Nursing Assignment 6: Impact of Stolen Generation on Indigenous Health

This nursing assignment is a reflective essay exploring the Stolen Generation in Australia, focusing on the forced removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families. The essay examines the historical context, personal feelings before and after learning about the issue, and critical evaluations of the impact on Aboriginal communities. It delves into the trauma, loss of culture, and systemic discrimination experienced by the Indigenous population. The student reflects on their evolving understanding of the issue, the impact on cultural safety in nursing, and plans for implementing culturally appropriate care. The essay also considers historical, political, cultural, and environmental factors contributing to the challenges faced by Aboriginal people, including colonization, loss of land, and unequal access to healthcare, ultimately aiming to develop a more culturally sensitive approach to healthcare for Indigenous communities, acknowledging the lasting effects of the Stolen Generation and promoting empathy and equitable health services. The assignment includes references to relevant academic literature.

Running head: NURSING ASSIGNMENT
NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author’s note

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Reflection
Description
Throughout my entire semester my semester has been quite significant towards the
awareness of the Aboriginal and the Torres Strait Islander community. In this semester my
personal perspective has been impacted to a greater extent.
Describe the issue that you have chosen and how has it impacted aboriginal and the Torres
strait Islander people?
In this essay, I will reflect on the stolen generation of Australia. The stolen generation
can be referred to as those children of the Australian aboriginal and the Torres Strait Islander
descendants, who were removed from their families (Terszak, 2015). This has disrupted their life
style, has kept them deprived of their basic rights. The aboriginal families still had to cope up
with the trauma of separation from their roots and extended families

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Feelings
How did you feel about the issue before you were exposed to this unit?
Before the introduction to this unit, I had no idea about the aboriginal history as we never
had to read much about the aboriginal history at school. Hence, I had a biased notion regarding
the aboriginals.
How did you feel about the issue after you were exposed to the discussion?
Unfortunately after this, I felt that I had been fed some extremely false information about
the first people. My response to this unit was entirely different from what I had thought. I was
touched by the horrific tortures hat was carried over the indigenous children in the name of the
reforms. Getting away from the family just because of their aboriginal background and being
mistreated in the name of assimilation.
Critical evaluation
What was good/bad , why did you feel this way?
Previously I had a concept that most of the aboriginal members are associated with the
crimes, antisocial activities, binge drinking bear, drug abuse. I also had this concept in mind that
the aboriginals are more likely to be suffering from the mental health disorder related to drug
use. Before this essay, I had a concept that most of the aboriginal children were taken from the
Australian household were for their betterment and education, unlike the real truth where the
children were transformed in to slaves and had to suffer from immense hardship (Seran, 2015).

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How do you think you knew what you knew?
I was not well aware of the fact how the history of colonization, loss of land and the
children had destroyed the wellbeing of the aboriginal people. I read many the online articles to
validate what I had learnt in the tutorial.
Was your response to the issue due to an experience?
Yes, my reaction was due to what I have experienced or what I had learnt. I have learnt
that in many cases , the aboriginal women were mistreated. It has been found that the women
were made to sign the papers allowing their children to put for the auction. In many cases it was
found that the mothers were told that the child had dies at the time of birth. This sickened me as
of how people could be gruesome and cold hearted. I have come across certain children who had
been separated from the families.
Analysis & conclusion
What do you know now, which you did not know before?
This unit has helped me with the awareness regarding the Indigenous Australians and the
immortal struggle that they were put though in the past, which I was not aware off before. More
people needs to be aware of such acts. As per the researches, It can be found that in the name of
assimilation, most of the aboriginal people were deprived of the basic human rights and even the
right to have their own children. Now, I have understood that the prevalence of mental illness or
the increased rate of crime among the aboriginals can be due to several predisposing factors like
colonization, unequal access to health care, discrimination and loss of rights.

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Historical, political, cultural and environmental factors
The aboriginal people were forced to give up their land, culture, norms and the follow the
westernized and modern way of living, with the assumption that they would assimilate. This was
again developed as a formal government policy in the year 1851 (Paradies, 2016). The most
disturbing facts is to understand what might have happened when the children have been taken
away. As per the resources, most of the children were not put in to better households. Instead
most of children were made in to slaves. There also had been several cases of sexual abuse and
the several other cats of sinfulness with the aboriginal and the Torres Strait Islanders. Most of the
aboriginal people were told the lie that their children had been sent for good education, but were
actually unaware of the fact that their beloved children were soon to become the slaves of rich
Caucasian family( Gee et al., 2014).
How will this new knowledge about yourself impact cultural safety when caring for the
aboriginal people?
This new knowledge will develop a sense of cultural sensitiveness within me, to provide a
holistic care to the aboriginals.
Action Plan
What will you do to implement culturally appropriate care for the aboriginal people and
how might this relate to the unit learning outcomes?
In future, I intend to learn and research more on the aboriginal and the Torres Strait Islander
community, their life style, their perception about the western world. This module has helped me

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to understand that these people should be treated with empathy and equable health service. The
main aim of this is to imbibe the seed of cultural sensitiveness within me.

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References
Gee, G., Dudgeon, P., Schultz, C., Hart, A., & 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, 55-68.
Paradies, Y. (2016). Colonisation, racism and indigenous health. Journal of Population
Research, 33(1), 83-96.
Seran, J. (2015). Australian Aboriginal memoir and memory: a stolen generations trauma
narrative. Humanities, 4(4), 661-675.
Terszak, M. (2015). Orphaned by the colour of my skin: A stolen generation story. Routledge.