...Goodmorning, have you ever truly considered how much you allow prejudices to affect your first impressions of others? Does “Aboriginal man” sound more threatening and imposing than “man” alone? Perhaps the word aboriginal carries negative connotations? For decades Aboriginals have been associated with stereotypes and prejudices claiming they are a culture of violent, lazy and unstructured primitives. But on what basis? Has anyone ever questioned the validity of these stereotypes or even the origins of them? Well if i could direct your attention back to term 1, when we explored the short story ‘Kill to Eat’ written by Kath Walker. The short story worked to reject these fictitious stereotypes and in doing so created a voice for the Aboriginal people. The stereotypes were combated through the author's skillful use of both text structure and language features alike. The voice provided in the text is most influentially characterised by the authors use of point of view. Kath Walker was an Aboriginal-Australian poet, educator and campaigner for Aboriginal rights. The text is a recount of her time as a child, when she was most impressionable. This is important as the first person perspective encourages the reader to put themselves in the same situation. Given that the author is targeting people who hold prejudices it is assumed they have little to no idea of aboriginal life, and just like the impressionable little girl they must discover their own way and come about understanding...
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...of factors. The Indigenous population is often portrayed in ways that strengthen harmful stereotypes. However, there are also a variety of positive outlooks and portrayals expressing their strengths and achievements. These texts were studied in Year 8 English and can be demonstrated by the ‘Crow Country’ novel by Kate Constable, which allows for both historical and stereotyping enrichment that discusses the topic of justice. ‘Integration’ poem by Jack Davis stands for Indigenous culture embodiment...
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...way that portrays the characters to be exaggerated colonial stereotypes. Characters are the most vital element of a stage drama; they create the link between the audience and the drama. It is through Jack Davis’ writing that we are led to feel particular ways about most of the characters. No sugar is a play that makes an impact. Jack Davis has chosen not to construct realistic characters, but instead characters that fit into and even sometimes challenge the stereotypes placed on Aboriginal people. Although some characters are exaggerated stereotypes there are also many that aren’t. Every character is constructed in a different way, through dialogue and action. No sugar focuses on the hardships faced by an - albeit stereotypical of the 1930’s - Aboriginal family during the continued colonisation of Australia. Gran is the matriarchal figure of the family; she is the one that tries to ensure the continuation of the Nyoongah culture. She is characterised as strong and often stubborn. Her stubborn attitude throughout the play represents, in some ways, Aboriginal stereotypes. The way that Davis has constructed her creates a bond between her and the audience; the audience becomes attached to her. Through Davis’ choice, Gran’s spoken language is colloquial, accentuating her culture and creating a stereotypical Aboriginal character. The colloquial way in which Gran speaks reflects the stereotype of the 1930’s that aboriginals were unable to communicate in the same way as the ‘white’ people...
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...In today’s society stereotypes are a part of our everyday lives. We hear stereotypes every day and everywhere. Sometimes we can find ourselves in a situation where we make stereotypes for a large group of people. Every person, young or old, is labelled with either positive or negative stereotypes. A stereotype is an unreliable generalization about a person or group of persons. We develop stereotypes when we are unable or unwilling to obtain all of the information we would need to make fair judgments about people or situations. There are many types of stereotypes such as racial/ethnic stereotypes, religious stereotypes, gender stereotypes, ageism stereotypes and professional stereotypes. They can be divided into three different levels according to the degree of harm they can cause to either individuals or groups. The most harmful types of stereotypes are racial/ethnic stereotypes. Since people can be born into a racial group/ethnic group based on their physical differences/national origin, they will involuntarily receive an unequal treatment as compared with members of a dominant group. The racial/ethnic stereotypes may develop some social issues that can lead to prejudice, discrimination, segregation, or even extermination. In Canada, we see many people with different skin colours, physical characteristics, and cultural patterns. For example, Historically, the North American Aboriginal population has been decimated by the European settlers from the sixteenth through the nineteenth...
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...the story:Identity, heritage, racism and prejudice are the main themes of the story. Billy/William is strugglingbetween two identities as the names show. William Jacob is the white boy doing well in school,being a great football player and an talented artist. Billy is the aboriginal boy who left his pastwithout looking back, being hated in the eyes of his own people for trying to be somebody else.Even though no matter how he acts, his skin will always be black and his eyes brown.He is raised by aborigines, so he will always be affected by the black heritage. He is raised in thiscertain way, and even though he tries escaping it, he will not succeed. While the heritage affectshim, the people around him will also judge him because of his looks. The story proves that peoplewill always be prejudice towards him, even though he tries his hardest to become white. He will bereminded of his past every time a black aboriginal looks him in his eyes.The racism towards aboriginals is very extreme in this society. All the aboriginals look like drunkenbastards, and it’s almost impossible to escape the stereotypes. That’s why the government andpolice are trying to stop the aboriginals committing crimes - ALL of them, even the innocent ones.The Past:The Past is a poem about a man sitting in suburbia, in a home with an electric heater. He falls intodream about his past, where he was sitting in the nature in front of a campfire. He is probably alsoan aboriginal who has moved away from his camp. He describes...
