Rediscovering The Australia's Effort to Erase The Institutional Opression and Discrimination Towards Aboriginals

Rediscovering The Australia's Effort to Completely Erase the Massive Oppression and Discrimination Towards Aboriginals

For thousands of years, multiple Aboriginal clans have lived prosperously in the northern Sydney. They barely put much effort to survive as the natural resource is astronomically abundant. Requiring them to work by hunting and fishing for four hours a day is the utopia of the current modern capitalistic world.

Then, there came the dystopia where the hundreds of years the aboriginal live in misery since the occupation of British colonies who occupied the Australia land, considering the land as terra nullius (no one's land) despite the densely populated New South Wales by multiple aboriginal clans. Countless of genocides occur since the occupation of Britain on 26 January 1788 which now becomes the national day.

That explains why more activists come into the road demand the Australia government to consider 26 January as the day of morning rather than celebration (Rasyid, 2019). Coalitions of Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples are also protesting as an act of civil disobedience. Social media, through #SOSBlakAustralia, is raising awareness of oppositional positions to the closure.

Grassroot society also do the same activism as what can be seen when the Indigenous elders call for cultural revitalisation in remote communities as a way to protect country. Seeing this years of oppression in silence, this essay is meant to analyze whether the if progress towards equal Australia exist, is it sufficient to end the oppression once for all?

When the genocides end, structural cases of institutionalized discrimination still continue in daily basis. This phenomenon can be viewed from shorter life expectancy (Indigenous women also experience approximately double the level of maternal mortality in 2016), overall health (In 2016, Indigenous children experienced 1.7 times higher levels of malnutrition), lower education and employment, higher incarceration (The detention rate for Indigenous children aged 10-17 years was 26 times the rate for non-Indigenous youth in 2016).

The discrimination effects on Aboriginals are inseparable from the case of oppression. American feminist philosopher, Iris Marion Young lists five faces of oppression: exploitation (the theft of a group of peoples' labour through unfair compensation), marginalization (the relegation of a group of people to lower social standing or the edge of society); powerlessness (the domination of a group of people by ruling groups who prohibits their participation in decision making).

The prolonging minor discrimination in daily basis cannot also be undermined as it will damage the Aboriginal mental health and potentially leads to trauma or suicides. Carmichael (1967) gave a bright picture on how institutional racism is far more damaging than the individual and minor-scale one.

"When white terrorists bomb a black church and kill five black children, that is an act of individual racism, widely deplored by most segments of the society. But when in that same city ---- five hundred black babies die each year because of the lack of power, food, shelter and medical facilities, and thousands more are destroyed and maimed physically, emotionally and intellectually because of conditions of poverty and discrimination in the black community, that is a function of institutional racism.

it is institutional racism that keeps black people locked in dilapidated slum tenements, subject to the daily prey of exploitative slumlords, merchants, loan sharks and discriminatory real estate agents. The society either pretends it does not know of this latter situation, or is in fact incapable of doing anything meaningful about it."

The low education coverage and employment for the indigenous is the first thing that Australia government need to manage, the aboriginals now still have lesser opportunity to work In a formal sector in the developed civilization. This discriminative status quo result into the outcome as portrayed by the ABS report showing the employment gap still occurs between the aboriginal and the non-natives (ABS, 2016). The gap is the results from barriers to Indigenous people in obtaining and maintaining employment.

On the demand side, the location of jobs, structural change in the labor market and employer discrimination towards Indigenous peoples. So, in this case, their rights to obtain a sustainable job are denied even when they first step into the interview room. The lack of access towards decent works among the Aboriginals prevent them in getting the basic necessities such as healthcare or provision to their children's education, thus, with the institutionalized discriminations, endless poverty cycles will continue.

Fig.1 The Unemployment Rate Comparison between The Indigenous and Non-Indigenous

In solving this gap in the employment rate, providing non-segregated and equal access to education is critical. The current data shows that about 62% of Indigenous students finished year 12 or equivalent in 2014-15, compared to 86% of non-Indigenous Australians. There are also large achievement gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students.

For example, 47% of Indigenous meet the minimum proficiency science standard in TIMSS compared to 77% of non-Indigenous students (The Conversation, 2017). This education opportunity for indigenous can still be improved by increasing the public spending on public and private schools especially in rural area. Incorporate the existing NGOs will answer the lack of human resources to teach the aboriginals in the most secluded area even in Kiwirrkura of Gibson desert.

The specified curriculum designed for rural aboriginal communities must also be provided as the curriculum that requires high-tech and higher critical thinking in the classroom is not relevant in the area where digitalized information is hardly accessible. It is also critical to provide scholarships for varsity level directed to the most potential aboriginals with the basis of contract.

This contract will ensure them to go back into their community to develop their homeland, incorporate the latest technology to improve the rural farming or provide P2P lending for women that cannot access the formal bank are just a few examples on how the varsity education can catalyze the modernization of the rural area.

