The Decline and Rise of Aboriginal Families: A Summary
Gray, Trompf and Huston (1991) outline “The Decline and Rise of Aboriginal Families” in chapter three of the book The Health of Aboriginal Australia. The authors aim to evaluate how the exposure of European settlement led to the deterioration and rise of Aboriginal families’. The chapter began by discussing the original concept of Aboriginal kinship systems. It was highlighted that nuclear family served as the fundamental kinship along with a social and economic function in Aboriginal communities. The term ‘nuclear family’ acquired a broader meaning in an Aboriginal social context due to the obligation that the Aboriginal men and women had of supplying food beyond the nuclear family. Aboriginals identified classes of people as their brothers, fathers, sisters, or mothers. These are classificatory relationships that governed all social interactions including marriages. Men often married women who were closely related in polygamous marriages. This meant that the women supported each other in child rearing, searching and hunting for food and other daily duties. These wider kinship roles of women carried economic value but it became apparent that the men’s role operated at a group level in contrast to the family orientated role of women.
After illustrating the nature of Aboriginal family unit prior to European settlement, Gray et al. (1991) go on to state that the history of change in Aboriginal population can be portrayed as the history of dislocation, desecration and destruction. Gray, Trompf and Houston reconstructed scenarios in order to draw out a conclusion on decline and rise of Aboriginal families, due to lack of information availability on Aboriginal families during colonial periods. They began the discussion with epidemics and diseases at the time of first European settlement, which disrupted Aboriginal society’s family, social and economic functions. The smallpox epidemic in 1789 was reported to have killed half the population living between Hawkesbury River to the north and from Botany Bay to the south. Sexually transmitted diseases such as Chlamydia and gonorrhoea also had a major social impact as they affected a women’s ability to bear children. Before the availability of antibiotics, it was reported that 60% of cases led to permanent inability to bear children.
The Essay on Family Women Filipino Home
WOMEN: Women have High status in Filipino society. Filipino women were given the right of suffrage long before some of their western and eastern sisters Women maintain a very high profile in public life. They have entered professions that in other countries are traditionally reserved for men. They are doctors, lawyers, and bankers and dominate the fields of education and pharmacy. They generally ...
Gray et al. (1991) move on to discuss direct physical effects of European settlement and stated that it was the actual presence of European settlers that disrupted the foundation of Aboriginal community. The rate of depopulation was seen to be greater with European settlement than it was with diseases, as Aboriginals were forced to dispose of their lands, exposed to contaminated water and the destruction of animal and vegetation habitats caused the scarcity of foods. Resistance of Aboriginals was often dealt with open warfare leading to the death of 20 000 Aboriginals continuing until the country was under white domination by 1930s. The official counts of the 19th C revealed two abnormalities in the demographics of Aboriginal population, firstly, the surplus of adult men over women and secondly the scarceness of children to sustain future population.
The last scenario that Gray et al. (1991) outlined was policy effects and response. The Aborigines Protection Act 1909, permitted children to be removed from their parents if judged to be neglected. This policy resulted in the removal of people from their ancestral lands and re-settlement in missions and reserves causing social and cultural disruption. However, in 1886 the Aborigines Act declared only “full-bloods” or “half-castes” could live on reserves till age 34, as an attempt to merge “half-castes” into white population and breeding out “full-bloods”. This resulted with the emergence of Assimilation policy involving “the acculturation of mixed race…and the segregation of traditionally orientated Aborigines” (Gray et al., 1991), paving the way to the ‘stolen-generation’. Under this policy, light-skinned children were removed from their darker-skinned parents as an attempt to absorb quadroon and octoroon children into white communities. 5625 children were estimated to have been removed from their families between 1883 and 1961 just in New South Wales.
The Term Paper on Children Parents and Family needs
E1 Explain the needs of families which may require professional support. Families may have a variety of needs, in which they need professional support. Families with a large number of children may not have the required amount of living space, this could mean that children are sharing beds, or parents are not sleeping in a room. Children will lack of sleep are proven to concentrate less and develop ...
In the mid-1960s deaths of large numbers of Aboriginal babies caused a demand for action by the Australian population. As a result Commonwealth funded health services expanded to include Aboriginals concentrating on maternal and child health. The history of Aboriginal infant mortality follows as: firstly the introduction of diseases caused an increase in infant mortality rate (100 per 1000 live births).
Secondly, the implementation of funds decreased the mortality rate to 40 per 1000 live births in 1980s and today, a rapid improvement of 9 per 1000 live births. On the other hand, Aboriginal adult survival was extremely low by world’s standards in 1980s and the illness that contributes largely to mortality was circulatory system diseases making up 40% of mortality risks among Aboriginal people.
The death of parents greatly affected the economic and environmental conditions of family and children. Demographic studies of 1980s demonstrated that the impact of adult mortality began in teenage years. Therefore, Gray et al. (1991) compared mortality rates of the past and found that out of the 13 000 Aboriginal children born between 1917 and 1933, 85% still had both living parents in comparison to 1980s where 28% of 15-24 year old children had lost at least one parent, and with rising percentages as the age groups reach higher.
Gray et al. (1991) conclude that disruption of family structure through white settlement has been more severe 60 years ago, but today there is a movement towards positive population growth with families becoming the medium through which Aborigines assure a future for their children.
The Essay on Family Health Nursing
Family Health Nursing Family is one of the smallest but most important parts of the society. It is a primary unit which is the basis for all the other units and institutes of the society. In this respect the existence and development of the family can be compared with the building of a house. If not enough effort is made to build a descent basis the whole house can fall apart. That is why it is ...
Gray, A., Trompf, P. and Houston, S. (1991).
The Decline and Rise of Aboriginal Families. In: The Health of Aboriginal Australia.
