Indigenous People and the Environment - Assignment Example

Name: xxxxx Tutor: xxxxx Title: Indigenous People and the Environment Institution: xxxxx Date: xxxxx Indigenous People and the Environment Task 1 Key Dimensions of colonization in the First Australian episode, her will to survive First Australians, is a milestone documentary series that narrates a very diverse story of Australia and is one of the most important documentary series in history of Australian television. For the initial time, the legend of Aboriginal Australia has been condensed into a lucid story that starts with mythological birth of humanity on the continent, the dreaming and finishes in aftermath of Eddie Mabo’s landmark indigenous title victory. In the seven episodes, First Australian surveys what ensues when the oldest existing culture in the globe is overrun by the greatest empire in the world. First Australians-Episode 2, Her Will to Survive is an episode that covers the time from 1825 to 1860 and European settlement and occupation in Tasmania, Australia, told via the narratives of Truganini and George Augustus Robinson (Moore & Muecke, 1999). It is a myth that represents how first Australians were eliminated in Tasmania. It is their resilience, despite of the devastating influence of the European settlement, which is embodied within the myth. Moore & Muecke (1999) argues that, when the land grabs shifts south to Tasmania, in an attempt to safeguard the real estate costs; it is decided to eliminate the Tasmania Aboriginal individuals from the island. The government signs up an Englishmen for the task, who is assisted by a young Aboriginal woman, Truganini. The clip is set after George Robinson and Truganini have moved the remaining populace of native Tasmanians to Flinders Island. Professor Lyndall elucidates the scientific rationalization of the great death rates of Tasmanian Aboriginal people while the narration of Rachel Perkins recitation outlines the science behind it, using Darwin’s theory of evolution and natural selection. Key dimensions of colonization in Chinese colonialism The long historical time preceding the arrival of westerns in East Asia, the Chinese area was primarily influenced by the prehistoric Chinese civilization and secondarily by subcontinental Indian culture and religion. According to Esherick (1998), Chinese people were accustomed to cultural and political influences, positive and negative, coming to their land from the west through the Silk Road, by ship on Indian Ocean, or via horseback from the northern steppes. The arrival of Western Europeans in south Chinese seaports in 1500 on trading ships which was followed by military flotillas was a novel event that was viewed as a main threat by the small and great East Asian people. Nevertheless, the superior firepower held by Western traders in the 1800 led to systematic absorption of China area and people into a colonial empire scheme with different technological, religious, social and commercial elements from indigenous Asian societies. In response to effects of colonization, Asian developed a feeling of anger and inferiority, which led to mushrooming of antiforeigner movements. The two most common violent responses were the Boxer rebellion and Taiping rebellion. Additionally, there was an intellectual self strengthening movement within the Chinese intelligentsia and government after 1840s which was aimed ate studying Western learning. Similarities and difference between historical experiences of colonization highlighted in Chinese colonialism and First Australian episode her will to survive. The similarities between historical experience of colonization in the First Australians-Episode 2, Her Will to Survive and Chinese colonization is that both the Chinese and the Tasmanians were opposed to the influences of the colonizers. The colonizers also influenced the culture of both regions which made Chinese people and Tasmanian people to oppose these influencing which were soiling their cultural practice and heritage. Another similarity is that before the arrival of colonizers both Chinese and Tasmania regions were mainly influenced by the ancient Chinese civilization and cultures of Aboriginal people respectively. The major difference between historical colonization in the First Australians-Episode 2, Her Will to Survive and China is that there was land grabbing in Tasmania which was an attempt to protect real estate costs and eradication of the indigenous population from the island through deportation and killing. In China there is no case of land grabbing but Chinese people resisted the European powers because they were not for absorption into the colonial empire system which had different religious, commercial and social elements from the indigenous Chinese society. Another difference between the First Australian –Episode 2, Her will to survive and Chinese colonialism is that Chinese people formed the antiforeigner movements such as the Boxer rebellion and Taiping rebellion which were aimed