many countries in the modern world were colonized by the British with one of them being Australia the country I live in the British arrived in Australia in 1788 and throughout the 18th and 19th centuries they imposed grueling policies on the Aboriginal Australians to establish superiority and a British way of life some of these policies totally destroyed indigenous culture leading to poor health outcomes lower life expectancy and total social dysfunction for the indigenous population today the British colonization of Australia has had detrimental impacts on indigenous Australians living in the 21st century with current politicians trying to rectify the problem the purpose of this video is to investigate the colonial history of Australia and better understand how Aboriginal Australians were devastated by [Music] colonization let's begin by looking at the history of indigenous Australians in Australia the indigenous population are referred to as Aboriginal Australian aan or First Nations people Aboriginal Australians had occupied the continent for at least 65,000 years since then Aboriginal Australians have and still have their own religious life and languages Aboriginal people belong to mobs which are small tribes that are located across the whole continent all mobs have their own country so to speak with boundaries that are typically marked by trees and rivers Aboriginal people also believe in the dreaming the dreaming explains the origins of the universe and the workings of nature for indigenous aans it is also used to represent stories that was inhabited by ancestral figures with supernatural abilities the dreaming acts as the religious and spiritual foundation for Aboriginal community and morality and also acts as a center for all beliefs and stories that Aboriginal people live by the dreaming is closely connected to the land which provides a source of life for the indigenous population without total autonomy over the land Aboriginal people struggle to find connection to their past and their Community it's important to understand that Aboriginal Australians were hunter gatherers hunter Gathering is a type of subsistence lifestyle that relies on hunting for animals and foraging for wild vegetation for food for this reason indigenous Australians never specialized and were never able to produce a food surplus they never built large structures like other native groups before European colonization they weren't like the Aztec on the Maya for example who built large cities on lakes instead indigenous Australians focused on protecting their land and passing it on from one generation to another the land is also very important for indigenous Australians because there are certain areas with spiritual significance the most famous being U which demonstrates and explains Aboriginal creation stories Aboriginal Australians never really conquered each other's lands instead traditional Aboriginal conflicts were about asserting superiority of one group over another and also its neighbors for this reason Aboriginal Clans never really conquered destroyed or displaced their neighboring groups once again this was standard practice for at least 65,000 years before any European contact traditional Aboriginal life changed substantially when the British arrived in 1770 under the command of James Cook in Britain prisons were at maximum capacity and the British needed another area to offload some of their convicts sir Joseph Banks recommended botney Bay in Australia as a suitable site for a penal settlement to deal with this problem at first the Aborigines tolerated the settlers and sometimes welcomed them into their communities but when it came apparent that the settlers and their livestock had come to stay competition for access to land developed and friction between the two ways of life became inevitable occasionally aboriginies attacked Europeans in open country resulting in encounters to Conventional battles that were usually won by the Europeans in addition to Guerilla tactics abig is also engaged in a form of economic Warfare killing livestock burning property attacking Drees which carried supplies and in Western Australia that even destroyed Telegraph lines resistance was more successful when Aborigines employed stealth tactics and ambushed them in the country the conflicts that occurred from 1788 and onwards were referred to as the frontier Wars where the indigenous Australians fought against the British the frontier wars were a total mismatch with the British being able to fire muskets and the indigenous Australians who only really had ordinary Spears and shields to defend themselves the indigenous people were never a serious military threat regardless of how much the settlers may have feared them the indigenous Australians were hunted gatherers and the British did not even see them as civilized for their inability to farm this was also used to deem the continent as Terran alus meaning land belonging to nobody despite the British coming into contact with the indigenous and even going to war with them they ignored the presence of the indigenous people and believed that Australia was empty of inhabitants it's important to remember that at this time the Industrial Revolution and Agricultural Revolution was taking place in Europe which involved new inventions and Innovations taking place in the agricultural sector the British clearly thought that their practices and Technologies were Superior in comparison to the indigenous showing total disregard for their way of life and culture the British also introduced diseases and alcohol which had devastating impacts on the indigenous population many Aboriginal and tourist islanded laborers were paid in alcohol or even tobacco in European colonialism as many Native or indigenous populations were never exposed to the products and diseases that exist Ed in Europe for many centuries in contemporary Australia indigenous Australians on average have a life expectancy that is 20 years less than non-indigenous Australians during the mid 1800s the British began removing Aboriginal children from their families through government policies this is famously known as The Stolen Generations which totally destroyed Aboriginal society and Aboriginal social function the stolen Generations were arguably the most significant event in the destruction of the indigenous way of life the British claimed that removing Aboriginal children from their families was for their own protection