The powerlessness of aboriginals are reflected when they must work in a formal institution from which they are denied and they can no longer self-sustain with the plentiful natural ecosystem given by the so called "Baimi" they once had. However, in the present moment, the new master of the land also mercilessly rob the sacred natural habitat by polluting the ecosystem of Barwon or Namoi river.

Thanks to the major corporates who own political decisions with their capitals, they can sell the water supplies to the higher bidder and those two examples are just a surface layer of numerous cases massive exploitation on natural resources and mismanagement of pollution to the entire vistas. In other cases, the government seemingly do not care about the sanctity of land that the natives praise, the connection of the indigenous towards their land and ancestors.

These public disrespects come with the case of The 800-year-old Djap Wurrung trees that were slated to be bulldozed and have bitumen poured over them to extend the Western Freeway near Ararat, Victoria. This bulldozing game is peculiar when such a holy site is sacrificed to save drivers' two minutes. "What is two minutes to 800 years?". This massive destruction of centuries is described as "an ultimate destruction of our culture" according to Gamilaraay elder--Virginia Robinson (Allam, 2019).

One of the clan called Walgett have to live on bore water indefinitely. Bore water is high in mineral content, especially sodium. It kills gardens and discolours basins and bathtubs.

These coercive actions need to be prevented by the united voice of all tribes descendants and NGO that focus on humanity issues. Non-Government organisations (NGO) have taken on responsibility of the racial conditions seen in Australia. They have filed numerous reports to the UN addressing the racial discrimination problems found in Australia.

The NGOs role is to become a vital watchdog Since Australia has signed the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination it has to report regularly on the progress made (HRLC, 2010). Many theatrical actions just like boycotting the vast bulldozing projects and whistleblowing the upcoming sacred land need to be continued increase the leverage of indigenous. Carl Hopner is the least example of police brutality towards the activist who against the national Australia Day (Wakatama, 2019).

NGOs in this case are required to provide legal aid to protect the possible police brutality and jailing towards activists considering that the current incarceration rate towards indigenous is highly alarming. If the oppression escalates, the aboriginals along with the NGOs need to incorporate amnesty international or the international bodies to protect their voice. International bodies are proven effective in giving diplomatic bilateral pressure suppose the extrajudicial punishment reoccurs.

Fig 2. The River That Now Becomes an Arid Desert due to the Water Shortage

Seeing the issue of land that the indigenous considers as a manifestation of holy land given by their God(s), Australia need to supervise each agricultural, mining and industrial activities that do not comply to the environmental protection standard. Waiting for Green Peace to come and boycott the facilities are just ineffective to stop the vast-growing massive deforestation or polluted rivers that not only endanger the indigenous, but also the biodiversity.

The NGO need to use the pragmatic content to easily send the message to the Australian parliament, i.e. "the overall economy will collapse if the nature collapse". The great barrier reef as the main attraction of tourism that is dying due to the intensive oil mining is the example of how the economical issue can become a common interest to encourage more governmental intervention.

Considering the disadvantages the aboriginals face intergenerationally, what are the best way to end it all?. Does the reparation just like the current heated debate in USA work to compensate the years of grief? The answer can be yes or no. It is yes if the reparation policy does not trigger the social unrest among white people or the minor discrimination turns into a rigorous violence.

The tax that the white privileged community pay is not a small amount, and the inability to enjoy what they paid will justify the more discriminations to reoccur. The ideal reparation should be in a form inclusive policy and law, ensuring those who administer discriminative actions to be punishable to prevent it into a micro scale. Inclusive policy can be in a form of

REFERENCES

 Allam. (2019). For centuries the rivers sustained Aboriginal culture. Now they are dry, elders despair.  https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jan/22/murray-darling-river-aboriginal-culture-dry-elders-despair-walgett

ABS. (2016). National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey, 2014-15. https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4714.0~2014-15~Main%20Features~Labour%20force%20characteristics~6

Close the Gap progress and priorities report. (2017), Close the Gap Campaign Steering Committee for Indigenous Health Equality, pg. 13

Carmichael, Stokely; Hamilton, Charles V. (1967). Black Power: Politics of Liberation (November 1992 ed.). New York: Vintage. p. 4. ISBN 0679743138.

Rasyid. (2019). Puluhan Ribu Berunjuk Rasa Menentang 'Hari Invasi' di Australia. https://dialeksis.com/dunia/puluhan-ribu-berunjuk-rasa-menentang-hari-invasi-di-australia/

HRLC. (2019). Race Discrimination: Fact Sheets for UN CERD Review of Australia. https://www.hrlc.org.au/factsheets/race-discrimination-fact-sheets-for-un-cerd-review-of-australia-27-august-2010

Wakatama (2019). Appeals Court judge condemns police violence in Australia Day arrest of Aboriginal man. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-11/aboriginal-man-wins-appeal-amid-claims-of-police-brutality/11195