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  Test your knowledge - Quick and easy: 1. History

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Question
 Answer
1 How long have aboriginal people lived in Australia?
60, 000+ years
2 In 1788 what was the Aboriginal population and how many languages were spoken?
In 1788 it is estimated the Aboriginal population was 750,000 and it is thought the Aborigines spoke around 250 languages with up to 600 different dialects groups.
3 What was the legal basis for the British taking possession of Australia? Was it correct at the time?
The land was defined as terra nullius, or wasteland, because Cook and Banks considered there were few 'natives' along the coast. Their observations were soon proven incorrect.
4 Colonial takeover of Australian was premised on the assumption that European culture was superior to all others, and that Europeans could define the world in their terms. When did colonisation take place in Australia?
Colonisation: 1788 to 1890
5 State and Territory laws were put in place to control relations between Aboriginal people and other Australians. Under these laws, protectors, protection boards and native affairs departments segregated and controlled a large part of the Aboriginal population. When was the period of protection?
Protection: 1890s to the 1950s
6 The Commonwealth Government held a national conference on Aboriginal affairs which agreed that Aboriginal people ‘not of full blood’ should be absorbed or ‘assimilated’ into the wider population. When was this conference? And how long did the policy of assimilation last?


Conference: 1937
Assimilation: 1940s to 1960s

 
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10. The federal Labor Government led by Gough Whitlam adopted the policy of ‘self-determination’ for Indigenous communities in 1972.
What was the policy of self-determination?


 This policy was described as ‘Aboriginal communities deciding the pace and nature of their future development as significant components within a diverse Australia’.
It recognised that Aboriginal people had a right to be involved in decision making about their own lives.
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11. The federal Coalition Government led by Malcolm Fraser, which came to power in late 1975, adopted the policy of ‘self-management’. The Hawke and Keating Labor Governments from 1983-1996 used both self-determination and self-management as key principles in their Indigenous affairs policies. What was the policy of “self-management”?		 “Self-management” focused on Indigenous communities managing the government projects and funding locally (but with little say in what projects would be created).
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What prompted the establishment of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation?




The final recommendation of the Royal Commission into the Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was for a formal process of reconciliation between Indigenous and other Australians.
In response the Commonwealth Government established the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation.

10 For Aboriginal people living today, their experience of living in Australian society with this historical legacy has many significant impacts on their lives. What are three significant impacts with implications for service delivery?
11 Aboriginal people and culture are grounded in a non-European/Western world view. European/Western world views have at their heart ideas of: a) Progress and change - the world progresses and things improves b) Roles and functions - things get done in society because people have roles and functions. c) Time is linear and measurable d) Ownership e) Counting, measuring, dissecting and analysis f) Written culture The Dreaming is a different word view. What are ideas at its heart?
Continuity - things stay the same; Relationships are how things get done; We don't own the land - we care for it - we are custodians; Whatever we have it is shared with everybody else. Holistic and relational. Oral culture.