Have you ever guessed what might have happened in the Australian past? The Australian Aboriginals are natives of Australia and have lived there for many years. The Aborigine people have roamed Australia, the free-flowing land, for years, developing many customs and aspects to an interesting culture: language, body painting, beliefs, laws, music, hunting and art. The Australian Aboriginals are the native people of Australia. They roamed the land for 40,000 years. The Indigenous Aborigines lived as nomads, hunter-gatherers, and “with a strong dependence on the land and their agriculture for survival (Ellie Crystal)”. The Aborigine ways of life were interrupted when Britain sent convicts to Australia. The Australian Aboriginal tribes have different ways of communicating. Most Aborigines are able to speak five different languages. The languages vary among locations and tribes. Aboriginal words are interspersed with the Australian English language. Some words are added into the Australian vocabulary (slang). Today the Aborigine language is spoken in mostly a form of English; it is spoken in standard Australian English (SAE). A tradition of the Australian Aboriginals is body painting; a form of body art. Body painting is an old tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation. It is worn especially at religious ceremonies and celebrations. Body art varies between different tribes and geographic locations. The decorations on the body have different meanings, significances, and distinct forms. The art includes symbols and designs and it is sometimes is used to tell stories. The Aboriginal culture heavily uses body painting and it explains things about each person: thought process, way of life, and feelings. Anothe... ... middle of paper ... ...omo sapiens in Africa and migrated in mass migrations to all parts of the world. The Aboriginals crossed the land bridge from Asia to Australia, which is said to have existed 45,000 to 50,000 years ago. From their arrival they developed a culture and many ways of life. When the British convicts arrived to Australia they caused many struggles among the Aboriginals. They were treated similarly to the Native Americans and much of their cherished land was taken over. The population of the Aboriginals has immensely decreased. They only make up less than three percent of the Australian population. There are 460,000 Aboriginals today. In conclusion, the Australian Aboriginals have a complex culture developed over the years. Art, hunting, beliefs, language are all aspects to their culture. They cherish the land they believe was given to them by the mystical beings.
The Australian Aborigines society is relatively well known in Western society. They have been portrayed accurately and inaccurately in media and film. Dr. Langton has attempted to disprove common myths about the infamous Australian society, as has her predecessors, the Berndt’s, and National Geographic author, Michael Finkel; I will attempt to do the same.
The Aboriginal people of Australia were here thousands of years before European settlement and we forced them to adapt to the changes of environment around them. This change might be for better or worse, but we will never find out. But with the European settlement came the birth of industry, agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, manufacture, electricity, gas and water just to name a few.
Bourke, E and Edwards, B. 1994. Aboriginal Australia. St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press.
Its meaning is paramount to traditional Aboriginal people, their lifestyle. and their culture, for it determines their values and beliefs. their relationship with every living creature and every characteristic. of the landscape of the city. Through a network of obligations involving themselves, the land, and the Ancestors, traditional Aboriginals.
Yengoyan, Aram A. "Economy, Society, and Myth in Aboriginal Australia." Annual Review of Anthropology 8.1 (1979): 393-415. Print.
Aboriginal spirituality originally derives from the stories of the dreaming. The dreaming is the knowledge and a sense of belonging that the Aboriginals had of the beginning of life and the relationship to the land and sea (Australian Museum, 2011). The dreaming stories are passed on from one generation to the next orally. These stories teach the following generations how to behave towards the land and other people. The dreaming stories give them a sense of duty to protect the land and appreciate it because the dreamtime stories indicate that the spirits have not died but are still alive in different forms as animals or humans, therefore the ancestor’s power is still felt through the landforms (Clark, 1963), (Australian Governement, 2008)
The terms Aboriginal peoples, American Indian, Indian, Indigenous Peoples, First Nations and Native American are used to describe the original habitants in North America and South America. These people have a proud history and heritage and it seems that most of the professors, collegiate and scientists try their best to use terminology that best represents their heritage, “The National Aboriginal Health Organization Terminology Guidelines
Bourke, E and Edwards, B. 1994. Aboriginal Australia. St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press.