at fighting against Christianity and foreign imperialism and foreign spheres of influence in China with criticisms ranging from political invasion, opium traders, economic manipulation, and missionary evangelism. In the contrary, in Australia, there was no any rebellious movement to resist colonialism the Tasmanian region and only one person, a young Aboriginal woman, Truganini fought against the displacement of Aborigines from their indigenous land who acted by moving the remaining Aboriginal population to Flinders Island. Task 2 Summary of 4 articles on Indigenous involvement in environment and resource management today Indigenous People's Declaration: First international forum on climate change. The indigenous people have in the past played a dynamic role in the preservation of eco-systems vital to prevention of climate changes like wetlands, forests, marine and coastal regions. In the past, the sciences foretold of the immense influences of Western development models based upon haphazard oil exploitation, clear-cutting, carbon emitting industries, mining, permanent organic contaminants and the voracious consumption of industrialized nations. This has made the indigenous community to actively oppose oil exploration, mining and logging which assists the accelerated deterioration of climate. However, indigenous lands have been given to multinational and national corporations which exploit indigenous natural resources in an unsustainable and indiscriminate fashion (France, 2000). The indigenous people assert that an action or decision that the conference of the United Nations framework convention on climate change or commendations to other organs should include effective and full participation of indigenous people. France ( 2000) notes that the efforts of indigenous people to maintain the integrity of their Mother Earth has been distinguished by the United Nations and their participation have been established by the working group on indigenous populaces under the subcommission of deterrence of discrimination and protection of minorities of the United Nations. Before signing of the Kyoto Protocol, indigenous people made tangible political contributions to alleviating climate change, such as indigenous people of Amazon who forged a mutually useful alliance with European nations in joint program of climate alliance, coordination of indigenous organizations of Amazon basin and international alliance of tribal and indigenous peoples of tropical forests. Indigenous peoples’ Seattle declaration During the Seattle declaration, indigenous people from numerous parts of the globe expressed their concern over the way the world trade organization is annihilating mother earth and biological and cultural diversity of which they part of. According to World Trade Organization, (1999) trade liberalization together with export oriented development which is the prevailing policies and principles pushed by WTO have had a disproportionate effect on indigenous communities through environmental degradation. Due to the adverse consequences and impacts of WTO agreements, indigenous peoples is urgently calling for environmental and social justice analysis which will examine cumulative effects of the agreements on indigenous people, who should also be equal participants in the establishment of the indicators and criteria for these scrutinizes so that they take into account cultural and spiritual aspects. Indigenous people have also asserted that a review of the agreements must be made to address every imbalances and inequities which negatively affect indigenous people. The proposals to address these reviews for agreement on agreement are that the WTO must not include within its coverage small scale farmers who are majorly engaged in production for domestic sale and use in local markets, it must ensure the protection and recognition of rights of indigenous persons to their resources and territories and their rights to go on with their indigenous sustainable resource management and agricultural practices and traditional livelihoods. Another proposal is that the WTO must ensure food security and capability of indigenous people to trade, produce and consume their traditional foods (World Trade Organization, 1999). Leading the Way on Climate Change: Indigenous Peoples Global Summit on Climate Change Cochran (2010) article represents indigenous persons from all parts of the globe as dependants of natural environment and their detailed and rich traditional knowhow embodies and reflects a spiritual and cultural relationship with the ocean, wildlife and land. Human activity is transforming the global climate and modifying natural environment to which the indigenous individuals as closely attached on and which they heavily rely on. The intergovernmental panel on climate change projects the effects and impacts of global climate change with potentially severe implications for subsistence economies, cultures, futures and health of indigenous people. In the real sense, thus, indigenous