Worldview and Privilege

Question: Write an Essay about theWorldview and Privilege. Answer: Introduction The indigenous Australia was quite different from todays Australia. The country always possessed an amalgamation of different cultures and people. Prior to colonization in 1788, Australia had a population of 750000 people, but today only 2% among them are Indigenous Australians (Tomyn, Norrish and Cummins 2013).The essay discusses about the sustainable and harmonious nature of Aboriginal people before colonization, the ways different perspectives of land use to the settlers and Aboriginals led to the conflict and the racial superiority of the settlers to the indigenous people in context to the film The Secret River (youtube.com 2016). Prior to colonization, the Aboriginal people shared a harmonious and sustainable relationship with the land. The indigenous people used to respect the nature. They believed in sustainable environment. They used to ensure that the animals were not over hunted for the purpose of food and took care of the plants such that over cutting and collecting were not done. This ensured that the sustainability and harmony of the nature and land was maintained well. They never believed in over exploitation of the environment and never wasted food, hence they used to hunt and collect as much food as required to feed their people. This attitude clearly indicated that they believed in sustainable environment, where over exploitation was not practised rather they ensured that the food was always available for other people whenever they needed. The men used to hunt larger animals like turtles, kangaroos or emus. The women and children used to hunt smaller ones and collected fruits, berries and other su ch edibles. The coastal people used to catch fish and collected selfish, oysters and mussels. The indigenous people stayed at a particular area due to variations in seasonal vegetations. They never hunted animals in large numbers from a particular area to ensure that the food sources were available for the next time. They used to make baskets, tools, weapons and clothes with the various parts of animals and plants that were non-edible (MacDonald and Steenbeek 2015). There were fundamental differences in the attitudes of settlers and Aboriginal people towards land use and ownership. This led to violent conflicts between them. The meaning and significance of land were quite different for Aboriginals and settlers. The indigenous people were strongly connected to their land in terms of physical, social and cultural aspects. The management and care of land were a vital part of their life. The land was an important and indispensable part of their heritage, culture and dominion. They considered that the wellbeing of land and water surrounding them were the central parts of their culture. They believed that land was their mother and had a great influence on their culture. They felt a sense of responsibility for the maintenance and care of their very own land (Markwick et al. 2015). The settlers had a different interpretation of land use and their attitude towards land was a way different from the indigenous aboriginals. According to the settlers, the la nd was a commodity that they owned, something that could be purchased and sold. The land was thought to be a profit making asset by the settlers. They also considered that land was something that could help them build their houses where they could live easily. The British people thought that the land was intended for farming, agriculture and development. In the western society, owning a land, house, boat or other such materialistic entities were a symbol of social status. It meant possession, dominance, power and prosperity (Smith 2012). There were three rules that were laid in 1700 century by which Britain could legally own and possess another country (McLaughlin and Whatman 2015). However, none of the rules were followed by Britain. Terra nullius was declared which meant that land belonged to no one. Hence, the settlers justified their possession on the land which they invaded illegally despite the presence of the Aboriginals. The concept of land and its use were different to the indigenous people and the white settlers. Britain could not witness any development of the land and did not put an effort towards the Aboriginals understanding for land. Therefore, sovereign ownership of Australia was declared by Britain d (Markwick et al. 2015).This is where the tension of the film The Secret River lied and eventually this underpinned the 250 years old history of Australia. The sense of possession and ownership was prominent in Thornhills statement that Hawkesbury was his owned land and that the Aboriginals could take the rest of it whereas in reality the land was the Aboriginals own place, they took care of the river and land there as evident from Yalamunndis version in the film (youtube.com 2016). William Thornhill and other white settlers had a feeling of racial superiority over the Aboriginal people. It was evident from the film The Secret River, where Aboriginals were called by names like blacks and considered as savages who could be bought with trinkets. Aboriginalsdid not adopt the conventional British Practices of fencing or establishing their farming lands. The settlers thought Aboriginals believed in primitive culture and hence were regarded inferior to them. This is evident from the action of Thornhill when he planted corn crop on the top of the Yams cultivated by The Aboriginals. He considered the yams as a worthless form of radish or potato (www.insightpublications.com.au 2016). The white settlers feel superior to the Aboriginal people because of the Immigration Restriction Act190 (Markus 1979).It led to the universal acceptance of Australian society to be a society of whites predominantly. The white settlers had racist beliefs for the Aboriginals. They were made to work at goldfields, sugarcane plantations and deep sea diving. The feeling of superiority was also spread through the various literatures that were read by children at the schools. In 1901, when Australian Federations came into being, the Aboriginals were still not considered as citizens of Australia. They neither had the ownership of lands or houses nor had the voting rights. Hence, the whites believed that they were superior to the Aboriginals with context to the power and privilege they received. The Aboriginals had a harmonious and sustainable relationship with the environment. They had strong association with land and nature, being an important part of their culture. The colonization affected the culture and lives of the indigenous people. The white settlers considered them superior to the Aboriginals. Racial discrimination prevailed among the whites. The Aboriginals were called by names and disrespected. They were even killed mercilessly by the white settlers like Thornhill who killed the dharug people as depicted in the film. References: MacDonald, C. and Steenbeek, A., 2015. The Impact of Colonization and Western Assimilation on Health and Wellbeing of Canadian Aboriginal People.International Journal of Regional and Local History,10(1). Markus, A., 1979.Fear and hatred: purifying Australia and California, 1850-1901. Hale Iremonger. Markwick, A., Ansari, Z., Sullivan, M. and McNeil, J., 2015. Social determinants and psychological distress among Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander adults in the Australian state of Victoria: A cross-sectional population based study.Social Science Medicine,128. McLaughlin, J. and Whatman, S., 2015. Beyond social justice agendas: Indigenous knowledges in preservice teacher education and practice in Australia.International perspectives on race (and racism): Historical and contemporary considerations in education and society. Smith, A., 2012. Indigeneity, settler colonialism, white supremacy.Racial formation in the twenty-first century. Tomyn, A.J., Norrish, J.M. and Cummins, R.A., 2013. The subjective wellbeing of indigenous Australian adolescents: validating the personal wellbeing index-school children.Social Indicators Research,110(3). www.insightpublications. com.au, 2016. The Secret River an Insight text guide by Anica Boulanger-Mashberg. [online] Available at: https://insightpublications. com.au [Accessed 9 Oct. 2016] www.youtube.com, 2016. Available at: https: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDepKiFIt5A [Accessed 9 Oct. 2016]