Disadvantages faced by indigenous people
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are disadvantaged both legally and non - legally. Legally, indigenous people are inexperienced in legal proceedings and are often seen as unreliable witnesses. Their customs and traditions often conflict with white Australian law and this sees them overrepresented in the system. Non ' legal disadvantages represent the lack of resources made available to the indigenous people. Many are uneducated and many hardly even attend school. The income of an indigenous person on average is far less than white Australians. A very high unemployment rate is also evident in the culture and this could be partly blamed on resources made available to rural indigenous communities. There is discrimination when it comes to housing indigenous people and many are left homeless because of this, or forced to live in horrid conditions. These form part of the limitations in addressing those issues mentioned above. This paper will describe the nature of the disadvantages experienced by indigenous people and will explain the limitations in addressing the above mentioned issues.
Legal disadvantages
Before Europeans invaded Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had their own complex legal structure ' this structure was not recognised by those invading the country. Terra nullius which means 'land belonging to no one' was declared and this allowed the Europeans to invade and impose their laws. This was the beginning of a foreign legal system, which would disadvantage the native people up until this day. Michael Mansell from the Aboriginal legal centre wrote a paper on the legal discrimination of Aboriginal people. He believes that the reason that the native people of Australia are so over represented in the legal system, is because the system was not intended for them.
'The laws of Australia were designed by white people to meet the needs of whites... and the criminal law [is] often used as a tool to maintain white political domination over Aborigines.'
In court proceedings, natives are subjected to disadvantages because of their race and appearance. Part of this may be because of the prejudice held by magistrates or judges, and this was touched on by the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
'The RCIADC attribute harsher sentencing of indigenous people in part to the prejudice of judges...'
Although not directly, statistics stated in a paper written by the law reform commission of Western Australia, supports the above argument. These statistics suggest an overwhelming amount of natives contribute to forming the prison population.
'Although only constituting about three per cent of the state's population, in 2004 Aboriginal people comprised 40 per cent of the prison population. For juveniles the position in Western Australia is indefensible: approximately 70 to 80 per cent of juveniles in detention are Aboriginal.'
The native people are disadvantaged further by the court process itself. There is a definite language barrier and often when a native gives evidence as a witness they seem as if they are keeping something from the court or blatantly lying. Often, this leaves a magistrate or jury to conclude that the evidence given is unreliable. This is further amplified when in some cases, because of taboos regarding sacred practices within their culture, a native is unable to answer questions. Again, this leaves a magistrate or jury to conclude that something is being held back in relation to their testimony and again the evidence is seen as unreliable. Furthermore, practices within their culture often lead to natives agreeing with the person asking the question, and of course this is problematic if they are being cross examined.
'An Aboriginal person who lives a customary life will find it difficult to participate in the trial due to language barriers and taboos that prevent them from revealing information considered sacred or secret. Cultural practices, such as a tendency to agree with the person asking the question, create further problems.'
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people face two legal systems in the one country; the white legal system and the complex customary law system. Although there have been developments recently, such as the establishment of existence of customary law, the native people still face two punishments. If a native is sentenced by a magistrate or judge, most of the time, they also face the sentence and punishment from their tribes. This could be in the form of spearing, or having a native shunned from the tribe. I would argue that it was the latter system of punishment that would be most effective. Natives rely on the interaction of their group in order to nourish and usually the elders are very influential. As the honourable Justice Dean Mildren, a Northern Territory Supreme Court justice, stated
'There are a number of underlying factors which must be addressed before Aboriginal people can achieve equal and adequate protection from the rule of law. The Courts also have a role in providing a fairer system of criminal justice, including the special considerations which arise in the trial and sentencing of Aboriginal offenders.'
There is no doubt that there are disadvantages faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. These disadvantages stem from their race and customs. These two aspects are hardly considered by the white law, if you like, and therefore the natives receive unfair and unjust treatment. In regard to prejudice toward the natives in the legal system, I find it hard to conclude that this is a large part of the disadvantages faced; it would be more plausible that a natives restrictions, including language barriers and taboos off - put the white jury, the white police officers and the white judges. Basically, the prejudice is not intentionally directed, but rather arrived at by how natives represent themselves.
Non ' legal disadvantages
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are the most disadvantaged people in Australia. We see these disadvantages in education, income, employment and housing. I will explore these issues during this part of the paper.