populace is on the front line of climate change because they observe environmental and climate changes and utilize traditional survival skills and knowledge to adjust to these alterations a they happen. In addition, they are concerned about environmental and climate changes because their livelihoods and cultures are undergoing considerable changes partly as a result of accelerate development of natural resources from their customary lands simulated by globalization and trade liberalization. Through reflecting their positions as environmental stewards and drawing on their traditional knowledge which is at the heart of their cultural spirit, indigenous populaces were among the initial groups to call on transnational corporations, civil society and national governments to do more so as to protect the human society and earth from climate change. The United Nations declaration on rights of indigenous populaces adopted by UN general assembly in September 2007 amplifies and added credibility to their support of their language of globally endorsed rights (Cochran, 2010). Indigenous resource management: indigenous people and the environment. Indigenous populaces have increasingly affirming their rights to be a portion of resource and environment conservation particularly through numerous types of community based management program. Community based management programs ensure that economic living won’t be compromised by conservation initiatives; participation of indigenous people in the program plays a performative function in building and consolidating cultural practices within a modern context and indigenous community participation in management of all decisions on their traditional seas and land. Integrated conservation and development (ICD) and integrated conservation and development programs (ICDP) try to integrate the development and conservation as a means of minimizing trade offs which are being felt by indigenous communities on basis of inability to access resources on their territories (Nursery-Bray, M, 2010). ICD and ICDP try to address this shortfall through particularly linking biodiversity with local economic and social developments in accordance with customary law. Nursery-Bray (2010) argues that ICPPs are based upon the presumption that protected regions will solely survive in the future if they are viewed to be of worth to both the local people and nation. In Australia, the Wuthathi populace of Cape York Peninsula has acclimatized the ICDP approach to develop a sea and land management framework based upon the principles of conservation and culture, an approach underpinned by anticipation that conservation bases enterprises will provide economic support (Nursery-Bray, 2010). A level of protection for regions of high cultural and environmental importance will be attained without any formal legal protection. With the dual objective of improving the quality of living of populaces and management of natural resources, ICDPs offers new options, which if appropriately implemented, will be successful at conservation of the wildlands along with their biodiversity. They will also provide a way of balancing the needs of the indigenous people, future generations and the environment. Task 3 Aboriginal painting style of art The most common form of Aboriginal style of art is the Arnhem Land art. While Aboriginal art is not a new phenomenon, its discovery by non aboriginal community and its acceptance as art is relatively novel. While contemporary western desert acrylic paintings on canvas and board dates from the early 1970s in contrast to earlier ephemeral of sand and body paintings art of the Arnhem land, it the type of poles, hollow log coffins, and bark paintings, have a longer history in this form. Modern Aboriginal art, whether western desert paintings, or poles, coffin logs or barks from Arnhem Land reflects previous art and acts as a continuation of art tradition. The genesis of the Arnhem Land art was free of European traditions and this style came into being partially because Aborigines affirmed that modern relevance of their art within Australian context. It was their modern art that influences white Australian and was in turn affected by post colonial context of its context. Also, Aboriginal art portrayed diverse and dynamic traditions, and for those who saw it, it was an avowedly political art. The style of Arnhem Land came to entail the acrylic art of Central and Western desert (Ardon, 1998). A major illustration of Aboriginal art being political is its utilization in the indigenous title claim by Yolgnu people of the Blue Mud Bay of eastern Arnhem Land. These people tendered bark paintings to court and led descriptive evidence as to the implication of the paintings in order to establish the constant practice of the traditional custom and law which linked them to their land and country. The explanatory proof was offered by Yolgnu artists and Howard Morphy in his capability as an anthropologist specialist in study of Yolgnu bark paintings. The