism is still persistent. Most of their lands were taken from them (where lands being declared
as Terra Nullius- land belonging to no one) during the colonial period leaving them with no
occupation and no means of earning livelihood (Gee et al. 2014). Holland (2016) criticized that

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there is no end to the disparity of the aboriginals and instead of improvement the country has
fallen back in terms of ‘closing the gap’ for the backward peoples. Statistics also support the fact
that commonwealth funded indigenous programs have been cut short under Indigenous
Advancement strategy by federal Coalition Government (Hollis and Goldfinch 2017). It is also
opined that the aboriginal communities are exercising their own ‘lifestyle choice’ instead of
living culturally connected lives. One aboriginal health care expert opined that ‘they will suffer
rather than seek treatment’ because of their fear of experiencing institutional racism (Lin et al.
2014). And it is worth mentioning that it is not diseases that make them sicker but it is racism
that does. Government policies were amended a number of times but are no that effective in
changing the way of living of the aboriginals at large. Protection and integration were important
parts of various Government policies from time to time but no reconciliation is being made and
the conditions of Aboriginal people remained subtle (Lohoar, Butera and Kennedy 2014).
According to Malaspinas et al. (2016) Genocide waves have increased their fear for the non-
aboriginals and Government officials and they also fear to fight for their own human rights
afterwards. So, it is clear that the aftermaths of colonization have impacted the lives of the
aboriginals in the most negative manner in aspects of racism, stereotyping, misconceptions,
disease and poor healthcare providence, poor education providence and unsuccessful
reconciliation.
Based on the above description, this paragraph tries to interpret the impact of this
historical aboriginality background on the ethical perspectives of engineering practices. Ethical
practice of Engineering or Engineering ethics is a field in moral principles applied to engineering
practices (Rigney 2017). All societal, client and professional obligations of the engineers are
examined and included under ethical conduct. The fundamental principles include truth,

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trustworthiness and honesty to society and fairness, courtesy and good faith towards clients and
colleagues. The engineers need to have a background know-how of the history, culture and
politics of Australian Indigenous peoples at large. The project engineers need to be responsible
for implementation and development of Aboriginal cultural heritage and need to develop
management plans in compliance with relevant Australian Legislation. In many cases
engineering projects are delayed and altered and it is believed that engineers negotiate in these
challenging areas having no knowledge and training of how to deal with cultural heritage of the
Aboriginals (Malaspinas et al. 2016). Management of aboriginal cultural heritage is a larger part
of project planning and scheduling in various engineering projects in the country and engineers
need to abide by the laws of the Government need to respect the importance of place and
community in terms of Aboriginal belongings. Rigney (2017) opined that continuing
infrastructural development and industrial progress is challenging the cultural heritage of the
Aboriginals and is drawing them closer to extinction. It also results in increased complexity of
political, legal and cultural negotiations on part of engineers and contractors. As a part of ethical
practice, it is the duty of every professional to protect and respect their clients, society and
environment at large (Daley 2017). But in areas of professionalism the engineers have to deliver
their best in the project and at times by compromising the cultural heritage of the aboriginal
peoples. This is really dilemmatic as to what to do to support interest of both parties and is really
a tough choice to be made on the part of the engineers.
Based on the interpretations, in this section I have tried to evaluate the influence of
cross-cultural communication in decreasing the ethical dilemma so caused. Castellano (2014)
rightly opined that working with aboriginal community is best rendered when cross-cultural
work is emphasized. There are some common aspects that need to be remembered while

