Critical Social Work: Examining Issues of Indigenous Australians

This essay delves into the critical social work perspective concerning the challenges faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia. It begins with an overview of the historical context, tracing the impact of colonization, disease, and displacement on Indigenous communities. The essay highlights the lasting effects of the Stolen Generations and cultural disruption. It then examines the current context, revealing disparities in health, education, and socioeconomic outcomes. The analysis explores the impact of political and economic factors, including inequitable policies and systemic discrimination. The essay further discusses critical discourses surrounding Indigenous issues, focusing on education, women's rights, and media representation. Applying critical social work theory, the essay proposes solutions to address social injustices and inequalities. It also reviews existing programs and policies aimed at improving the lives of Indigenous Australians, covering areas such as health, education, and economic opportunity. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of addressing these issues through a critical social work lens.

Running head: CRITICAL SOCIAL WORK
CRITICAL SOCIAL WORK
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Examining the issues of indigenous people and effect
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people constitute a significant part of the Australian
population. This section of the population although significant and the original inhabitants of
Australia, is amongst the most neglected population group in the country. The issues are quite
high when it comes to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people considered as the risk factors
concerning the group. Significant risk factors are there that impact or could impact the social and
emotional wellbeing of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The Indigenous people
go through widespread loss and grief. This is because of the long years of abuse that they have
had to face. They were torn apart from their families in the name of civilizing them. The impact
of Stole Generations and taking away of children from their families are strong and deep
(Peeters, Hamann & Kelly, 2014). Apart from that, the separation of the Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander people from their own culture and tradition led to an unresolved trauma. The
people have long been discriminated based on their culture and race whether in educational field
or in the field of health.
This neglect and suffering had immense affect on the Indigenous population as it heavily
disadvantaged them in both social and economic terms. Furthermore, the younger generation was
misrepresented in the broader context with most of the youth being represented in detention
centers and prison. In terms of health and education, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people lag far behind than other non-Indigenous Australians.
Historical overview of the issue
The history of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander is almost 60,000 years old when
they first inhabited the land of Australia. During the 18th and the 19th century, the land of the

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Indigenous people came into the notice of the European settlers who then began entering the land
and gradually taking over (Lydon, 2017). Along with the British came several diseases and other
problems that engulfed the Aboriginal people. With time, the European settlers began to view the
Aboriginal people as nomads who have no sense of land ownership and who would not mind
being driven away from their farming and grazing land. This perception led to the driving away
of thousands of Aboriginal people from their land and devoid of any sort of resources further
leading to diseases, which were often fatal. The Aboriginal people had deep cultural and spiritual
association with their lands and when they were driven away from their land, they could not
maintain the cohesion with their spiritual and cultural practices. The disease that came with and
spread from the British colonials were fatal and the Aboriginal people could not tolerate it. It led
to a huge reduction in Aboriginal birthrates owing to reduced fertility.
The ascendancy of the European settlers also led to several conflicts in the Australian
land involving the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Throughout the 1790s and
1800s, the Indigenous leaders waged war against the Europeans. In the Myall Creek massacre of
1838, 28 Aboriginal people were killed. The Palawa tribe in particular was hit the worst.
Apparently, the figure ranged between 2000 and 15000 Palawa people who were dead by the
year 1870 (Lydon, 2017). The European settlers also indulged in stealing the children by
removing them from their Aboriginal families during the period between 1905 and 1967. These
children were referred to as Stolen Generations.
Current context
The long years of abuse and sufferings largely affected the Indigenous population and it
was reflected in all spheres including education, health and wellbeing. As per the current

