I think there are many positives and negative effects that the western culture has brang to the indigenous youth, however the majority of these effects are negative because the Indigenous were happy how they were, alone. For instance, when living in their tribes the Indigenous were not exposed to petrol, so they weren't dependant and addicted to sniffing it for small highs and spending money in it, when without the western culture, they didn't know what it was, let alone got addicted. One of the positives and negatives is that the indigenous youth are also put into gaol when they do something wrong, instead of their tribe leader doing something about it. This may be a good thing to teach them that what they did was wrong, however it may result in a negativity towards the system, the government and other western cultures and Aboriginal's have a far greater gaol rate than any other culture; but this may be because we are too harsh and possibly racist towards them.
The Western culture has also made many Indigenous youth want to leave their family, land and jobs for other things in life, for instance large gangs of people, which specialise in illegal things; EG: The "Gang of 49" have been on the news lately over aggravated robberies, murders, All members of this group are aboriginal and assumedly left their family and land for the city which they are not used to and don't understand the laws well enough to understand what is morally wrong in the western society. The Western culture has also taken the Indigenous Youth from their parents, up until 30 years ago which would have definitely gave them much more anger.. The Western culture also introduced Aboriginals to drugs, alcohol and cigarettes which are all huge problems in the Aboriginal community. The rate of chronic illnesses is horrible, more specific, cardiovascular diseases (heart diseases, strokes) rates show that Aboriginal's are 3 times the rate of non-Indigenous men and 2.2 times the rate of non-Indigenous women. The rate of sexually transmitted Infections is the biggest difference, Aboriginal women are 6.5 more likely to be infected then non-Indigenous women and Aboriginal Men have 4.3 times the rate of non-Indigenous men. Another Negative of the Western Culture is that they brang racism towards the Aboriginal, which caused them to dislike most white people in general, although not all.
Some positives that the Western Culture has brang to the indigenous youth are that they get more benefits from the government then most people, for the mistreatment of them that they, or their family received. They also have helped raise their life expectancy and reduce the impact of diseases, although we may have brang some; The life expectancy difference between Aboriginal's and white people is 18 years but many people are working hard in a ''close the gap'' fund, which is ran by Oxfam and is Australia's largest campaign to improve the Indigenous health and change the 18 year gap so it is near equal. The campaign has over 120,000 signed members. They are fighting for the government to give $460 million, to help Aboriginals get equal access to health services and other places to help them live longer. Another good thing that the Western Culture has done, is giving the Indigenous access to everything they didn't have, making their job easier and less labour intensive.
Overall, there are many changes that the Western Culture has caused, I believe that they should have stayed out of each other's way and tried to live happily together, however the Western Culture had to take over the Indigenous land and turn it into their own. I also think the Western culture should have let them live how they wanted to instead of forcing them into what the western cultures wanted; which was white people.
