Article on Colonisation - It's bad for your health: The

Question

Article on Colonisation - It's bad for your health: The context of Aboriginal health

MANZER KHAN[T] · Accepted Answer

The article, “Colonisation-It’s bad for your health: The context of Aboriginal health” has evaluated the other influencing factors that have implications on the medical conditions of the Aboriginals by understanding the colonizing behavior and policies. According to World Health Organisation, social determinants are the non-medical factors that have health outcomes. The influencing factors involve conditions such as age, work, lifestyle, and other sets of forces and systems that impact one's daily conditions (World Health Organisation, 2022). The essay will look into the social determinants that have disintegrated traditional indigenous societies during the colonization period. 
The disintegration of the societies can be understood through the doctrine and policies that were implied over the period of time during colonization and the continuation. From 1770 to 1885, a European doctrine was promoted and it is Terra nullius which means the land belonging to no one. The idea behind the doctrine is that Indigenous Australians are inferior and problematic. It led to the breakthrough of smallpox that has wiped out large numbers of Aboriginal people. Expansion and settlement of similar kind have begun to encroach and expand and has further reduced the people from maintaining societal, legal, and religious conditions. The sustained warfare from 1788 to 1838 claimed Aboriginals as British subjects and navigated the case as a civil disorder. The strategies include rape, abduction, and murder of children and women. The notable ones are the Myall Creek Massacre, the Bluff Massacre, and Northern Territory Massacre. In the disguise of protectionism between 1838 and to 1970s, the policies were focused on limiting the rights of the Aboriginals. It tried to gain control through marriage, employment, education, and nutrition. Rationed food was given but that created dependency. Poor health conditions were recorded during the period and are due to malnutrition and crowded living conditions. The people who suffered from the diseases like smallpox, rosy, and syphilis were chained and dragged in the streets. In the course of the period from 1814 to the 1980s, many Aboriginal children were removed from their families. The protectors were also focussing on aborting the children in the womb. From 1937 to 1969, the policies were focused on controlling their lives through government policies. But the government did not act on the substandard living conditions of the Aboriginal community. Finally, self-determination from 1972 to 1996, focussed only on community and organizational management and it is given importance to medical conditions. This further gave way to crime rates, suicide rates, and racial victimization. 
The period from 1996 to 2010, can be called Howard Era as he realized and accepted the denial, deception, and ambiguity in the Aboriginal policy. But the other side to the policy is that he tried to remove the guilt of the mainstream Australians. This can be understood as an attempt to falsify the colonizer and colonized history. In 2007, Kevin Rudd apologized to the stolen generation and that hope in the government policies. But the reports from United Nations, say that the government policies are further stigmatizing the stigmatized communities. 
To conclude, the colonization behavior continues today in the life of the people through different forms in the Indigenous communities. The only way to address the issue is by making an informed decision and perceiving them from a decolonized gaze.

Article on Colonisation - It's bad for your health: The context of Aboriginal health

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