Nowadays, the Aboriginals of Australian and Torres Strait Islander people and the organization critically operate under two different systems of laws. Appeals, audit procedures, and complaints like procedures should be followed and about the election process, a grievance, or conflict of interest.
All in all, they are a people who are living under the Australian parliamentary and all the common laws inherited from the western systems and structures. However, Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander have their own cultural identities and continue to adapt different mechanisms for deal with numerous disputes, restoring social harmony, and resolving grievances. All of these are purely based on their ancient systems of law, Jurisdiction, and networked relationships.
In this blog, we are going to discuss how do western systems and structures impact aboriginal and Torres strait islander cultures, the impact of western systems and structures on Aboriginals, and the difference between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Non-Indigenous systems.
The number of groups identified by the Australian Government like Fraser Island group, Tasmania Group, Hinchinbrook group, Groote Eylandt, etc. all of them are considered as Aboriginals. All of them come as a classification of Australian Aboriginals. All of these people were a mixture of different ethnic groups that started approximately half a million years ago.
Different between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and western systems and structures
The main aim of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander system of laws are:
- To identify the collective interest and rights
- To regain the social relationship
- To regenerate the sense of cohesive collective identity
- Reaffirm different systems for authority and religious law
On the other hand, these are different from the Western system and its structures
- Provide an individual rights
- Rights of the “Victim” and “offender” and separation of the interests
- Representation by another or external proper and legal advocate
- Arm’s length judgment and punishment by different courts.
Here are some of the differences between the Indigenous and the Western systems
In Aboriginals, the close family, the wider community, elders are working out what the dispute or wrongdoing is about, who affected and how it will be get fixed or resolved, on the other hand, the western system provided external professionals to determine the nature of the dispute and how it will be fixed or punished or resolved.
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When it comes to punishment and the peacemaking process, The aboriginals are made by consensus among all participants as per Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander laws and legal precedent. The aim is to provide restoration of the wider social equilibrium, personal punishment, and collective identity. On the opposite side, Australian Law determined according to formalized laws and legal precedent peacemaking and restoration of collective identity is not considered.
However, in Western cultures only the offender is punished in such a law system. the level of satisfaction among the wider set of people who feel affected by the dispute or wrongdoing is not a factor in sentencing. On the contrary side, aboriginals contain a wider group of people who may be included in the punishment, compensation, and peacemaking. For them, restorative justice is the only goal where satisfaction and healing between families are the topmost concerns in punishment and resolution.
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Impact of western systems and structures aboriginal
The real aim or purpose of the government of Australia is to solve the number of problems of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders by implementing a number of policies. But due to the invasion of Europeans in Australia, results in a loss of Aboriginal land and culture. However, it is not only affecting but also positively. By providing basic amenities and availability of vitals, education, information technology, education centers and many more are the major benefits of it. It is only possible by the Western culture that such a downtrodden community called Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander could be exposed to the global level. It also helps such an innate culture of aboriginals with technology like a telecommunication sector.
All in all, Western cultures affect the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders positively as well as negatively too.