Case Study on Structural Violence with regard to the Indigenous Australian Community
Par Claske Dijkema le mercredi, mars 6 2013, 00:01 - Lien permanent
Australia was colonized in 1788 by the British and established as a penal colony in order to both further the reaches of the British Empire and to act as a solution to the growing number of convicted felons in the United Kingdom. This act of colonization can be seen as the beginning of the Indigenous Australian struggle to achieve equality and social cohesion. 
Possibly the first documented structurally violent project, which has clearly had a heavy impact on the future of the indigenous population, was the classification of the Australian east coast as Terra Nullius ‘(meaning land of no-one) to justify the dispossession of Indigenous people’. Numerous policies were henceforth implemented in order to establish a country that mirrored the cultural beliefs and appearances held dear by the British Empire. Perhaps some of the most significant are those mentioned below, policies involved with what has come to be known as the Stolen Generation.
Acts such as disallowing the Indigenous population to be counted in the national census effectively removing their presence from documentation of those living in Australia at the time and thus limiting severely their already weakened ability to influence the direction that the nation had chosen to take. Through an analysis of each policy and act listed below and the impact they had on Australian society, the extent of not only the structural violence that Indigenous Australians face, but also how the policies and acts have hindered indigenous social cohesion and poverty reduction shall be shown.
The initiative discussed in this case study is the Kimberley Stolen Generation Committee (KSGC), which was formed in 1996. The Committee was founded out of members of the Stolen Generation and their families and started as a grass roots organization. The primary function of the Committee is to act as a facilitator in the re-connection of individuals who were effected by the Stolen Generation Policy or to provide information to an individual who may be interested in establishing a connection, as well as run ‘activities and projects that acknowledge the experiences of members of the Stolen Generations and help them come to terms with it’. The activities and projects run by the KSGC work towards poverty reduction and improving social cohesion, both within the indigenous community and indigenous to non-indigenous. The KSGC makes use of empowerment and participatory tools to assist those in need and combat the existing structural violence in play.
Read soon th full story on the Irenees peace database.
Case-study by Olivia Pearson, student at the International Developlent Studies masters program at UJF, Grenoble.
Image by Borofkin (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons.
The image portrays the audience at the Redfern Community Centre who watches the live telecast of the formal Apology to the Stolen Generations