Education for many is a part of life, we simply attend school because we have to. However, indigenous Australian's hold a belief that school is not a necessity, rather an alienating experience, where one may be teased and vilified. Indigenous school attendance is rather appalling and this reflects the problems and disadvantages faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander school children. The Rudd labour government is attempting to rectify this problem by linking financial assistance pensions to the indigenous parents on the basis that their children regularly attend school. I believe Justine Ferrari a journalist from the Australian Newspaper is about right when she wrote
'LINKING welfare payments to school attendance in indigenous communities is destined to fail because it ignores the underlying reasons children stay away from classes: health problems and a lack of basic facilities.'
However, many native children do have these resources and do want to attend school; the infrastructure is simply not available to them. Furthermore, there are very few teachers available to teach in aboriginal communities. Also a problem is the distance a child must travel in order to attend school. Most of these indigenous children in Aboriginal communities have to travel fifty kilometres to and from school each day.
'The Australian Education Union estimates 7000 indigenous children in the NT miss out on school; primarily because of a lack of basic infrastructure... the Rudd Government had announced 19 of the 200 teachers it has promised over the next five years... an extra $1.7 billion over five years was required to provide 1360 extra teachers.'
Monetary income is a necessity for many and is a source to ensure that basic health and wellbeing is upheld. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics the average white Australian income is five hundred and eighty five dollars a week. The indigenous average income weekly is three hundred and sixty four dollars. Comparing cities to remote indigenous communities is also frightening. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics the average income for an indigenous person residing in the city is four hundred and thirty five dollars a week, whereas those in outback communities earn an average weekly wage of two hundred and sixty seven dollar. This outlines the need of a substantial policy by the government to ensure that the income of those living out in desolated towns is vastly improved. Suite101.com noted this when comparing indigenous income in cities to outback towns
'The most frightening thing about this is that groceries in remote communities cost up to four times more than in the city.'
Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people face difficulties when seeking employment. This could be linked to discrimination, however, the statistics above (comparing indigenous incomes in cities to outback towns) suggest that it is more than likely that indigenous people simply cannot find employment close to where they reside. According to the Australian Human rights commission
'The indigenous unemployment rate is 24%'
Employment and income very much go hand in hand. We see that there is a much higher unemployment rate with indigenous people and a much lower income rate. Of course both of these issues need to be addressed by the government if either of them are to improve.
Traditionally, housing was not an issue for indigenous people. They had their own methods of residency. Now days, more and more indigenous people are homeless. The natives face discrimination when it comes to the 'crunch'. Many are placed in homes without running water, any electricity or access to the town sewerage. Many are not even given housing assistance. The Tasmanian Aboriginal centres legal director Michael Mansell says Aborigines go through a longer process to get a housing department home.
"When you ask people to declare that they are aboriginal so that you can give them a worse treatment that you would to others that is racial discrimination, it's contrary to law. "That's why we've lodged an application with the Anti-discrimination Commission suing the State Government for breaching its own laws."
Conclusion
The disadvantages faced by our indigenous people span back to when Australia was invaded. It was the rapid change in customs and native laws that was the catalyst for the change and for the disadvantages experienced even to this day. The white laws were not made for indigenous inhabitants, for example, our crimes act in New South Wales was created in 1901, far before Australia accepted indigenous people as citizens. Legally, Aboriginal people are over represented in the court process and in prisons. The large amount of indigenous people in prison compared to white Australians cannot be solely blamed on their race. There needs to be some blame placed on our legal system for not incorporating the needs of indigenous people ' the language barriers and the difficulties that arise from customs and traditions.
It is evident that the government still has much more work ahead of them in regard to indigenous people. Education is a must yet over two thousand indigenous children do not attend a school in the Northern territory. Relating both welfare payments and school attendance in this case is not the answer. Creating more schools and teachers is what's needed. Income and employment is a serious issue. There is a clear necessity to have well structured policy and laws prohibiting racial discrimination to ensure indigenous people are able to find employment. The current state of indigenous housing is appalling, with many Aboriginals living in third world country conditions, that's if they are granted housing assistance at all.
The government needs to play a much larger role in ensuring that our indigenous people are not treated like second rate citizens. It is only recently that they received citizen status in Australia, yet it seems little has changed. A change of attitude by the government will eventually ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are treated equally and fairly.
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