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Earlier this year, Johnny Mullagh, described as "one of the stars of the first Australian cricket tour of England”, became the first Aboriginal to be named in the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame. He was part of the 1868 Aboriginal team that became Australia’s first sporting team to tour internationally. According to Australian Cricket Hall of Fame Chairman Peter King, Mullagh "paved the way for so many future Australians to showcase their talent on the world stage." However, many are asking: What took so long?
Aboriginal Australians, who inhabited the country for thousands of years prior to British colonisation, have faced severe discrimination since the 19th century.
The imprisonment of Indigenous people has been increasing since the 1980s. In 2017, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners represented 28 percent of the national prison population, while comprising approximately 2 percent of the general population. Although indigenous Australians comprise such a small proportion of the population, they represent a quarter of adult prisoners. More than half of Aboriginal children are sentenced to juvenile detention in Australia, and an Indigenous teenager is more likely to go to jail than university.
From the 1910s to 1970s, many Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families as a result of various government policies. They then became known as the Stolen Generations. Australians Together explain: "The forcible removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families was part of the policy of Assimilation, which was based on the misguided assumption that the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people would be improved if they became part of white society." Their names were changed, and they were prohibited from speaking their traditional languages. The trauma and loss continue to affect Indigenous communities today.
The Australian Constitution has consistently failed to protect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights. For instance, the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA) of 1975 has been compromised on three occasions: each time it has involved Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have also been excluded from conversations about the foundation of a new nation on their ancestral lands and territories. According to the Australian Human Rights Commission, “The Australian Constitution still does not make adequate provision for Australia’s first peoples.”
Voting rights for Aboriginal people were restricted in the 20th century after Australia introduced the 'White Australia' policy. Section 4 of the Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902 also prevented any "aboriginal native of Australia, Asia, Africa, or the islands of the Pacific, except New Zealand'' from voting unless they were already on the roll before 1901. As a result, only a few hundred were estimated to be eligible for voting. Electoral officials also decided who was an Aboriginal and who was not, depending on whether the Aboriginal person lived like a white person.
The inequalities continue to be seen in the health status of First Peoples. Based on the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s 2018 report, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have a shorter life expectancy than non-Indigenous Australians. They are also 2.7 times as likely to experience high or very high levels of psychological distress and 2.1 times as likely to die before their fifth birthday.
In reference to Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association [AIDA] policy statement, systemic racism in the health system affects Indigenous Australians’ quality of and access to healthcare. This further aggravates their psychological stress, which is directly linked to worsening of mental and physical health. Racism also prevents the Indigenous Australians from receiving the same quality of healthcare services available to non-Indigenous Australians.
Institutional racism vastly contributes to the health gap between Australian Indegineous and non-Indigenous Australians. BMC Health Services Research found that racism is evident in hospital policies, practices and interactions between hospital staff and Indigenous patients. Medical Practitioners are proven to have inadequate knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander’s culture, history, and health as they lack a holistic and comprehensive education.
Cairns and Hinterland Health and Hospital Service (CHHHS) is funded under its service agreement with Queensland Health to provide a range of services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. In a 2014 investigation, signs of institutional racism were revealed in Health and Hospital services. In one HHS, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people represented one-third of hospital admissions. Here, there is no representation in the governance structure and in consultative mechanisms. There's also a steady decline in Indigenous workforce, no public reporting on Indigenous health expenditure, and poor annual reporting on progress in closing the Indigenous health gap. These outcomes were present despite specific Commonwealth and Queensland Health policies designed to address these issues.
In addition to that, Aboriginal and Torres Islander patients hospitalised for digestive tract disease have a strikingly lower prospect of acquiring the corresponding procedure than non-Indigenous patients, and waiting times for elective surgery are longer for Australian Indigenous patients.
Dr. Debbie Bargallie believes structural change is crucial, and says this ultimately requires non-Indigenous leaders to renounce their automatic right to power. "Crucially," she writes, "it means Indigenous employees must have a seat at the table and must be heard."
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