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...man who’s turning twenty-one. He lives in Great-Britain but his parents have aboriginal roots. The story is told from when he was sixteen years old till his twenty-first birthday. This young man goes by a couple of names: Billy Woodward and William Jacob Woodward. Those two names symbolize the two sides he has as a ‘white’ aboriginal. When he is the ‘son of his parents’ and when he talks to other aboriginals, he’s called Billy. When he’s among white people, being a regular teenager in Britain, he goes by the name William Jacob. At 18 years of age, he gets picked up by a big football team and moves away from home. Besides football, he also likes painting pictures and is very good at it. He tries to live like a white man, even though he is black, repressing his past. From time to time he stumbles into some aboriginal family of his, and is being very ashamed of them. He thinks that they are all drunken and disgusting individuals. Even though he looks at his people with revulsion, he wants to go home and visit his family for his twenty-first birthday. He expects them to celebrate him, though he hasn’t been home for three years. He didn’t even come home when his father died in an accident. Billys’ family lives far away from the city in an old aboriginal-camp. When the day arrives, he drives out to the old camp in his new fancy car. He had sold some pictures to afford this car. He picks up Darcy, an aboriginal-man, on the way out there, whom he spent the rest of the trip with. When finally...
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...women in the Aboriginal community and Aboriginal people in general. The theme of discrimination can be difficult to explore in general conversation. However literature acts as a vehicle by which composers and responders can relate to it creatively. In the scene “Murri Gets a Dress”, the Everywoman character experiences racist remarks from the shopkeeper in the form of hurtful language specifically intended to insult those with darker skin colour, in particular the statement, “Keep an eye on the nigger”. By using racist terminology in the stand-up routine, the Everywoman reverses the process of cultural discrimination by taking ownership of the racist language. This is complemented by the scene, “Story of a Brother” when the Everywoman says, “no matter how clean our clothes are… how tidy we keep our house… how hard we work… we are black and we are here, and that will never change”. By listing socio-economic factors - hygiene, housing and work- she demonstrates the unfairness of stereotypes society places on Aboriginal people. She then uses the collective noun “we” and high modality as she says “we are black … and that will never change”. This rejects the stereotype and affirms the importance of Aboriginal identity, for all Aboriginal people. Although historically Aboriginal people would pass down their stories orally, in this modern world, literature (in this case a play), is now used as a more permanent way of ensuring that the story is told. In Aboriginal Australian culture...
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...My Country is Canada Name Institutional Affiliation Date My country Canada consists of ten provinces and three territories. It borders USA on the North and USA Alaska on the South East. My country is one of the largest in the world consisting of 9.98 million square kilometers. Originally, my country was inhabited by Aboriginal people. However the British and French invaded the land establishing significant administrative settlements. There have been changes in how people relate to each other in my country. Territories that are now self-governing have different social and political setting. For that reason, there are significant political and social beliefs in the country. There are significant political and social beliefs in Canada. I believe the social value define our society. The ideology of political parties is largely conservative, liberal and social democratic. The ideology is generated from social movements, for instance, women movement in the country. There are also stereotypes fueled by the anti-globalization movement, which encourages social justice for less developed nations that encourages democratic decisions making. In my country, there also exists humanism and egalitarianism that have far-reaching political and social welfare beliefs. In my country, there are multiple values that enhance the quality of ideologies, which ends up treating people with respect to each other. The quality specifically enhances the integrity, dignity and facilitates self-determination...
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...Humor plays a major role in the play “ The Rez Sisters”, by Tomson Highway ( Fifth House, 1998). Humor is used within the play to handle trauma or hardships, to tease one another, and to push past, as well as break, stereotypes. Thus humor is what cultivates, shapes and shifts Aboriginal identity, playing a vital part in who they are. First, humor is a coping mechanism to avoid and push aside problems. It can also provide an output to talk about touchy subject matter, in a more uplifting way and as a result, further helps to release any tension one might have. Overall bringing people together and is they key to the strengthening of bonds within the play. For instance, using humor to deal with violence helps provide an understanding to...
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...between the thoughts of both the aboriginals and europeans. I will also use the English Passengers characters Peevay and George Baines, Baines for the white European settler's perspective of the time and Peevay for the aboriginal's perspective. George Baines arrived in Tazmania and almost immediately begins commenting on the landscape, "wilder and less formed" "tangy scent" and a "strange land." This is the antithesis of what would be seen in England where he came from, an industrialised nation with railways, factories, extreme poverty, big cities, etc. The word "wilder" suggests that he sees the land as uncivilised and that as a citizen of a nation like England it is his duty to go about his business on the island and civilise it. This would have been what many europeans would have thought about somewhere like Tazmania and "less formed" implies that Baines sees the land as bare and untouched. Peevay, on the otherhand, recognises that the Europeans are thinking like this, thinking about taking over, "Ghosts came to our lands." The aboriginals have lived and wandered on the land of Tazmania for many years and have raised their families there for centuries so, as we can understand now, they saw Tazmania as their home and their land. Therefore, Peevay and other aboriginals believe that the europeans are here to take over by all means necessary. Peevay describes the land as "our lands", his. He also proves how primitive his people are and the stereotypes against his people by how he...
