This was my response to a 10 mark question (I was given 9/10)
Hope it helps with trials coming up, since for a lot of people they haven't even looked at this stuff for over a term! It's not perfect, but it was marked by the teacher who taught the person that came first in the state for SOR1 last year, so it should be pretty accurate. (btw I don't think they have 10 markers in the actual exams, this was just an assessment task last year).
With reference to Paul Keating’s Redfern Speech, discuss the continuing effect of dispossession on Aboriginal spiritualities.The dispossession of Aboriginal people has had a continuing effect on Aboriginal spirituality. Dispossession in terms of Aboriginal Australians can be defined as their forced removal from their land, security, way of life and culture, which occurred after the British fleet arrived in 1788 and declared Australia to be “terra nullius.” The effects of dispossession on Aboriginal spirituality can still be seen today through impact of the Aboriginal peoples separation from Land, Kinship groups and The Stolen Generations.
The continuing effect of dispossession on Aboriginal spiritualities is clear through the Aboriginal peoples separation from the land. According to past Prime Minister Paul Keating during his Redfern speech in 1992, “We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life”. As the Dreaming (the centre point of all Aboriginal spirituality) is so inextricably connected to the land (due to the immanent world view that the Ancestor Beings live within the land), the loss of land as a result of dispossession leads to a loss of identity, community, and the ability to fulfil ritual responsibilities.
During the protection policies on the 1890s through to the 1950s, many Aboriginal Australians were separated from their land and put on reserves (government run) and missions (church run). This had a devastating effect on their sense of identity and community as it restricted their mobility (something that Indigenous Australians were used to) and access to sacred sites. Aboriginal Australian’s relied on continual access to the land, particularly to sacred sites, in order to perform traditional ceremonies and rituals, two key aspects of Aboriginal spirituality, that aided in shaping an individuals identity and roles within a community, such as ceremonial initiation. “Imagine if our spiritual life was denied and ridiculed” Without this continual access to the land (along with the suppression of Aboriginal Spirituality while living on reserves/missions) these ceremonies were unable to take place and therefore the spiritual and cultural basis for an individual’s identity and role within their community was heavily disrupted, causing a many Indigenous individuals to feel isolated from their culture and community.
This is also evident today, with the high incarceration rates of Aboriginal Australians (28% of Australia’s prison population, while only representing 3% of the Australian population) restricting many Aboriginal Australians from fulfilling their ceremonial duties, as they are unable to access the land. This shows the effects of separating an Aboriginal Australian from the land on their spirituality as a continuing effect of dispossession.
The separation of one from their kinship group also represents another critical effect of dispossession on Aboriginal spiritualities. Kinship was a system of law and point of fixture that governed all social interactions between Aboriginal Australians, particularly marriage, and was integral to Aboriginal culture and spirituality. Each Indigenous Australian belongs to a kinship group, which aside from dictating social interaction also provide an indigenous Australian with family and community, enabling Aboriginal Australians to pass on their language, Dreaming stories, traditional practices, laws and ritual responsibilities onto the next generation.
By separating an Aboriginal person for their kinship group, you separate them from their family, community and support system, leaving many to feel isolated. During the protection and assimilation policies, Indigenous Australians were purposely separated from their kinship groups and clans in order to effectively destroy and suppress their culture. This is due to the fact that by separating kinship groups, not only did they lose their ability to meet and perform important kinship rituals and ceremonies, but also their language ties, the way they pass on the Dreaming, was severed. This has led to an isolation of both community and culture, which has further disturbed many Aboriginal Australians sense of identity. In this way, it is evident that dispossession through the separation from Kinship groups has had a continuing effect on Aboriginal spiritualities.
The continuing effect of dispossession on Aboriginal spiritualities is evident through the continual effects of the Stolen Generations on the children, parents and communities involved. “We took children from their mothers,” the Stolen Generations is the term used to describe the forceful removal of Aboriginal children from their family and community during the policies of protection and assimilation. The effects of this were detrimental to the stolen children, as not only (in many cases) did they suffer physical and sexual abuse from their new families or at the missions and reserves, but also many suffer to this day from a severe identity crisis due to the fact that they never knew their family or the culture they belong to. The communities also suffered greatly at they were now unable to pass on their culture and spirituality to the next generation, causing a loss of culture and spirituality on a grand scale. Many Indigenous Australians that were taken during this time never regained contact with their families, and many of the ones that did found that they could no longer communicate with them due to the language not being passed down to the child. This isolation from community and culture has led to many of the stolen children, as adults to suffer from psychological illness and distress, such as depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This lack of community and family creates a lack of a reliable support system, which consequentially led many Indigenous Australians to look for support and relief elsewhere, leading many to substance abuse and alcoholism. Therefore, it is evident that the Stolen Generations represents a continuing effect of dispossession on Aboriginal Spiritualities.
Through the Stolen Generations and the separation for kinship group and land, it is clear that dispossession, whereby Aboriginal people were forcibly removed from their land, security, way of life and culture, has had a critical and continuing effect on Aboriginal spirituality and therefore on the Australian identity, as, according to Paul Keating, “the plight of Aboriginal Australians affects us all.”
Hope this helps! Good luck with trials everyone 
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