western desert painters are a set of indigenous Aboriginal artists who have adapted their tribal forms of art to western world but solely with regard to western techniques and materials which they use, with focus on the imagery and stories which were passed to them by tribal ancestors (Bardon, 2004). How this art form reflects Indigenous connection to the environment traditional, contemporary Aboriginal art is a portion of a culture of great ancient times. It took the form of body, sand and rock painting and implement and weapon engraving and painting and was steeped in ceremonies related to Dreaming. Law and ceremony is based upon the Dreaming which is a set of stories that describe how land was created by the ancestors who were both people and spirits who reside in the land and regulate its use. The Dreaming elucidates the land layout and set the laws by which individuals live, being laws as to nation and ownership and utilization of the country (Myers2002). While these types of art have been continuously practiced, they in the recent times expressions in paintings on canvas, barks, poles or boards. Individual aboriginal artists developed their individual aesthetic, which were in some degree influenced by recent development of previously unknown market for the Aboriginal art works, but the motivation for the work has stayed deeply rooted within the Dreaming. Even in the most sophisticated modern Aboriginal art works the connections the ancestors, the nation and the Dreaming are constant visual echoes of what has happened in the past (McCulloch, 2001). Aspects displayed by Aboriginal painting art and the particular dimensions of Indigeneity that it manifests The Aborigines are the indigenous people of Australia and had sole land ownership before colonization by Europeans. Via a series of document instances and events of trickery, the Aborigines lost their land to colonizers. Majority of Aboriginal people still live in Australia, especially with particular areas and continue to create their art which revolve around the dreaming which refers to a wide range of beliefs, social and religious practices. Aboriginal paintings are the most common and oldest forms living art tradition. Ceremonial and religious aspects of living, being so significant are the inspiration for much painting art (Eagle, 2000). According to Morphy, (2001), contemporary Aboriginal art whether desert painting, painting on barks, poles or logs from Arnhem Land reflects earlier Aboriginal art and is viewed as a continuation of art tradition. Aboriginal decoration and art is an integral portion of traditional life and is represented as body decoration in festive, on rock shelter, and bark shelter walls, on trees, carved rocks, utensils, and weapons and sacred objects both carved and natural. For instance there was a photographic proof left by explorers and ethnographers Frank Gillen and Baldwin Spencer in 1912, photos displaying ground painting being carried out and body paint being applied before Aboriginal ceremonies. Australian Aborigines have used art paintings to symbolize their stories and myths of Aboriginal’s ancestral cultural and tribal history. Today, there are several indigenous Aboriginal artists utilize traditional materials like canvas, board or acrylics to create stunning visual effects, at cutting edge of contemporary art , but have synthesized old conventional imagery to traditional techniques. Australian Aborigines have survived for thousands of years, usually in inhospitable and quite challenging conditions, and their survival success has been predominantly as a result of indigenous Aboriginal’s inherent capability to adapt, and it’s the expression of this adaptability which is visibly seen in today’s Australian Aboriginal Art (Morphy, 2001). Bibliography Moore C, & Muecke, S, 1999, “Racism and the Representation of Aborigines in Film" Australian Journal of Cultural Studies 2 p.39. Eagle, M, 2000, “Traditions of representing the land in Aboriginal art” Art and Australia, vol37, no.2, p 240 Morphy, H., 2001,”Seeing Aboriginal Art in the Gallery” Humanities Research vol 8, no. 1, p39 McCulloch, S, 2001, Contemporary Aboriginal, Art Allen & Unwin, Melbourne. Bardon, G, 2004, Papunya: A Place made after the Story: The Beginnings of the Western Desert Painting Movement the Miegunyah Press, Australia. Cochran, P, 2010, Concept proposal, leading the way on climate change: Indigenous people’s global summit on climate change. France, L, 2000, Indigenous people’s declaration, First international forum on climate change. Nursery-Bray, M, 2010, Indigenous resource management: indigenous people and the environment. World Trade Organization, 1999, Indigenous peoples Seattle declaration. Esherick J, 1998, The origins of the Boxer Uprising. Berkeley California: University of California Press. Ardon, G, 1998, Aboriginal Art of the Western Desert, Rigby Adelaide. Myers, R, 2002, Painting Culture: The making of an Aboriginal High Art, Duke University Press, Durham. Read More