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  • Essay / Challenges of Indigenous Native Youth - 1484

    It is primarily a social phenomenon whereby a minority or subgroup is excluded when their needs or desires are detached. Initially, marginalization within the Indigenous community was a product of colonization by "white Europeans" in the late 1700s. In fact, Indigenous Australians are still marginalized by white Australian culture. This is due to the evolution of policies, programs and practices to meet the demands of white society (Baskin C, 2003). For Indigenous youth, continued marginalization is an immediate experience. (The Royal Commission) in (Graham, 1999) recognized that Aboriginal youth constitute the most socially and economically marginalized group of young people in Australia, while recognizing that their marginalization resulted from a complex interrelationship of social, economic and cultural factors . . (Beresford and Omaji, 1996 in Graham, 1999) claimed that signs of marginalization of indigenous youth were evident in the early 1990s and since then the situation has intensified. As a result, considerable numbers of indigenous youth have become estranged from mainstream society due to the interaction of poverty and family dysfunction, educational failure, and exclusion from the labor market. As a direct result, many Aboriginal youth, particularly those in urban and metropolitan settings, have sought refuge in a subcultural lifestyle characterized by crime, substance abuse and violence..