Mixed Blood Success

Question: Why it is that Aboriginal people who have 'mixed blood' are the ones who succeed in life? Answer: Introduction: The question that has been provided suggests that those Aboriginal people that have mixed blood are the ones who are most likely to be successful in life. The concepts that have led people to believe that the mixed bloods are usually a success will be analyzed. The question will be deconstructed so that the potential of a wider perspective can be unveiled. The reasons that lie beneath the framing of this question and the assumptions surrounding it will be discussed as well. Australia is stated to be amongst the richest countries in the world owing to the fact that it has a small population on a large land with the presence of numerous resources (Flood, 2006). Yet it has a race of people, the aboriginals who have received unfair treatment since their own land was snatched away from them by the Europeans. The Stolen Generations The stolen Generation was responsible for creating turmoil in the lives of the Aboriginal people. It snatched away their real identity and the only link that they possessed for their own culture. It has been responsible for damaging several lives of aboriginals and even though time has passed these wounds caused by the stolen generations is yet to heal. In the year 1830 (Burgess and Myers, 2002) children were removed from their families with the sole aim of eradication of the aboriginal culture. This was done as per the orders of the government of Australia. Here those children who were of mixed blood, that is either of the parent was indigenous the child was removed from the family with the children being as young as newly born. The main reason behind this removal of children was that they would be taken in by the colonial settlers and it would prevent their biological parents to further spread their cultures and traditions from being passed down to generations (Crehan, 1999). The a uthorities thought that removal of these mixed blood children would help to assimilate them into the so called White society and they would be able to merge successfully with the non indigenous people and live normal lives. The Assimilation policy was created by the Australian government that led the aboriginals to abandon their lifestyle and live in the cities. They were expected to forget all about their roots, culture and their langue and become one of the non indigenous, however the policy did not provide the mixed bloods and the aboriginals with equivalent rights as the white Australians and because of issues of racial discrimination, they were made to stay in housing areas that lacked services (Haebich, 2011). They were denied the rights of education, proper medical facilities and jobs thus making them lag behind the rapidly evolving white Australians. Impact of Colonization The impact of colonization by the Europeans caused the aboriginals to be removed from their own lands. As a majority of the aborigines live their lives as hunters and nomads they were subjected to starvation. This was due to the fact that colonization stopped them from looking for food and moving through their land freely (Roberts et al., 1994). Those who made it were turned into slaves and the entire tribe was washed out. After colonization the aboriginal population declined rapidly. And the main reasons for this drastic drop were because of new diseases, accusation of their lands and the conflict that was created between the colonizers and the aboriginals (Taco, 2016). Blood Quantum Theory The blood quantum theory made an appearance in Australia in the early 1900s and it gave the white colonizers to believe that they had the ability to measure how diluted the aboriginals were. It gave them the privilege to determine that the increasing aboriginal population and the mixed bloods (a result of sexual liaisons that took place amongst the indigenous women and the white men, their children were the mixed bloods) (Shoemaker, 2003). It created moral panic but most importantly it led to the debunking of the colonial myth that provided answers for a race that was dying out. However there was a need for a new imagining. Hence the aboriginals were quantified as per the amount of blood of aboriginals and whites that they had in them. Namely the full bloods, half castes, quadroons and the quarter castes. The blood quantum thus gave them a framework to discuss aboriginality and it was mainly through the color of the individual skin that the content of aboriginal blood was assessed (E llinghaus, 2009). It thus led to contradictions in understanding the real identities and the mixed bloods were looked as those people who had inherited the evilness that was prevalent in the two races. Those who had a higher content of white blood had chances to become Europeans and live better lives while those who had full aboriginal blood were left to return to their primordial lives. In conclusion, the impact that racism has created on aboriginals through forms of assimilations, the creation of the stolen generations, the policies against the indigenous and colonization has brought immense harm to the population of aboriginals. They still face problems in gaining equality in terms of opportunity and quality of life. Despite being constantly exterminated from the Australian society, the aborigines have show commendable resistance towards the laws that colonization got along with it (Flood, 2006). Thus being able to preserve its culture till date however changes and success that can be brought about to the mixed blood and the aboriginals is something that is largely dependent upon the changes that can be made in the laws of the country. References Burgess, C. and Myers, J. (2002).Stolen generations. Roseville, N.S.W.: McGraw-Hill Australia. Crehan, A. (1999). The Stolen Generations.Professional Ethics, A Multidisciplinary Journal, 7(3), pp.49-65. Ellinghaus, K. (2009). Biological Absorption and Genocide: A Comparison of Indigenous Assimilation Policies in the United States and Australia.Genocide Studies and Prevention, 4(1), pp.59-79. Flood, J. (2006).The original Australians. Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen Unwin. Haebich, A. (2011). Forgetting Indigenous Histories: Cases from the History of Australia's Stolen Generations.Journal of Social History, 44(4), pp.1033-1046. Roberts, R., Jones, R., Spooner, N., Head, M., Murray, A. and Smith, M. (1994). The human colonisation of Australia: optical dates of 53,000 and 60,000 years bracket human arrival at Deaf Adder Gorge, Northern Territory.Quaternary Science Reviews, 13(5-7), pp.575-583. Shoemaker, N. (2003). Sturm, Circe. Blood Politics: Race, Culture, and Identity in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.Comp. Stud. Soc. Hist., 45(01). Taco, R. (2016).Impact of colonisation on Aboriginal people in Australia.. [online] prezi.com. Available at: https://prezi.com/vrbmcpdjynlb/impact-of-colonisation-on-aboriginal-people-in-australia/ [Accessed 5 Aug. 2016].