believing that if indigenous people were living in alignment with British values and ideals it would save them from neglect the British government also Justified their policies by believing that pure blood Aboriginal Australians would die out and that the mixed blood children would be able to assimilate into society much easier this was an attempt to weed out Aboriginal culture and the Aboriginal way of life so Australia had one hegemonic British culture the British held an underlying belief that their culture and civilization was far superior to Aboriginal Life The Stolen Generations continued until the 1970s in Australia with many indigenous children experiencing neglect abuse and more likely to suffer from depression and mental illness this is because the Aboriginal Australians lost all of their connection to their family Clans and their spirituality it was quite normal for young Aboriginal children to be removed from their parents and displaced in a society that was hundreds of kilometers away these children were left isolated confused and had no connection to their family while the British believed that the forced removal of children from their families would improve the lives of indigenous Australians this was far from true in fact the opposite was true in 1997 the Australian government introduced the bringing them home report which was a national inquiry that investigated the forced removal of indigenous children from their families it is established that between 1 in 10 and possibly as many as one in three indigenous children were removed from their families and communities between 1910 and 1970 colonization established Western culture as the cultural haimon of Australia Aboriginal Traditions have been suppressed through Western governments religious institutions and schools it becomes increasingly difficult for Aboriginal modes of thought and spirit spirituality to be recognized and promoted inside schools and Society because Western culture dominates and is hegemonic in Australia the bringing them home report also showed that many indigenous Australians never really healed from colonialism and the stolen generations for example young people with parents grandparents or great-grandparents who were stolen by the British are 50% more likely to be charged by the police 30% less likely to be in good health and 10% less likely to have a job in Rural and remote parts of Australia it is very common to see indigenous Australians that are unemployed demoralized and often drunk and consuming large amounts of alcohol in 2016 I remember seeing this in Darwin the capital city of Australia's Northern Territory I can remember witnessing a drunk Aboriginal man attempting to steal the handbag off a lady at 7:00 p.m. on a Friday night when looking at the high levels of crime the impact of colonization and the stolen generation cannot be ignored during colonization Aboriginal language was lost many Aboriginal people today are losing total connection to their native tongue this means that Aboriginal spirituality and dream time can no longer be passed down leading to more social dysfunction and isolation for the indigenous population it's important to note that the indigenous did not have a written tradition either so oral communication was critical for the preservation of Aboriginal spirituality after all Aboriginal community and eth IAL teachings were derived from the dream time and without it there is no longer a foundation for Aboriginal morals moreover Aboriginal languages are important to Aboriginal people because it gives indigenous people a sense of identity and well-being the national indigenous languages report of 2010 showed that speaking indigenous languages is strongly associated with well-being because people are able to make decisions for themselves this allows Aboriginal people to communicate clearly and comfortably in their own language rather rather than trying to speak broken English in a western dominated Society in contemporary Australia politicians have attempted to return parts of Australia back to the traditional owners of the land their intention was to recreate a connection to the land between indigenous Australians and the dream time 1992 a famous cor case in Australia known as the Maro decision recognized the land rights of the Maran people who were the traditional owners of the Mari Islands in Northern Australia they allowed indigenous Australians in this Reg to create laws and customs for themselves rather than complying with the requirements of the Australian government the Maro case was successful in overturning the myth that at the time of colonization Australia was Teran alious meaning land belonging to no one there have also been less effective remedies from Australian politicians like when Kevin rud in 2008 publicly apologized to the indigenous Australians and particularly the stolen Generations whose lives had been impacted by government policies of child removal while the the Prime Minister did say sorry on behalf of quote unquote white Australians there was no attempt to rectify the wrongs of colonization by recreating connections to land and revitalizing spirituality and Aboriginal language Australia recently held a referendum to change the Constitution to allow for a first voice in Parliament its intention was to recognize the First Peoples of Australia being the indigenous Australians by establishing a body called the Aboriginal and testr island of voice it was the first referendum of the 21st century and it did not pass with the population feeling skeptical towards such a change to the Constitution many of the Australian public feel that government policy towards indigenous Australians is not very effective for its failure to fulfill the Deep social needs of Aboriginal Australians these are reconnections with land spirituality mobs and the dreaming in Australia there is a clear disconnect between the needs of the indigenous population and the goals of the government to improve outcomes for indigenous Australians many aboriginals see Western institutions like schools as pointless for they don't recognize or appreciate Aboriginal spirituality and modes of living while educational and health outcomes have improved for indigenous Australians ainal people need Community Land and spirituality to flourish as a population thank you for watching this video I hope you enjoyed it if you did consider subscribing and liking the video for more content like this