Strengths of Australian Aboriginal Communities

Aboriginal communities are referred to those communities who are existing or inhabiting in the particular area or land from the earlier times or are present in the area before the arrivals of any colonists meaning they are indigenous people (Boksa et al. 2015). The way of living of the aboriginal communities is seen to act as strength if followed by others in different communities to develop improved livelihood conditions. Thus, the strength usually seen in different aboriginal communities are to be discussed.

In Australian Aboriginal communities, it is seen that they perceive raising children is a shared responsibility of all the family and community members (Young et al. 2017). It means that the mother and father share responsibilities for bringing up the child as well as the community members play a pivot role in helping the family to raise the child. This aspect is regarded as strength of the community because shared responsibility leads the mother to experience less hardship in raising the child as many of her tasks and activities are seen to be executed by other members making the mother get relieved of extra burden. In Australian Aboriginal community, individuals of different age group and with different experience live harmoniously. The involvement of the community members in raising the children act as strength as it helps the child to learn proper etiquettes, understand various complex ways of leading life in future, develop vision to get over the problematic situation and others while communicating with the members during their growing up years (Williamson et al. 2016). Moreover, this multiple carer attitude among the aboriginal communities acts as strength as it helps in promoting many enduring relationships in the community and offers opportunity to many people to look after the safety, health band development of the child over the lifetime (Funston and Herring, 2016). Thus, it can be seen that this aspect of the aboriginal communities helps them to act as valuable source for education, knowledge, affection and passing ion tradition from one generation to another.

The Australian Aboriginal communities are seen to allow their children to have all opportunities for exploring the world around them (Riggs and Toone, 2017). This act as strength of the community as it helps the children to develop required skills for successfully negotiating their pathway to reach adulthood. In many Aboriginal communities, it is seen that the contribution of the elderly, as well as the elderly themselves, are provided immense respect in the family and in the community surroundings (Young, 2017). It acts as strength of the communities as respecting and caring for elders makes them feel valued that inspire them to offer blessings to the junior individuals promoting a cultured social setup. This is evident as a culture social setup is one in which the elders are treated with respect and care and it makes the elderly bless the junior individuals in the community (Butler, 2017).

The aspect of respecting the elders in Aboriginal communities acts as strength because it helps in proper transition of moral values to the children in the community. This is evident as in the current situation it is seen that the parents of the children are often busy in their working life and has little time for their children to guide them with proper moral values that may end up the children to get swayed up in wrong direction in life. Thus, respecting elderly in this case helps the elderly to stay with the family and act as proper guardian for the children in the absence of time from the parents for directing them regarding the need of moral values and the way to develop them (Yeong et al. 2016). For instance, in Binjari communities, the junior members in the society as well as in families provide respect to the elderly by treating them as head and abiding with the decision taken by the elders (Angelo and Schultze-Berndt, 2016). In South Asia, Senoi are the aboriginal community who offers respect to the elders by taking care of all their health needs as well as are regarded as head of the family to offer advice on taking decision regarding any aspects by the juniors or their elder children in managing the family (Baskin and Davey, 2015). Moreover, respecting the elderly in aboriginal communities act as strength because it helps the junior individuals to make them happy and ask for assistance regarding family administration in problematic situation to overcome harsh consequences (Lowe, 2017).

In certain aboriginal communities, it is seen that the children begin their learning from their eagerness to actively participate in the communities. This is strength of the community as it leads the children to get effectively incorporated into the community as valued members and when provided proper opportunity they personally contribute to the everyday cultural and social activities (Castillo et al. 2019). For instance, communities living in Yucatan, Mexico are seen to show great importance in engaging children in mature activities so that they learn how to contribute and participate socially. In aboriginal communities, it is seen that the parents and the elderly rarely force the children to get involved in activities and rather provide independence to them to decide what they wish to do in their lifetime (Coppens et al. 2014). This acts as strength as it helps the children to effectively explore their personal abilities to determine regarding which aspect they are strong that is to be used by them to further grow in life in the future.

In different aboriginal communities, it is seen that children are made to contribute to the family activities through observation and pitching by the parents (Gomez et al. 2019). This acts as strength as it leads the children to learn in an informal manner regarding the way to socialise as well as leads them to develop sense of responsibility apart from adoption of other social skills through the process. For example, in the village of Nocutzepo, Mexico where an aboriginal community lives a fifteen-year-old girl and her family members run a restaurant. The family members of the girl who are involved in running the restaurant include her grandmother who makes fire for cooking along with the five-year-old sister of the girl who carries wood for fire. The girl through listening and observation of the tasks contributed mentioned to have learned that food making and serving is the main source of their income (Urrieta, 2013).

In Aboriginal American communities, individuals of all age are included in communal activities for motivating them to get engaged with the social world. It is strength of the communities as it helps the individuals to develop sense of belonging through the activity. This is because active participation in the communal activities leads the individuals’ uptake initiatives to execute activities and act in an autonomous manner as well as learn skills in an informal way that leads to generating self-sovereignty (Rogoff, 2014). In aboriginal communities, the individuals and mainly the children are seen to rely on assessment for mastering any task. The assessment includes providing feedback from the supporters to the learners which has the key purpose to mention the learners regarding the way to participate in activities (Loxley and Peters, 2018). This aspect of the communities is strengths as through assessment and feedback received individuals and children are able to understand their progress and way to modify their skills in mastering the activities to later execute them with efficiency. For instance, the Mexican aboriginal community living in Nocutzepo, Mexico have individuals and children who receive feedback for their activities through observation of the results received from their contribution as well as the way they corrected them after feedback (Urrieta, 2013).

The spiritual beliefs of Aboriginal communities mention an inter-connectedness of kinship, land and spirit and the way they provide contribution to the well-being of the individuals. Moreover, the spiritual beliefs in Aboriginal communities lead the individuals to develop a feeling of belongingness and greater connectedness feeling with the core community members. For instance, in North-West South Australia, the Yankunytjatjara Aboriginal individuals follow the law of Kanyini that informs everybody is personally responsible for one another. This aspect acts as strength as Kanyini teaches individuals to avoid being self-centred and develop more openness towards the community (Smitsman, 2019). Among the Australian Aboriginal communities, it is seen that they avoid directly punishing the child for misbehaving. The community members makes the child disciple through surprised responses, humour, teasing and in some cases using scary things (www.supportingcarers.snaicc.org.au, 2018). This aspect is strength of the communities as it helps them to avoid physically hurting the child that is bad for their health to make them disciple and use alternative ways to disciple the child. Moreover, this aspect is strength as it helps the communities to disciple different nature of children in different way physical punishment cannot solely be implemented to make all children disciple as all of them have different way of thinking and behaviour.

The totems are seen to connect individuals through their kin and physical relatedness and are still effectively in use among the aboriginal communities in Australia to maintain connection with the land, Dreamtime as well as their ancestors. The children at the time of their birth are usually given totems as it defines the relationship of the people with one another and offers them particular responsibilities to be performed within the community. In general, the birth totems come from mother or father to their child as a form of spiritual sign that links the child directly to the spirit of their ancestor (www.gbrmpa.gov.au, 2019). Thus, it is seen that totems in aboriginal people act as strength as it helps them to develop spiritual bonds with their ancestors. The aboriginal individuals are seen to provide great emphasis on the significance of extended family and social relationship. This aspect is strength of the community as it helps to build strong social connections and relationship with one another.

References

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