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...Language can be a tool for expressing identity, which includes the prejudices of our society. This is evident in the wide range of language used to discriminate against certain groups. This language creates negative stereotypes and stigma towards these groups and is therefore trying to be minimised through the use of politically correct language. Whilst politically correct language is a growing concept in contemporary Australian society, discriminatory language is still seen widely throughout the community. This includes the use of sexist, racist, homophobic and ageist discourse. Whether intentional or not, sexist language is present in a range of situations and contexts. Sexist language can be more covert such as calling women “pushy” while men are “assertive” or more overt such as calling a woman “gorgeous” but not a man. Sexism is most often seen when referring to women, but this could also be that it is more acceptable to be sexist to men than women. Sexism can take many different forms, for example calling one sex by derogatory or negatively associated names and even can include the way some men will refrain from using rude language around women. This shows both the positive and negative discrimination that occurs through sexist language. Sexism is clearly a prejudice held in society and is reflected in the sexist language used towards the first female Prime Minister for Australia, Julia Gillard. Julia Gillard was said to have “lied” where Ted Bailleu has a “breach of faith”...
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...Knowing who you are is an essential part of understanding how you fit into society. For most, understanding who you are is based on an understanding of where you come from (Wagamese, 1993). Many Aboriginal people identity themselves by their band, family, or nation which allows them to show historical roots and connection to their ancestral land. Others use their matrilineal or patrilineal genealogy to connect them to a nation or traditional territory. Regardless of the connection, this ability to identify with a community has deeper significance than merely labelling oneself, it serves as a reminder of one's spiritual connection to land, culture, and traditions, and helps to solidify one's self-concept (First Nations Studies Program [FNSP],...
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...manipulated information search and studied its effects on well-being when information contains evidence of gender discrimination or personal failure. Results revealed that women are motivated to search for evidence of discrimination when outcomes are highly self-relevant (Study 1) or the need to search is high (Study 2). Furthermore women suffer from evidence of prejudice, but only when they are personally affected by this prejudice and evidence suggests it is pervasive. References -When Searching Hurts: The Role of Information Search in Reactions to Gender Discrimination Katherine Stroebe, Manuela Barreto and Naomi Ellemers SEX ROLES, Volume 62, Numbers 1-2 (2010), 60-76, DOI: 10.1007/s11199-009-9700-y Published online: 24 September 2009 # Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2009 Stable url : http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-009-9700-y?null 2. Explanation and Intergroup Emotion: Social Explanations as a Foundation of Prejudice-Related Compunction Abstract Two studies examined whether social explanations—causal frameworks used to make sense of a group’s status and behavior—are associated with prejudice-related...
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...dialogue in Australian multicultural society. The individuals participate in interfaith dialogue events look to discover peace and congruity among Australia's different population. These events include: visits by spiritual leaders such as the Dalai Lama, Interfaith Relations of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference and Sydney Catholic Archdiocese. These events and organisations attempt to bring congruity to society. (Google.com.au, 2011) Since the European settlement in Australia British law failed to acknowledge the way the indigenous people lived and their land and declared it terra nullius (no-man’s land). The Stolen Generation had a catastrophic effect on the aboriginal civilisation, thousands of children were forcibly taken from their home in an effort to eliminate their aboriginal culture and race. Many Aboriginals were also massacred and dispossessed from their...
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...these three groups function together under the rule of law to maintain the law within society. Despite its important role, there is a sufficient amount of evidence that blacks and aboriginal people are over-represented in the criminal justice system. The logic behind this problem is that racial discrimination and profiling is present, or it is the result of the differential offending patterns of the minority. After researching, I believe that aboriginal and blacks are over-represented in the criminal justice system due to racial discrimination and profiling. My reasoning behind this is based on the collected data that supports the fact that racial discrimination and profiling is apparent in the criminal justice system. Racial discrimination and profiling is most associated with the police, and that is strictly because they are the first contact with the suspects, victims, citizens, and the offenders. I also believe that the causes of the problem and the potential solutions are the same for both aboriginal and black people. The only variable that might alter the causes of the problem, and the potential solutions is the location in which the aboriginal and blacks live in. This being said, racial discrimination and profiling are without doubt the primary attributes in the over-representation of aboriginals and blacks in the criminal justice system. Although I agree with the fact that certain minority youths contain a greater involvement in delinquent behaviour. This does not provide...
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