The 2014 Australian Reconciliation Barometer shows only 30 per cent of Australians consider themselves knowledgeable of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and histories. Indigenous Australians are people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent, together they form three per cent of the national population, based on the 2011 Census.
‘Stolen Generations’
Laws applying the policy of ‘protection’ were introduced by the six states between 1867 to 1911 - laws aimed at isolating and segregating full-blood Aborigines and assimilating half-caste children. Known as the ‘Stolen Generations’, part-Aboriginal children were separated from their families and sent to institutions or foster homes to become ‘Europeanised’.
Prior to European settlement, there were around 250 languages spoken by the First Nations people. A recent Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage report by the Productivity Commission finds that by 2012, only 120 Indigenous languages survive in some form, many of which are endangered, and merely 13 to 18 of those languages are still in active use.
1962 was the first time when all Indigenous Peoples were given equal right to vote in federal elections. Many, however, were unaware of the change as Indigenous Australians were not compelled to vote until 1984. The exclusion from the Census count meant that Indigenous Australians considered themselves as part of the ‘flora and fauna’.
It wasn't until a national referendum in 1967 with over 90 per cent of the population voting ‘yes’ that the First Nations people officially became a part of the national population. Paul Keating was the first Australian Prime Minister to publicly address the injustice inflicted upon Indigenous Australians by early European settlers.In 2008, former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered a formal apology to the ‘Stolen Generations’.
For more information on the past, present and future challenges of our First Peoples, you can read this extensive report .