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engaging in aboriginal community services like gender differences, that is while working with
women it is beneficial to appoint a women staff member to interact with the woman client. Also,
while communicating respect to people of the aboriginal community should be prioritized.
Barriers of silent trust when broken a genuine open and plain talk will be more effective than
other means (Daley 2017). Self-bias and client-bias need to be considered while building rapport
with client. Simple comprehensible language is the most effective tool of interaction with
aboriginal people. Use of jargons and complicated language will increase potential
communication barriers (Holland 2016). In this regard, consultation with aboriginal staffs and
community members is more clever decision if any information is unsure and there is chance of
miscommunication. Their interpretation of things may vary greatly and an engineer need to
understand these variations. For example, as per western culture feeling of well-being reflects
good health whereas, the aboriginals relate well-being to socio-cultural aspects rather than
physical health conditions. The knowledge of living world is vast for the aboriginals’ people and
they rely on herbal medicines and traditional healers more in comparison to modern-day
treatment facilities (Hollis and Goldfinch 2017). So, as part of cross-cultural communication it is
the duty of every professional, be it healthcare provider or engineer, to foster a relationship based
on cooperation and mutual trust and respect so that scope of ethical dilemma does not arise at all.
Finally, I tried to develop a plan to enhance better communication with Indigenous
Australians so that their trust and faith in non-Australians increase in an overall manner. The
plan is based on the framework of cultural security where various member staffs of the
engineering project need to develop cross-cultural communication skills along with cultural
safety and sensitivity (Rigney 2017). Or in other words, the engineers need to be cross-culturally
competent as per the strategic plan. Also, the aboriginal people need to be engaged in the initial

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planning phase of an engineering project which will help in identification of the relevant social
needs (Lohoar, Butera and Kennedy 2014). Ethical consultation in this respect, will increase
prospects of good outcome automatically. Community consultation in this regard will help in
having increased information for process planning and their feedback will help in identification
of unmet needs and any kind of service gaps that will foster future growth and expansion in the
long run (Rigney 2017).
Thus, to conclude it could be said that cross-cultural communication is the key to ethical
practice in engineering specially in regard to community and work engagement with Indigenous
Australians. Any kind of discrimination in this regard will not be good for both the project and
the community involved. Its time to empower the Aboriginal Australians not theoretically but in
reality. They have suffered to their epitome of life and now its our turn to make their world
beautiful where they can live without fear and can feel their real-worth.

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References
Castellano, M.B., 2014. Ethics of Aboriginal research. Global bioethics and human rights:
Contemporary issues, 273.
Daley, P. (2017). It's 50 years since Indigenous Australians first 'counted'. Why has so little
changed?. [online] the Guardian. Available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/may/18/50-years-since-indigenous-australians-
first-counted-why-has-so-little-changed-1967-referendum [Accessed 10 May 2019].
Dudgeon, W., Wright, M., Paradies, Y., Garvey, D. and Walker, I., 2014. Aboriginal social,
cultural and historical contexts. In Working together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
mental health and wellbeing principles and practice (pp. 3-24). Commonwealth Department of
Health.
Gee, G., Dudgeon, P., Schultz, C., Hart, A. and Kelly, K., 2014. Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander social and emotional wellbeing. Working together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander mental health and wellbeing principles and practice, 2, pp.55-68.
Holland, A. (2016). How can Australia build on a century of struggle over Indigenous
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australia-build-on-a-century-of-struggle-over-indigenous-citizenship-63772 [Accessed 10 May
2019].
Hollis, X. and Goldfinch, T. (2017). Experience, education and training on Aboriginal Cultural
Heritage in engineering. Australasian Journal of Engineering Education, 22(1), pp.54-62.

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Lin, I., O'Sullivan, P., Coffin, J., Mak, D., Toussaint, S. and Straker, L., 2014. 'I can sit and talk
to her': Aboriginal people, chronic low back pain and heathcare practitioner
communication. Australian family physician, 43(5), p.320.
Lohoar, S., Butera, N. and Kennedy, E., 2014. Strengths of Australian Aboriginal cultural
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Athanasiadis, G., Cheng, J.Y., Crawford, J.E. and Heupink, T.H., 2016. A genomic history of
Aboriginal Australia. Nature, 538(7624), p.207.
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and Power (pp. 61-77). Routledge.