Witness

Witness

½ a page on why some experiences on missions was positive for some and negative for others.
Experience is the major factor that determines whether living on missions it was a positive or negative experience.
Reasons for positive experiences:
• Some Aboriginal people found it easier to be/live on these missions, rather than to live in the outside world, a place in which they were forced to face more racism, prejudice, a discrimination than actually being on the mission. It was like an escape.
• Some Aboriginal people found that the white way of life was better than theirs. (they enjoyed the white way of life)
Others found that they were happy and quite comfortable to live in the outside world, and did not want to go into missions. This could have been due to a number of factors including:
o The location/area in which they lived may had not been completely Colonised yet e.g. Remote communities. In these places they were still probably living the traditional life with no interference from white people.
o The Aboriginal people may have already experienced the extremities of the white peoples ways e.g. massacres etc, and new that if they were put on reserves that they would face them too.
Reasons for missions being negative experiences:
• Some Aboriginal people did not want to lose their culture e.g. ceremonies, rituals, art, language, song and dance etc and found that these reserves stopped Aboriginal people from continuing their culture and were forced to be and act white.
• It also depends on the actual mission they went to. Some missions were harsher and crueler than others. They each had their own way of dealing with Aboriginal people. E.g. some allowed aboriginal people to retain little parts of their culture, others completely forbid them.
• It also depended on the location of the mission and where they were sent to. If the mission was close to their home land then perhaps some Aboriginal people wouldn’t have minded as they were ‘home’, but if...

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