Background

The Aborigines (Australia's indigenous people) have been considered second-class to to overall population even thought they arrived in this area fist and are the true natives the the land. Since they have arrived and many new systems have been made, the aborigines have lost their land rights and have been discriminated against, but most importantly have bad heathcare, and are too poor to fix these problems on their own. The only water they have access to is dirty and contaminated, they have poor sanitation and live in great poverty.

Location

Australia, the world's smallest continent, is located in the southern hemisphere, south of southeast Asia. Australia divides the Indian and Pacific Oceans. the continents total area is 2,967,892 square miles. It is also known as the flattest continent. In the Northeast then Great Barrier Reef borders Australia, which is the largest coral reef in the world. As you may have heard the nickname for this continent is the "outback" which means desert or semi arid land (which dominates most of Australia). North Australia has a tropical climate, with rainforests, woodlands, and grasslands. the climate of this area is highly influenced by ocean currents that surround the continent.

Development

The issue in Australia is that the Aborigines (the natives to the land) have lost their land rights long ago and have been trying to gain their land rights and citizen rights for many years. Australia has changed and modernized and they pushed the Aborigines away even though its their land. After many years of trying to recieve their rights, the aborigines have finally gained some land back that belong to them and that they should have never had to give up in the first place. The aborigines in fact contribute to the economy, but in a small way, their art is very popular and makes pretty good money for the people to live off of as they are slowly coming out of poverty.
Timeline:

• 1960- The Aborigines are trying to get their land and rights back.
• 1976- Aboriginal land rights. Some land is returned to the Aborigines.
• 2000- The olympic games highlighted their aboriginal popoulation and their art, bringing them to the attention of the world.

Impact

1. 1. Effects on people: Health concerns-70% of the Aboriginal population die vefore the age of 65, compared with 20% of nonindigenous Australians.


2. 2. Effects on the environment: Aborigines has limited amount of land available for human inhavitation, which has prompted real estate develpers to build houses on land that once served as habitat for koalas and kangaroos, among other animals.


3. Effects on economics: They never practiced agriculture, opting instead for a huntins-gathering way of life that persisted up to the time of the European conquest.


4. Effects on the government: Governmental quidelines promoted European and North American immigration at the expense of other groups.

Future

In the future, this issues will affect the region because pressures for cultural assimilation will be intense as many native peoples relocate to move western-oriented urban settlements and life styles. One of the things that are being done to prepare for the impact of this topic on the future is that government people are making the acts that represent the rights of the Aborigines such as 'Acts for Aborigines's rights and protections.' They try to give Aborigines their rights to everything back.
Australia's most pressing environmental problems: Pollution, drought, salinization, and habitat loss due to overdevelopment and bushfires.
http://www.worldgeography.abc-clio.com/Countries/Display.aspx?categoryid=59&entryid=1115685&searchtext=aborigines+current+issues&type=simple&option=all&searchsites=1,4,5,8,&filterid=

Big Picture

Using different languages, having different appearance and ethinicity impact this topic. These differences are what's making these two groups hard to be together because they just can't accept each other's cultures. This topic represent the importance of the 'cultures' geographic theme because people will understand how important is to understand other groups's cultures and try to accept them and try to blend into their society.