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statistics, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are at the bottom when it comes to life
expectancy, education, mortality, health and wellbeing. As Maxwell, Lowe and Salter (2018)
observe, the representation of Aboriginal histories and culture in the Australian Curriculum
demonstrates the priority given to the Aboriginal people. The authors reveal that the creation of
the Australian Curriculum was flawed with the curriculum authors molding the “priority from an
initiative without clear purpose into a purported solution to the Indigenous problem of
educational underachievement, student resistance and disengagement.” They find that the
problems regarding the policy lead to racialisation constructing the Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people, their culture and histories as deficient. Around 400,000 Indigenous people
inhabit Australia representing just over 2% of the total population. These 2% Aboriginal people
form the most disadvantaged minority group in the country. It is the minority group built on
dispossession, invasion, colonization and racism (Abs.gov.au, 2019).
However, some amendments and good results have been visible in the last few decades.
In terms of education, the proportion of Indigenous individuals who successfully completed Year
12 or the degree equal to it between the year 2006 and 2016 rose by over 10%. According to the
latest statistics, the attendance percentage of Aboriginal students attending schools is 83.2% in
2017 compared to the 93% attendance of non-Indigenous Australians (Pmc.gov.au, 2019). In
terms of health and life expectancy, the Aboriginal people are estimated to live 10.6 years less
than non-Aboriginal Australians, which is a concern. It thus could be seen that the current
context of the social issue concerning the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is still
below the margin compared to non-Indigenous people.
Impact of political and economic factors

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Several social, political and economic factors assert an impact on the Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander people. In terms of economy, the education and income impact the
individual’s capability to engage and influence the society and the Aboriginal people are
amongst those having the lowest economic status in Australia (Thomas, Bainbridge & Tsey,
2014). The poor levels of socio-economic, employment and education have connections to the
poverty, debt, financial hardships, family breakdown, homelessness and social isolation and
crime (Gee, Dudgeon, Schultz, Hart & Kelly, 2014). Aboriginal people have the highest
representation when it comes to domestic violence and criminal cases.
The political factors pertaining to the health and wellbeing of the Aboriginal people
indicate that they are at the bottom of the list when it comes to health and wellbeing. The policies
concerning the health of the Aboriginal people especially women reveal that the government is
not supportive. The Aboriginal women are very poorly represented in terms of health, social and
emotional wellbeing compared to non-Indigenous women and this is mainly due to the
generational life situations (Browne, Hayes & Gleeson, 2014). The Indigenous women have a
holistic view of life connecting cultural and family relationship. Breaking down the life
circumstances have caused the women to represent just 39% in employment and education
whereas non-Indigenous women represent 55% (Lee, 2017). The inequitable policies formulated
by the national, state and territorial governments and the churches including other institutions
have massively harmed the health and wellbeing of the Indigenous people. These inequitable
policies have resulted in the unequal distribution of resources and power amongst the Aboriginal
and non-Aboriginal people. The affect of policies that could not take a holistic view on the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people especially their health reflects the failure of the

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system in political terms when it comes to the fundamental human rights of the Indigenous
people.
Critical discourses
The issue relating to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are discussed in
several critical discourses especially the ones involving the status of women and children. One of
the major critical discourses has been regarding the educational status and achievement of the
Indigenous children compared to their non-Indigenous counterparts. As Song, Perry and
McConney (2014) have found, the gap amongst the educational outcomes of the Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander children non-Aboriginal children has been a vital issue since the
introduction of the Indigenous children into the classrooms completely westernized during the
later period of the 1960s. Amongst the many reasons for the Aboriginal children being
underrepresented in the educational system is their psychological and social degradation due to
removal from their families.
The Indigenous women on the other hand, have been a topic of debate regarding the
rights of the Australians as citizens. Baldry and Cunneen (2014) however found a disturbing
figure when it comes to representing Aboriginal women in mainstream discourse. According to
the author, the misrepresentation and underrepresentation of Aboriginal women especially in the
news media is grave because it contributes towards making the women of this group more
vulnerable and weak. The author further provides instances of the crime reports published in
newspapers in Australia that deliberately demean the women designating them as coming
middleclass Aboriginal society. Apart from this, other popular discourses on Aboriginal women
demonstrate the unchanged mentality of the white Australians regarding the community. The