Australian Aborigines have had a traditional relationship with their land since they first came to the Australian continent somewhere from 40,000 to 60,000 years ago to 120,000 years ago (9:9). Before Europeans came and settled the same land, the Aborigines had their own law system, trading systems, and way of caring for their land (12:1-2). Then the First Fleet of Europeans landed at Botany Bay in New South Wales in 1788. The expedition lead by the new Governor Phillip, but directed by King George the Third, was told to endeavor by every possible means to open intercourse with the natives, and to conciliate their affections, enjoining all our subjects to live in amity and kindness with them. And if any of our subjects shall wantonly destroy them or give them any unnecessary interruption in the exercise of their several occupations, it is our will and pleasure that you do cause such offenders to be brought to punishment according to the degree of the offense (9:2-3).
In the late eighteenth century prior to the arrival of the first European settlers, Australia was once believed to be a terra nullius, an uninhabited “nothing land.” The European colonizers of Australia sought to make something of this land they believed they had discovered. Operating under this false notion, colonizers systematically invaded and conquered Australia, imposing their own ways onto the land and its original custodians, the Aboriginal people. The introduction of western settlements disrupted much of Aboriginal life. In a publication titled, Is it in the Blood? Australian Aboriginal Identity, author Myrna Ewart Tonkinson discusses Western imperialism and its implications on Aboriginal identity.
The first Europeans to settle Australia treated the Aboriginals in a brutal, unfair manor. They downgraded Aboriginals to a lower status as human beings. They tried to force the Aboriginals to conform to the western way of life for more than 200 years. It is only fairly recently that the Aboriginals have finally been able to gain back some of their indigenous rights and traditions.
Australia’s European settlement and invasion brought demolition to its original inhabitants and continued to cruelly wrong them up until recent events. From hen the First Fleet arrived in Australia and declared it terra nullius or ‘no man’s land’, the Indigenous people, of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders, were refused acknowledgement from their traditional ownership of the land. This was the beginning of battle over land that would last centuries. By the time of Federation in 1901, the Indigenous were being denied the vast majority of the rights that the Settlers possessed. Their cultures were not even recognised, even to the extent of them being ignored in the census as Australian citizens. The inhumane treatment was truly
Australia’s Indigenous people are thought to have reached the continent between 60 000 and 80 000 years ago. Over the thousands of years since then, a complex customary legal system have developed, strongly linked to the notion of kinship and based on oral tradition. The indigenous people were not seen as have a political culture or system for law. They were denied the access to basic human right e.g., the right to land ownership. Their cultural values of indigenous people became lost. They lost their traditional lifestyle and became disconnected socially. This means that they were unable to pass down their heritage and also were disconnected from the new occupants of the land.
When Captain Cook arrived in 1788 and the colonisation of Australia began, the Indigenous people of Australia struggled and fought to protect their country from infringement, theft and violation. The Indigenous people were faced with a dominant military force and an extremely different view of the world. Over one hundred years ago, the colonists understood this land to be open for the taking and the rightful first owners were treated as intruders on their own land. In 1901 the commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed and a supposedly new era was to occur for this “lucky country” and its inhabitants. http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2001/433/433pl6.htm However, for Indigenous Australians, this year marked a 113 years of resistance, removal, withdrawal and dispossession. Over one hundred years later, the Native Title act is passed and Indigenous Australian’s continue their political struggle for land rights
The colonisation of Australia occurred throughout 1788-1990. During this time, Great Britain discovered Australia and decided that it would become a new British colony (“Australian History: Colonisation 17-88-1990”, 2014.). It was decided that convicts would be sent to Australia and used for labour to build the new colony. There are many health determinants that are effecting the health of Indigenous Australians including; poor living conditions, risk behaviours and low socioeconomic status. Many of these determinants have an effect on the Indigenous Australians due to the colonisation of Australia.