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Aboriginals live throughout Australia, but especially in the
province of Queensland. At the moment there are about 300,000
Aboriginals, which is 1.5% of the total population of Australia.
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HISTORY
It is uncertain how the first Aboriginals arrived in Australia.
It is clear however that the Aboriginal people have lived in Australia
for at least 40,000 years. Until the late 1700's the Aboriginals
lived a fairly traditional life. At that time there were about 500
-700 tribes in Australia.
Though the Dutch and Spanish visited Australia in the early 1600's
it was not until 1788 that white immigrants began to colonize Australia.
The Aboriginals tried to protest this colonization but the Europeans
drove them from their lands or killed them. Many thousands of (especially
male) Aboriginals were killed in this way. Others died because of
the diseases that the Europeans brought with them.
Starting in the late 1830's the remaining Aboriginals were moved
into reserves and missions that were created especially for them.
The white Australians were in charge of these places. Here, the
Aboriginals were forbidden to teach their children their own language
and customs.
By the 1890's the white Australians were convinced that the Aboriginals
would soon be extinct. This belief was based on the Darwinist ideas
that the more primitive peoples such as the Aboriginals would vanish
as part of the natural course of evolution. The culture of the Aboriginals
was not considered worth respecting or saving by the colonists.
In the 1920's many missionaries tried to convert the Aboriginals
to Christianity. At this time many of them were living in extreme
poverty in ghettos or on the outskirts of towns. Thousands of children
were taken by force from their parents and put into institutions
to raise them as "good Christians". Because of this many Aboriginals
felt that they belonged nowhere. They did not understand or like
white Australian society, but they had forgotten their own culture.
This generation of children is now called "the stolen generation".
In 1951 an official assimilation policy came into effect which stated
that the Aboriginals had to become like all the other Australians.
The Aboriginals protested against this attack on their culture and
their lifestyle. At this time native peoples around the world started
to organize themselves and demand respect. Twenty years after the
assimilation policy the Aboriginal protests led to a government
decision that Aboriginals would have a right to some of the land
that was taken from them in the past. This battle for rights and
to get land back continues at this moment.
Today there are about 300 Aboriginal tribes throughout Australia.
In many places they are trying to rediscover their culture and to
understand once more who they are. |
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RELIGION
Traditional Aboriginal societies share the idea that the earth
and humans were created in a distant past. This time is called "the
Dreaming" or "the Dreamtime". People can come into contact with
the origins of creation when they dream. Many Aboriginal rituals
connect the everyday world of the present to the mysterious Dreamtime
of the past. After a person dies the person's soul returns to the
Dreamtime, where it can also be found before birth.
Aboriginals are very attached to the land they live on, because
they believe that the land was created by their ancestors in the
Dreamtime. Every tree, rock, animal, mountain, etc. is believed
to have been created in the Dreamtime. Because of this Aboriginal
tribes in the past respected each others territories and rarely
invaded. They were fearful that they would only find hostile spirits
there.
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SOCIETY,
ECONOMY AND POLITICS
Traditionally Aboriginals lived in groups of large extended families.
The leaders of these extended families were called Elders, who were
usually men. They were old and considered to have the most experience
and to be the wisest in the tribe. It was also believed they understood
the Dreamtime well.
Inland Aboriginals hunted for their food. Some tribes lived in the
desert, and some in the mountains or in forests. This meant that
many different types of animals were hunted, such as kangaroos,
ducks, parrots, snakes and lizards. Boomerangs and spears were favorite
hunting tools. Women often collected berries and other food. Aboriginals
who lived near the coast were skilled fishermen. They used both
spears and fish traps to catch fish. There is some evidence that
the Aboriginals used agriculture (30,000 years ago) long before
the Egyptians started to (19,000 years ago). Stones were used to
grind grass seeds and other foods.
Though women are treated fairly equally in Aboriginal society, it
is only a handful of men who are allowed to have secret religious
knowledge about the Dreamtime. However, women have always played
an important role in the economy of Aboriginal tribes. Women were
the most important providers of food and were not limited to the
kitchen or to raising the children as in many native cultures. They
were often economically active and independent of their husbands
in their work.
Aboriginal law, like most of society, was based on Dreamtime stories.
The laws had many regulations about trespassing, food, marriage
and what was considered to be a crime. Aboriginal medicine made
use of herbs and also magic. This magic was used to cure people
of illness, but also to harm them if they broke certain laws.
The Aboriginals still have their own flag, which is different from
the Australian flag. It is divided horizontally into two equal halves.
The top half is black and the bottom half is red. There is a yellow
circle in the middle. The black represents the Aboriginal people.
The red represents the earth and the yellow the sun.
Unfortunately, due to the loss of their culture, many Aboriginals
are now living in poverty. Many of them are dependent on the Australian
government and alcoholism is a large problem. New movements among
the Aboriginals themselves to feel proud of their culture and history
is slowly improving their situation. |
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CULTURE
Australia is a huge country and this has led to the development
of many Aboriginal languages. Though English is now the official
language of Australia, the Aboriginals speak almost 500 different
traditional languages.
Dreamtime stories are expressed in many ways. These stories contain
many lessons about life. They are presented in chants, songs, paintings,
costumes, dances and plays. Originally, the Aboriginal culture is
an oral one, with stories being passed from one generation to the
next by word of mouth. Today such stories are also presented in
written form. One can still find ancient Dreamtime stories on Aboriginal
rock art throughout Australia. Some of these carvings are 45,000
years old.
Aboriginals have always been very fond of games. Games such as wrestling,
digging, running, climbing, throwing and ball games were popular.
One favorite game was to make a ball from grass, or from fur tied
together with vines, and then kicking it around.
The Aboriginals used a small number of instruments in their music.
They used rattles, clapping sticks and boomerangs as instruments.
The most famous of these is the Aboriginal didgeridoo. These are
long tubes made of eucalyptus wood that can be blown into from the
top. Songs and music were especially used in ceremonies that put
people in touch with the Dreamtime. |
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| "The
Big Myth" © Distant Train 2003 |
