Reflective Essay for MASTE: Indigenous Australians Treatment History

This reflective essay examines the history of the treatment of Indigenous Australians over the last century, focusing on the impact of colonisation and historical events on ethical practices, especially in engineering contexts. The essay uses the DIEP strategy (Developing insight, Interpretation, E...Read More

REFLECTIVE ESSAY
FOR MASTE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Investigating the history of the treatment of Indigenous Australians over the last century........3
CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................................................5
REFERENCE...................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Reflective essay is concerned with the writing a well argued response to a question or
proposition which uses an analyses or discussion of relevant information. This is useful in
establishing proposition, which has a formal standard of using paragraphs and complete
sentences. This essay will investigate the history of the treatment of Indigenous Australians
over the last century. Australian Aboriginal peoples are the distinct group of people of Australia
who are diversified among different organisational cultures, languages and customs. For this, the
essay will explain the impact of history on ethical practices of engineering and influence of this
in communicating with Aboriginal communities and representatives as an engineer.
MAIN BODY
Investigating the history of the treatment of Indigenous Australians over the last century.
For properly evaluating the history and treatment of Indigenous Australians with the help
of DIEP strategy. This allows me to use the reflective writing in a more appropriate manner. It
stands for Developing insight of the story, interpretation, evaluation and planning for future. In
this case I will use this strategy, as this will help me investigation and generation of reliable
results. The first portion of this will assess the case which will describe the insights, feelings, etc.
Indigenous Australians are ancestor or relative of the people who live in Australia and
surrounding Island prior to European colonisation. In this also, there are two group of indigenous
people namely, Torres Strait Islanders who belongs to the Torres Strait Islands north of Cape
York in Queensland and other one is Aboriginal people who comes from different areas of the
Australia. It has been said that Australian people generally belongs to the Asia and have been in
Australia from around 45000 to 50000 years. They have suffered a lot of hardships like forced
child removal and apart from this, their land were grabbed away from them.
After this, I have interpreted the situation and on the basis of my investigation I have
investigated that among the two groups of indigenous Australians, there are various kinds of
cultures, languages, customs and beliefs. I have examined that during the period of colonisation,
there were hundreds of languages were spoken by different indigenous groups of diverse people
and some languages are still spoken in indigenous communities. Furthermore, I have learned that
many indigenous culture have adopted the culture of colonisation while others are being actively
renewed and reclaimed.

Then this will be evaluated in detail. Evaluation is important because to generate the
reliable and authenticate results. Indigenous people of Australia believes to act or behave in a
certain way. For instance, Indigenous Australians are anticipated to have darker skin, lives in
distant region and superior athletes.
For the purpose of understanding the Indigenous people, I have listen to their views. Then
I have learned different view of people regarding indigenous namely, for some it means different
things to different people while other considers it by connecting it to the country, community and
culture. Apart from this, according to some people if person is spiritual in nature then they
belong to the aboriginal person. While some assumes that they represent the ancestors and dream
time. This must have impact on ethical practices of engineering. For this, I have investigated the
ethical code of conduct with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and communities.
This has helped me in demonstrating the six core values which are corresponded with legal
requirements. Furthermore, the ethical research has helped me in investigating the cultural value
systems. It provides description of six values namely, spirit and integrity, reciprocity, respect,
equity, responsibility and cultural continuity.
 Respecting cultural security : This focuses on the essentialness of the cultural security
which designs and delivers the government services which supports that Aboriginal
people have the legality to approach services in a manner which
does not decrease or menace their cultural rights, expectations or norms. Cultural security is a
loyalty to the cultural rights, values and expectations of Aboriginal people and request that
programs and services renders equal quality and outcomes regardless of cultural background.
 Commitment to engage : This is an important aspect when government agency commits
to the involvement with aboriginal people is enthusiastic for the process. And this is
dependent on the potentiality and commitment through which consultation principles can
be put into practise.
The ethical practices which has been adopted by the communities has influenced me
while communicating with Aboriginal communities and representatives as a engineer. It has left
strong impact on me because of the different languages which people speak, has created a
problem for me in communication. For this, I have learned few languages and hired a translator
guide who translates my questions to the people and answer given by them to me in the language
which is understood by me. Apart from this, acknowledgement and esteem for the

communications protocol that an Aboriginal person cannot generally speak about or for another
person’s land, unless given permission by the traditional landowner to do so. I have also taken
care that the place and time is selected by the community people for meeting and I can only
make arrangements accordingly but the final decision regarding when where and at what time the
meeting will be conducted is decided by community only. Thus, this again has a huge impact on
me while communicating because I will only have to make adjustments regarding the time and
place.
Also, while communicating with Aboriginal people, I will have to take care that I am able
to use the Aboriginal language appropriately and is able to define the terms adequately specially
in case of using the terminology which are complex and technical in nature. I personally believes
that by communicating with the Aboriginal personally, better solutions can be developed for
understanding the way of life and develops trust for sustainable agreements and effective
management. Many times, people don;t respond to the questions which makes me frustrated and
irritated but I tried to maintain patience and calmness and gave them time to think and respond.
Apart from this, I will behave as a guest only and will go wherever the members of the
community will take me. Aboriginal community people does not prefer to have alcohol while
communicating so I will make arrangements such that the place does not contain alcohol.
CONCLUSION
By investigating the history of indigenous people of Australia, it has been concluded that
Australia has diverse range of cultures, beliefs, languages, etc. The group of indigenous people is
also divided into two segments in Australia. Furthermore, the ethics has been explained which
plays a greater role and has strong impact on a person who is communicating with them because
there are various set of protocols which are strictly followed by the aboriginal communities for
having face to face meetings.

REFERENCE
Books and Journals
Boulton, J. ed., 2016. Aboriginal children, history and health: Beyond social determinants.
Routledge.
Furniss, E., 2017. Challenging the myth of indigenous peoples’‘last stand’in Canada and
Australia: public discourse and the conditions of silence. In Rethinking settler
colonialism. Manchester University Press.
Hamilton, P., 2017. Sale of the century?: memory and historical consciousness in Australia. In
Memory, History, Nation (pp. 136-152). Routledge.
Thomas, N., 2017. The uses of Captain Cook: early exploration in the public history of Aotearoa
New Zealand and Australia. In Rethinking settler colonialism. Manchester University
Press.
Young, R.J., 2016. Postcolonialism: An historical introduction. John Wiley & Sons.