Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Focus

Question: Discuss about the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Focus. Answer: In understanding the contemporary life of indigenous Australians, a historical and cultural background is important. A visit to the Immigration Museum at Melbourne, Australia, has helped in the understanding of social, emotional or mental issues that the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander people faced. The museum successfully exhibited the history of colonization and the consequent destruction of Indigenous Australians. The exhibition addressed issues such as struggle and resilience, which were faced by Indigenous Australians, to assert equality and cultural acknowledgment. This essay shall give a brief summary as to what I saw in the Immigration museum and the history that was displayed in the museum related to Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander. The Immigration Museum had a report that was published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in the year 2006. According to the report, around 517,000 Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander people lived in Australia. Around 2.5 percent of the Australian population comprised of Indigenous people. Amongst the Indigenous population, 90 percent of the population was people having aboriginal origin and the remaining 6 percent were people who had Torres Strait Islander origin (Brown et al. 2015). I noticed a section in the museum that beautifully explained the aboriginal cultural history. In the recent times, there has been a strong shift in making the cultural history more modern. I noted the differences between the traditional cultural background and the recent cultural renaissance. At the time when colonization took place, there were about 260 different languages and 500 different dialect groups. It was clear from the depictions in the museum that the indigenous Australians lived in sm all groups and they lived their lives in a semi nomadic way. They would move from one area to other area from time to time depending on the seasonal changes (Smith et al. 2015). Each group had their own cultural history and each group had their own historical past. The exhibition in the museum is a clear witness of such a life that aboriginals had in their past. Figure 1 - Culture of Australians Aboriginals The exhibition contained a map that showed the area that was covered by the Torres Strait. The Torres Strait was a seaway between the northern east coast of Australia and New Guinea, lying between the Arafura Sea and Coral Sea. The Torres Strait comprises of 100 islands. The Sahul Shelf connected the Australian mainland and the New Guinea. In the year 1879, the Torres Strait was acquired and was declared as part of Queensland. Hence, in Queensland maximum Torres Strait islanders stay (Brown et al. 2015). The term Torres originated from the name of Luis Vaez de Torres. He travelled the island of Torres in the year 1606. The exhibition also contained a brief representation of the economy that the Torres Strait islander depended on. Their main source of income was fishing and agriculture. They had a very established communal life and revolved around hunting, gardening and fishing and trading. Their main source of trading was artifacts, food and weapons. The people of Torres Strait maint ained good interpersonal relationships. Since islands were supportive of agriculture and gardening, so people would grow crops in those islands. Other islands supported game and wildlife due to their vegetation and size. Hence, the people of Torres Strait were fishers, gardeners and hunters. Others were expert in navigation and sailing (Smith et al. 2015). Figure 2 - Map of Torres Strait The European settlement moved from the Bay of Botany as the settlers claimed for financial purposes. With the occupation of their land, the aboriginal people moved towards Europe for settlement because they disrupted their own food supplies. This led to the death of the aboriginals and the birth rate of the aboriginals decreased. This made many group of the aboriginals dwellers that could barely find a place for their survival. The dwellers were treated as hopeless remnants, sticking to what was left of their traditions and values and hardly surviving. In some states of Australia, high population of aboriginals survived the violence of colonial contact. However, there are many places in Australia, where the aboriginals survived and originated as independent people (Smith et al. 2015). Hence, the depiction that was setup by the Immigration Museum in Australia relating to Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander Australians was helpful. I would like to thank my teacher for letting us to visit the museum. It increased my knowledge about the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander Australians. I noted the important differences that existed between the current indigenous culture and traditional indigenous culture. References: Brown, A., O'Shea, R.L., Mott, K., McBride, K.F., Lawson, T. and Jennings, G.L., 2015. A strategy for translating evidence into policy and practice to close the gap-developing essential service standards for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cardiovascular care.Heart, Lung and Circulation,24(2), pp.119-125. Smith, J., Springer, S., Togno, J., Martin, M., Murphy, B. and Wolfe, C., 2015. Developing a cultural immersion approach to teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and culture.