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representation of Aboriginal women in political spheres and in higher positions is also a crucial
part of the debate. It is debated whether the Aboriginal women should hold superior positions in
the parliament whereas the same could not be stated about non-Indigenous women.
Using critical social work theory to respond to the issue
The injustices and unfair treatment of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
could be addressed using the critical social work theory. According to this theory, the aim of the
social worker must be on resolving the social injustices and not the individualized issues. The
critical social work theories explain social problems as coming up from numerous forms of
oppression and injustice (Cunneen & Rowe, 2014). In case of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander issue, the theory is apt in providing solutions to address the issue. As evident from the
description of the theory, it focuses on issues of social injustices and the Indigenous people have
been the worst bearers of social injustices. Furthermore, the theory talks about social problems
arising from forms of oppression and injustice, which has been done to the Indigenous people for
ages by the European settlers.
Responding to the issue of educational status and achievement of the Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander people becomes easier with critical social work theory. The reason is that
one of the theory’s focuses is regarding inadequacies in healthcare, housing and educational
opportunities to people (Payne, 2014). Apart from this, the theory also lays stress on the major
themes that include unemployment, poverty and social exclusion, racism, discrimination, crime,
abuse and social unrest amongst others. All these major themes of the theory of critical social
work relate to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. With a clear understanding of the

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theory, a social worker would be able to understand the reasons behind the social issue, which
would ultimately help her or him to respond in a more positive way to it.
Programs and policies rose for addressing the issue
The Australia government has raised several programs and policies in an attempt to
address the issues associated with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. These programs
and policies cover areas such as health inequality, educational inequality and inequalities relating
to political and economic opportunities as well. These policies and programs have been
initialized on all levels including national, regional and local. Variety of nutrition programs have
been implemented community-wide with some focusing on improving the quality of food supply
while many focusing on increasing demand for nutritious food. The Minjilang Health and
Nutrition Survival Tucker Project was one such program that was directed towards the
Indigenous community (Dss.gov.au, 2019).
Programs and policies are implemented with regards to promoting health and wellbeing
of the Aboriginal people. Many online services are being provided to the Indigenous people
concerning their health such as Cultural Ways, an online platform providing all the information
regarding Australian Indigenous health. Programs and policies are also being developed for the
addressing of disability issues of the indigenous population. One example is the implementation
of a plan by the Australian Government to develop the outcomes of the Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander people with disability (Gilroy, Dew, Lincoln & Hines, 2017). Under this plan, the
government seeks to build the capability of service systems that include disability services as
well as Indigenous programs.

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The most popular and effective program however is the Closing the Gap framework of
the Australian government, which aims to reduce the limitations amongst the Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander people with regards to child mortality, life expectancy, educational
achievement, early childhood education and employment outcomes (Theconversation.com,
2019). The initiative has been successful in achieving many of the targets but it still has to fulfill
some deficits.
Critical reflection
As I have analyzed in the above sections, the critical theory of social work is an apt
theory in addressing the social issue that I identified as the issues involving Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander people. With an aim to become a social worker, I have found that the
critical social work theory would benefit me greatly in my endeavor. In Australia, the field of
social work has become increasingly aware of the understanding, being and doing of the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The Indigenous people ways of understanding and
knowing are considered vital to decolonizing the Australian social work education and creating
social work practitioners that are culturally responsive. In this regard, I feel that I am fortunate to
pursue my career as a social worker as I would have an advanced knowledge about the
Aboriginal way of living, their traditions and cultures. This would help me comprehend and
analyze the issues from a broader perspective.
However, I must assert that I had little knowledge about the core issues of the Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander people probably because of the perception that was built owing to the
mainstream literature and media. After I enrolled in the social work course, I learnt about the

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critical social work theory and found that there are various aspects from which, I have to look at
the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issue.
Critical theory and practice recommendations
With the help of the above analysis, I have found the areas where I have to improve as an
emerging social work practitioner. The skills and strengths required for social work even in
situations where the overall outcomes might eventually seem to be poor could be changed by a
good social work practice. In critical social work practice, I will have to learn that problems
might arise from a number of sources and in various forms.
Keeping the above facts in mind, I found the recommendation of indulging more in
critical social work practice will be beneficial for me to develop as a social work practitioner.
Apart from that, it is also recommended that I learn more about the Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander culture, tradition and ethics so that I understand their issues properly and approach
accordingly.
In addition, it is also a good recommendation that I work with professional social workers
who have dedicated their lives to the Aboriginal people to understand the way they do it.
Furthermore, it is recommended that I read the policies, programs, schemes and plans of
the government concerning the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in order to develop
my knowledge as a social work practitioner.

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