Voices against racism: Australia's Aborigines
I found a short article about racism against the Aborigines in Australia. Monica Morgan, who is from the Aboriginal Yorta Yorta people from southeastern Australia, talks about her experiences and the history of her people. Before the British came to Australia in 1788, there were about 20,000 Yorta Yorta people, and by the end of the 19th century, there were less than one hundred left. Monica states that there is now a population of about 4,000, but they are all traumatized by the racism from the past two centuries.
There was a "stolen generation" during the two centuries. About a total 100,000 children were taken away from their families and put behind bars, treated terribly, or assimilated. Monica states that these children are being returned to the people, feeling broken, rejected, hopeless and without any justice. Monica Morgan, the Yorta Yorta people, and all the Aborigines want an apology for all the years of racism.
Racism is a big issue when it comes to the world. Most people think that it is in the past, but it is still a big issue in many countries. Not one person in our world is the exact same as another person. People have to look at others perspectives to understand how their lives are different. This ties into global engineering because engineers work with diverse people. They have to understand other cultures and customs to cooperate with people from different places.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1525825.stm
This is very interesting topic. I did not think about writing about the aboriginal culture. When I was younger, I wrote a paper on Australia and the culture. I talked about the aboriginal culture. Since then, I have heard very little about them. It was very interesting in class to hear about the similarities between the United States Native Americans and the Australia Aborigines. I did not know how small the aboriginal population had become and the hardships they endured. Your article describing the Yorta Yorta paper really addressed these difficult events for the aboriginal people. With just a small article, so much of Australia’s culture was touched on. There is racism everywhere and it is interesting to see the racism of the white settlers to the original people, which is so similar to the ways the white settlers treated the Native Americans in the United States. It is interesting how similar different events in history are and how human nature has played a major role in the shaping of nature. The fact that the issue of racism is still prevalent and still plays a role in society gives voice to how large this issue is and how it is hard to change habits (positive and negative) of human nature. I found your article quite interesting. (engr103)
ReplyDeleteI also find this topic really interesting but i feel sad if anything of this sort happens anywhere in the world. I'm an Indian and racism in Australia against Indian was at its peak a year back. the situation was so worst that every day some new news came about person getting hurt and sometimes killed.It was really sad to see such news everyday. Even the governments of both countries got involved.It was ugly. Protests also took place in Australia regarding this. Your article just remind me of those days.(engr 103)
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