Post-Colonialism in Contemporary Australian Society Report (Assessment)

Data Retrieval and Analysis

This paper aims to illustrate the use of various research methods which can be employed in order to retrieve informational resources. The topic which I would like to study is post-colonialism in contemporary Australian society. In particular, I decided to examine cultural aspects of colonialism and its impacts on indigenous population of the country. Currently, the relations between Western-European and aboriginal people are still extremely tense and the origins of this problem lie mostly in the domain of culture. This is one of the reasons why this question is of great interest to me.

At the very beginning I entered such keywords as “Australia”, “culture” and “colonialism” and “post-colonialism” in various databases. I used Boolean operators like And, Or, Not, in order to narrow down the scope of the research. These logical algorithms offer a good opportunity refine the results of query and make them more specific. Of course, search hits were numerous; however, certain articles were appearing on the screen more often than others and attracted my attention. One of them was Rethinking Cultural Genocide: Aboriginal Child Removal and Settler-Colonial State Formation, written by Robert Krieken. The author examines removal of children from aboriginal people and evaluates the aftereffects of this policy. His thought-provoking and argumentative discussion explains a great number of difficulties, faced by the Indigenous Australians¹ and one of them is cultural arrogance of the first colonizers and their descendants.

Afterwards, I tried to slightly modify my search requirements and added additional keywords such as “stolen generations” and “removal of children”. The search engine generated a great number of returns. Among them, I can single out such studies as The Best Interests of the Child? by Julie Cassidy², who analyzes legal and ethical dimensions of the policies, pursued by the then Australian government for more than a century. The scholar strives to explain the logic and fallacies of the authorities who adhered to the belief that British colonizers were better prepared to raise aboriginal children. Her analysis enabled me to gain deeper insights into the nature of colonialism in Australia. Furthermore, it helped me to specify area of study. I realized that the knowledge of such concepts as assimilation and absorption would significantly contribute to my understanding of this topic.

This is why I began to look for the scholarly sources, which contained such words as “Australia”, “indigenous population”, “assimilation and/or absorption”. Several articles appeared to be of great use, for instance, Indigenous Assimilation and Absorption in the United States and Australia, by Katherine Ellinghaus. This work aims to make a comparative analysis of assimilation policies in Australia and the United States. This article turned to be very helpful in my research: examines the attitude of the state towards this ethnic group and described educators approach to the upbringing of the children taken from aboriginal families.

In addition to that, careful examination of references, mentioned in the above-mentioned sources pointed me to the article, Stories from the Aboriginal Women of the Yarning Circle: When Cultures Collide, which was written by a group of authors, headed by Boni Robertson. The scholars attempt to delve into the experience of indigenous women, who were once deprived of their children. This study threw an entirely new light on this problem and emphasized the whole atrocity of discrimination against indigenous population.

Furthermore, while examining cross-references, I encountered a review Myths, truths and arguments: some recent writings on Aboriginal History by David Ritter, who evaluates the works of modern historians, studying aboriginal history. Although this is primarily a secondary source, it was of great value to me. David Ritter argues that “modern scholars can continue to interpret Aboriginal history through the glass of what is or is not good for the Australian nation in the here-and-now” (Ritter, 149). His analysis convinced me that it would be rather difficult to find an objective evaluation of colonial policies.

However, at that point, it occurred to me that I was shifting the focus of my research. Certainly, all of these works were of great assistance to me but I needed to examine the situation in contemporary Australian community and bring the discussion up-do-date. This is why I had to compile a new list of keywords. I included some new notions like “cultural superiority and/or arrogance”, ”prejudice and or/bias”, “education” and so forth. Again, I would like to set stress on the idea that Boolean operators were of immense assistance to me. To some extent, they act like filters which sieve the data. On the whole, my attempt proved to be successful. I came across the monograph Contesting the curriculum in the schooling of indigenous children in Australia and the United States³, by Anne Hickling-Hudson and Roberta Ahlquist. This source eloquently demonstrates that even educational institutions can impose the idea of inferiority on aboriginal people by downgrading their cultural traditions. The major benefit of this source is that it describes the manifestations of colonial philosophy in the modern world.

Apart from that, my search query lead me the case study On the Discriminations of Postcolonialism in Australia and New Zealand, prepared by Mark Williams who explains the essence of colonialism within Australian context and shows this political and social philosophy affects indigenous population of the country. He illustrates an idea that supremacist or even racial sentiments are still very strong in Australian community, even despite the fact that they are very carefully disguised. Judging from the analysis of these works, I can argue that the study of post-colonialism in modern Australia should be based on the most objective historiography. The thing is that collective memory can be distorted or misrepresented in order to better suit the demands of contemporary society.

At the outset, my research focus was on the cultural aspects of post-colonialism in contemporary Australian community. Yet, in order to gain in-depth insights of this matter I had to examine the historical background of the relationships between Western-European and aboriginal people. Only afterwards I could modify my search requirements and get more relevant sources. Although I did not found too many articles, dedicated to this topic, I can argue that the research was not fruitless. The sources, which I managed to retrieve, were both informative and authoritative. On the whole, they lay the foundations for further study of this issue.

Annotated Bibliography

Ellinghaus Katherine. “Indigenous Assimilation and Absorption in the United States and Australia. ” Pacific Historical Review 75.4 (2006): 563. Academic Research Library, ProQuest. Web.

