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.
Ronald, M, Catherine, H, 1988, The World of the First Australians Aboriginal Traditional Life: Past and Present, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra
Bourke, E and Edwards, B. 1994. Aboriginal Australia. St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press.
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.
There is little said about aboriginal people in early Australian history books. What we do know is that the view of Non-Aboriginal people was very ethnocentric. The opinion was that Aboriginal was that they were savages and little regard was made for the fact that Aboriginal people had to live off this land that was now being used for agriculture. Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal relations during the nineteenth century consisted of violent disputes over the ownership of land, food and water. During this period Aboriginal children were taken from their families and used as a source of labour for European farmers. “The greatest advantage of young Aboriginal servants was that they came cheap and were never paid beyond the provision of variable quantities of food and clothing. As a result any European on or near the frontier, quite regardless of their own circumstances, could acquire and maintain a personal servant” (Arrufat 1930).
Ancient Aboriginals were the first people to set foot on the Australian continent, over 40,000 years or more before Colonization (Eckermann, 2010). They survived by hunting and gathering their food, worshipping the land to protect its resources, and ensuring their survival. The aboriginal community had adapted to the environment, building a strong framework of social, cultural, and spiritual beliefs (Eckermann, 2010).
The indigenous Australian culture is one of the world’s oldest living cultures. Despite the negligence and the misunderstanding from the Europeans, Aboriginals were able to keep their culture alive by passing their knowledge by arts, rituals, performances and stories from one generation to another. Each tribe has its own language and way of using certain tools; however the sharing of knowledge with other tribes helps them survive with a bit easier with the usage of efficient yet primitive tools which helps a culture stay alive. Speaking and teaching the language as well as the protection of sacred sites and objects helps the culture stay...
Smith, Ramsay W. Myths and Legends of the Australian Aborigines. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2003. Print.
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.
They were deprived of their lands and scared sites. Punished and humiliated in detention camps. The Aboriginal population was overwhelmed by diseases brought in the wake of European settlement. For which they had no immunity, and many died. The change of diet brought by the Europeans, upset the natural and balanced diet that was found from hunting and gathering. Diabetes, heart disease, obesity and alcoholism are now common problems among the Aboriginal population. The indigenous people were also exploited as cheap labour, if they were lucky enough to get payed. More often than not, they were paid with food or alcohol. Once the European way of life was imposed on the people, they were denied the right to practise their own culture, language and Dreaming. This meant a significant loss of Aboriginal identity. (Australians-Together,
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.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders people are informed that this paper contains images, written/reference materials on Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Aboriginal people are the first people or indigenous people of Australia who first came to Australia in the Ice age period from Southeast Asia. Aboriginal are people with close relationship with land and maintain their link with ancestral Aboriginal spirits for more than ten thousand years. Aboriginal were nomadic hunter and gatherers who would move to find resource in different seasons. In early 1788, there were probably about 500.000 to 1 million Aboriginal people living in Australia.