The plight of Aboriginal Australians
...al lifestyle and moved to the suburbs. Health is a shocking issue that urgently has to be dealt with. Influential aid organizations in Australia have reported that the general health of many of the country's indigenous people is worse than that of people in the developing world. The Fred Hollows foundation reports, "If you have a look at the rates of malnutrition and failure to thrive amongst indigenous kids, you know, we're on par with countries like Eritrea, Nepal, the Sudan, Sierra Leone." An Aboriginal person can expect to die 20 years younger than a white person and Aboriginal babies are four times more likely to die at birth than non-Aborigines. These are shameful facts considering that in a country like Australia where so many of us live long, luxurious, healthy lives there is such segregation between rich and poor and ultimately black and white. In these modern times racism should be behind us, but in Australia it obviously isn’t. Aboriginal people are 17 times more likely to be arrested, 14 times more likely to be imprisoned and 16 times more likely to die in custody than non-Aborigines. 20% of the jail population is Aboriginal even though they are only 2% of the overall population. The racial prejudice of our nation is reflected through police and authority figures, who unfortunately have the power to exert their beliefs, whether right or wrong, on to the Aboriginal people. This is not saying that some Aborigines do not commit crimes but it illustrates the negative stereotypes of the Australian people, including the police to whom most Aborigines are suspects. These poor outcomes in relation to culture, heath and racism lead aboriginal people to fail in the education system. Consequently they are left unqualified and unskilled and this, combined with raw racism and discrimination, leaves them behind in the working world. Aborigines today face the daunting statistic of a 40% unemployment rate. This rate is over three times the national average and gives Aborigines an average income of only one third of the standard white Australian. We need to realise that our policies in relation to Aboriginal people are still very misguided. We now look back with shame on the policies of the 19th and early 20th century, policies...