Katherine Ellinghaus intends to investigate the absorption of indigenous population in the United States and Australia. The author defines the policies of both governments as “whitewashing” of aboriginal people. However, she believes that the situation in Australia was much more complicated. The authorities of this country attempted to disrupt family ties of the natives, and virtually became legal guardians of children. Katherine Ellinghaus examines official documents of that period, and these sources eloquently prove that racism and the philosophy of white supremacy were instilled into the strategies of Australian state. The scholar says that the actions of Western-Europeans were largely based on the theory of “doomed race” or the belief that the native population had been on the brink of extinction. The authors discussion of the key facts gives a convincing evidence that indigenous people were immensely victimized by colonizers. This study is extremely valuable for this research due to the fact that it is based on primary sources: legal documents of that period, newspapers, scholarly articles and so forth.

Hickling-Hudson Anne & Ahlquist Roberta. “Contesting the curriculum in the schooling of indigenous children in Australia and the United States: From eurocentrism to culturally powerful pedagogies. ” Comparative Education Review 47.1 (2003): 64-90. Academic Research Library, ProQuest. Web.

In this article Anne Hickling-Hudson and Robery Ahlquist discuss education of aboriginal students within the context of post-colonialism. According to them, modern curriculum in Australia as well as in the United States is Eurocentric. In other words, it is based on the idea that Western-European culture occupies a superior position to the beliefs and values of the native population. In addition to that, the authors believe that the content of the curriculum is not connected with daily lives of children, for example such cinematographic or literary characters as Cinderella, Mickey Mouse or Humpty Dumpty are virtually meaningless to the children of indigenous people. The authors overarching thesis is that such approach is another manifestation of colonial and post-colonial discrimination because it downgrades cultural heritage of these people. In the scholars view, this strategy is primarily aimed at deculturalization of this ethic group. This source is immensely helpful for our research because it points out to the vestiges of colonial policies in modern Australia and identifies the problems faced by aboriginal people.

Krieken Robert. “Rethinking Cultural Genocide: Aboriginal Child Removal and Settler-Colonial State Formation. ” Oceania 75.2 (2004): 125-151. Academic Research Library, ProQuest. Web.

Robert Krieken examines such concept as cultural genocide; in particular, he focuses on the policy of removing aboriginal children from their parents. He acknowledges the fact such practices inflicted heavy psychological injuries on these people, but at the same time, Robert Krieken does not accept the term genocide. The author maintains that the policies of the state were not motivated by the desire to destroy this culture and this ethnicity. Furthermore, he emphasizes an idea that such phrasing is not quite appropriate in this context because this term mostly implies physical destruction. Finally, the exact number of removals has not been ascertained. Naturally, the writer admits the claim that continuation of these removals could have constituted a significant threat to the unity of aboriginal people but under some circumstances this strategy could be justified, especially in those cases when a child was neglected or lived far from school. The analysis, carried out by Robert Krieken modern history allows different interpretation of “stolen generators” and the action of Australian authorities may not necessarily be classified as genocide. The views of this scholar are not analogous to those ones of the majority and they cannot be disregarded.

Williams Mark. “On the Discriminations of Postcolonialism in Australia and New Zealand”. University of Toronto Quarterly, 2004 vol. 73, issue 2.: 739-753.

In his essay Mark Williams analyzes the relations between colonialism and post-colonialism, paying special attention to such countries as Australia and New Zealand. The major point which he makes is that a great number of chauvinistic and racist ideas and principles, popular at the end of the nineteenth century, have survived nowadays. The only difference is that they are not openly declared. Furthermore, the writer presumes that such concept as multiculturalism, which is extremely popular in scholarly and political circles, may just be an expansion or continuation of colonialism. His argument is based on the premise that aboriginal people will have to abandon their cultural roots in order to integrate themselves into the community and become successful. The thing is that such notions as assimilation or cultural genocide are currently substituted by more politically-correct terms, while their essence remains unchanged. On the wholes, this essay gives a good explanation of post-colonialism in modern Australian community. Although this work is more speculative in its nature, Mark Williams arguments are well substantiated.

Works Cited

Buty Toni. “The Systematic Removal of Indigenous Children From the Families in Australia and Canada: The History – Similarities and Differences” Lecture in law, Murdoch University (undated). Web.

Ritter David. “Myths, truths and arguments: some recent writings on Aboriginal History.” The Australian Journal of Politics and History 53.1 (2007): 138(11).

Robertson Boni, Demosthenous Catherine, & Demosthenous Hellene. “Stories from the Aboriginal Women of the Yarning Circle: When Cultures Collide. ” Hecate 31.2 (2005): 34-46. Academic Research Library, ProQuest. Web.

Wevers Lydia. “Globalising Indigenes: Postcolonial Fiction from Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific” JASAL, 2006, pp 121, 132. Web.

Footnotes

1. Krieken Robert. “Rethinking Cultural Genocide: Aboriginal Child Removal and Settler-Colonial State Formation. ” Oceania 75.2 (2004): 125-151.
2. Cassidy, J.. “THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE CHILD? The Stolen Generations in Canada and Australia. ” Griffith Law Review 15.1 (2006): 111-152
3. Hickling-Hudson Anne & Ahlquist Roberta. “Contesting the curriculum in the schooling of indigenous children in Australia and the United States: From eurocentrism to culturally powerful pedagogies. ” Comparative Education Review 47.1 (2003): 64-90