Industrial Engineering: Impact of History on Ethical Practice

This essay examines the historical treatment of Indigenous Australians and its implications for ethical practice in industrial engineering. It begins by providing a background on the Indigenous Australians, including their history before and after British colonization, and the injustices they faced, such as unfair treatment, imprisonment, sexual abuse, stolen wages, and the stolen generation. The essay then explores how this history impacts ethical engineering practices, emphasizing the importance of building fair and just codes of conduct that consider the rights of all groups, including external stakeholders. It highlights the need to understand the norms, values, and cultures of Indigenous Australians to avoid negatively affecting this minority group. Finally, the essay discusses how understanding this history influences communication with Aboriginal communities and representatives, emphasizing the need to address past injustices and promote positive, encouraging dialogue to bridge existing gaps and ensure equal opportunities.

Running head: INDUSTRIAL INGINEERING
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The indigenous Australians are people who descended from the tribes that existed in Australia
and around the islands surrounding Australia erstwhile of the British conquest. According to the existing
literature in the history of the indigenous Australians, there is no certain date of arrival of the group,
however, it is anticipated/ speculated those fifty thousand years ago, this group already existed (Moore, et
al., 2014, p. 517). This is evident by the remains of the early Mungo man and Mungo woman, which are
dated to over forty thousand years ago.
The recent archaeological study and analysis of charcoal anticipate a date of 65000 PB. The
indigenous Aboriginal Australian have a series of commonalities that they share and yet there are also
differences/ diversities among their communities of Australia, each with varying cultural practices,
customs and norms (Moore, et al., 2014, p. 517). The indigenous Australians have also been referred to as
the black and black fella, a name tagged by the European settlers and this defined them by their skin
color. Up to date, the “black” and “black fella”. Up to date, this name is still being used to refer to cultural
expression of the indigenous Australians.
According to the latest statistical reports, the indigenous Australians form a small percentage of
the total Australia’s population, approximated to 3%.
Taking a critical analysis an evaluation of the available literature, it is evident that most of the
available information have been authored by white people and this has substantially affected the core
facts behind the treatment of the indigenous Australians. This is due to the fact that an author would not
wish to reflect a sense of racism into the readers and therefore it is typically important to be critical while
taking the historical background and treatment of the indigenous Australians (Newton et al., 2015, p.45).
However, it has been considerably noticed that the indigenous Australians have had a series of
misery in the history o Australia. This begun way back from the time of European settlement in Australia,
which came with sequences of unfair treatment to the indigenous Australians (Rigney, 2017, p.75). A

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research study conducted in 2009 indicated that the imprisonment rate of the non-indigenous Australians
were 14 times below the indigenous Australians. Comparing to the total percentage composition of both
groups, it is an absolute implication that there is a sense of unfair treatment between the races. Further
studies also indicated that the indigenous Australians were subjected to inappropriate sexual abuse more
especially the children (Clifford, Bainbridge, & Tsey, 2015, p. 89).
A group of indigenous Australians who called themselves, Murrawarri Republic declared
themselves independent from the Australian state, government marking their boundaries between
Queensland and the New South Wales which also indicated a sagacity of the unsatisfactory living under
the Australian government which in most cases, regarded to be dominated by the non-indigenous
Australians (Rix, et al., 2015, p. 85).
The stolen wages; this is yet another evidence that the indigenous Australians were undergoing
unfair treatment. According the available literature, it is indicate that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people were paid far less than their counterparts would earn. Restrictions and acts were put forth to
monitor employment and marriage of the Aboriginal people (Rix, et al., 2015, p. 85). Although there is an
encouraging and improving trend in closing up the existing gap, this can still be witnessed in the current
trend of the Australian job market. It is evident that there exists a big gap between the level of education
attained by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the non-indigenous groups (Rix, et al.,
2015, p. 85).
The stolen generation, a study of the mixture of indigenous Australians and the non-indigenous
Australians indicated that some children were forcefully taken from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people which later to a mixed race. This demonstrated a clear indication of poor and highly
inhuman acts demonstrated by the non-indigenous group (Rix, et al., 2015, p. 85).
How the history of the treatment of the indigenous Australians impact on the ethical
practice of engineering

