economics assignment

© Copyright ETA NSW 2015

Activity: Understanding the 7 phases of Aboriginal history

and the 5 stages of dying.

The 7 phases of

Aboriginal history

The 5 stages of

dying

1. Dreaming

1. Denial and

2. Invasion

Isolation

3. Genocide

2. Anger

4. Protection

3. Bargaining

5. Assimilation

4. Depression

6. Self-

determination

5. Acceptance

7. Reconciliation

© Copyright ETA NSW 2015

Use the words from the 7 phases of Aboriginal history and the 5 stages of

dying (see back cover of play) to fill in the spaces of the document below

After the idyllic world of the ………………………. , a lifestyle and system of

customs and beliefs preserved in legends and stories from the past, the

Indigenous people would have originally experienced a sense of

………………………. after the arrival of the Europeans in 1770, following brief

visits from earlier explorers. The 1788 ………………………., when white

settlers brought diseases with them and made attempts to massacre the

Indigenous people led to a sense of ………………………. and despair. The

numbers of Aboriginal Australians dwindled in some parts of the country,

where they were surrounded by foreign invaders who did not recognise or

understand their culture and traditional ways of life. The genocide in the

1800s, experienced through events such as the Black War and other

massacres, led to a prevailing feeling of ………………………. from the

survivors. In the early 1900s, the government’s beliefs concerning the

protection of Indigenous people led to laws and practices which we now view

as being patronising at best and discriminatory at worst. Those Aboriginal

Australians who experienced the stolen generations, who fought in wars

without recognition and who otherwise served the country through their work,

entered into a phase of ………………………. as a community who received

little recognition or consideration from the government or mainstream society.

Policies which encouraged the assimilation of Indigenous people failed to

recognise their traditions, laws, customs and beliefs, arguing that the best

course of action was to encourage them to ‘fit in’ with white society. A sense

of ………………………. at the loss of their culture frequently beset the

Indigenous people, who experienced a crisis of identity as they became

alienated from their traditions and often separated from their families and

tribe. Moving on from their despair, the Indigenous people entered into a

stage where the desire for self-determination became predominant, most

notably in terms of the move towards Native Title and the desire to regain

their relationship with the lands of the dreaming with which they held a

traditional spiritual connection. Whilst an ………………………. of the wrongs

of history may seem unresolved and incomplete (and was certainly a

contentious idea at the time the play was written), the move towards

reconciliation was slowly gaining momentum.

After the play was composed, the long-awaited Apology to the Stolen

Generations was a valued symbolic recognition of the issues resulting from

forced protection and assimilation. However, reconciliation is a gradual

process, and will take generations. Indigenous issues are often still

controversial, and social attitudes sometimes leave much to be desired in a

country where undertones of racial discrimination can sometimes be detected.