economics assignment

After the idyllic world of the dreaming , 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 denial after the arrival of the Europeans in 1770, following brief visits from earlier explorers. The 1788 invasion , when white settlers brought diseases with them and made attempts to massacre the Indigenous people led to a sense of isolation 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 anger 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 bargaining 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 depression 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 acceptance 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.