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In order to ensure an effective engineering practice and operations, it is typical and substantial to
build up a reliable, fair and just codes of conduct. This short be in the perspective of not oppressing the
rights of a particular group of people (Oladinrin, & Ho, 2015). In other words, it is important to
comprehensively consider all the likely parties to participate in the field, including the external
stakeholders of the system who of which may include other authorities and systems. Taking the evidence
of mistreatment of the indigenous Australians as a case study, it was discovered that there have been
several circumstances of civil wars, declaration of boundaries from the Australian state by the indigenous
Australians. Such cases have direct links to drawing bac the development. Thus, looking at such from the
engineering perspective, this would absolutely result into work inefficiency and substandard works
(Cameron, & O'Leary, 2015, p.290)
From our previous study of the treatment of the indigenous Australians, we discovered that,
although the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of Australia form a small percentage of the total
Australia’s population, it does not change the fact that they are still part of the country (Al-Saggaf,
Burmeister, & Weckert, 2015, p.235). This makes it important to have a clear understanding of the norms,
values, and cultures of the indigenous Australians so as to ensure that the codes of conduct do not in any
way affect the minority group. This will help in solving some of the problems that were previously
identified which included uneven distribution of opportunities between the Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people of Australia and the non-traditional people. It will also help in reflecting a consistent and
justifiable profession as it will be based on the on the core principles that observes the codes of a
profession (Al-Saggaf, Burmeister, & Weckert, 2015, p.235)
How would this influence my communicating with Aboriginal communities and
representatives as an engineer?
Having understood that there has been a series of mistreatment and unpopular subjection of the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of Australia to harsh and unbearable condition, I will have to
consider the trend of communication. Firstly, I would erase the negative attitude held by the bigger

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percentage the population regarding the racism and suppression that has been witnessed earlier (Mouton
et al., 2015, p.114). I would achieve this by highlighting some of the instances that happened and
objecting the unfair acts/ treatments. Furthermore, I would make sure; I use positive and encouraging
speech to help them in recognizing the gaps and how they can fill it. This can be the lagging educational
level and equal opportunities to all, regardless of the race

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References
Clifford, A., McCalman, J., Bainbridge, R., & Tsey, K. (2015). Interventions to improve cultural
competency in health care for Indigenous peoples of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA: a
systematic review. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 27(2), 89-98.
Rigney, L. I. (2017). Indigenist research and aboriginal Australia. In Indigenous peoples' wisdom
and power (pp. 61-77). Routledge.
Rix, E. F., Barclay, L., Stirling, J., Tong, A., & Wilson, S. (2015). The perspectives of Aboriginal
patients and their health care providers on improving the quality of hemodialysis services: a qualitative
study. Hemodialysis International, 19(1), 80-89.
Moore, S. P., Green, A. C., Bray, F., Garvey, G., Coory, M., Martin, J., & Valery, P. C. (2014).
Survival disparities in Australia: an analysis of patterns of care and comorbidities among indigenous and
non-indigenous cancer patients. BMC cancer, 14(1), 517.
Newton, D., Day, A., Gillies, C., & Fernandez, E. (2015). A review of evidence‐based evaluation
of measures for assessing social and emotional well‐being in Indigenous Australians. Australian
Psychologist, 50(1), 40-50.
Cameron, R. A., & O'Leary, C. (2015). Improving ethical attitudes or simply teaching ethical
codes? The reality of accounting ethics education. Accounting Education, 24(4), 275-290.
Oladinrin, O. T., & Ho, C. M. (2015). Critical enablers for codes of ethics implementation in
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Mouton, F., Malan, M. M., Kimppa, K. K., & Venter, H. S. (2015). Necessity for ethics in social
engineering research. Computers & Security, 55, 114-127.

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Al-Saggaf, Y., Burmeister, O., & Weckert, J. (2015). Reasons behind unethical behaviour in the
Australian ICT workplace: An empirical investigation. Journal of Information, Communication and
Ethics in Society, 13(3/4), 235-255.