Australian Aboriginals

Environment & Human Adaption

 Aboriginal people are thought to have arrived in Australia as early as 60.000 years ago, however archaeologists believe that the Aboriginals first came to the Australian continent around 45,000 years ago. The population is just over 21.3 million, with approximately 60% concentrated in and around the cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.

 

The kangaroo is unique to Australia and one of its most famous mammals. There are 40 million kangaroos in Australia. Today Australia has a wildlife not found anywhere else in the world. You can see the koala, the emu, the dingo, the echidna, the platypus... there are around 800 species of birds, 4,000 fish varieties and tens of thousands of species of invertebrates and micro-organisms. Australia has also got 25,000 species of plants. 

 Aborigines are forced to travel in summer over long, dry stages; they do not set out on their journey until nightfall. Before leaving the last waterhole, they drink as much as possible, then keep going until a little after sunrise. Then they put a rough shelter over the top, reduce their skin temperature by throwing sand over their bodies, bury themselves up to the neck, and remain covered until the cool of the evening allows them to continue their way.  In cold weather Aborigines would often sleep between fires at night - though it might bring the risk of rolling on to hot embers. Grease could be smeared over the skin to ward off the cold. In some parts of Australia, especially in the south, Aborigines wore possum, wallaby or kangaroo skin rugs, the result of much careful treatment of skins and sewing them together. A small fire at the entrance gave warmth and deterred mosquitoes, while the dark interior discouraged flies. Bark, branches and grass were the materials commonly used. 

A hut usually had a circular base, with a roof fastened at a peak or left rounded. In the wet season in Arnhem Land, Aborigines built a bark-covered platform, below which a fire burned to ward off insects. In some places, where people made seasonal camps, huts were sturdier and could be insulated with a layer of leaves, mud, seaweed, animal skins or sand. Rock shelters provided a natural sleeping place in many areas.   

 

One significant difference between modern Aborigines and their ancient ancestors is in overall size. Modern Aborigines are usually stocky with a wider build, whereas past Aborigines were lean and tall.Their physique was suited to the exertions of hunting and gathering food.Their skin tone varies from very light to very dark. They generally have broad noses and it's not uncommon in some regions for children to have blond hair but they tend to have straight, dark hair. Their eyes are deeply set in their eye sockets beneath a prominent brown ridge.

Language & Gender Roles

Australia suffers from the highest rate of language extinction in the world. Once home to more than 200 languages spoken by the indigenous inhabitants of the continent, now only about 20 are spoken on a daily basis. They were often rich in meaning and vocabulary, especially in reference to the natural world. To understand any of them it is necessary to understand the way their users lived and thought. Words were often built up to a considerable length, and were spoken in voices of a reasonably high pitch. In different parts of the continent variations could be noticed in the different language sounds, the use of vowels or consonants of the end of words, and so on. These variations can be recognized even now in surviving Aboriginal place names Accents, body gestures and other mannerisms gave fuller meaning to spoken words.

Since there were so many spoken languages but no written language, it was often difficult for Aborigines to communicate beyond their own language group. Message-sticks carried when traveling had in fact no messages written on them, but were to help identify the bearer and give him some authority. Sign language, used extensively, was a common method of overcoming the language difficulty. Signs were made with the hands or by facial or body movements. They could also be used within a group to convey secret meanings and to give messages when hunting. This allowed considerable 'conversations' to go on. Another form of communication was by smoke-signals - these, like message-sticks, conveyed no actual message, but were per-arranged signs useful in hunting and in faxing a camp location.

 A child's birth, as with other events in the Aboriginal world, was believed to be not solely a human affair. It was commonly believed that a spirit-child, from somewhere in the landscape, entered a woman's body at the time of conception.

 Girls learned about gathering food and preparing meals by assisting their mothers. Boys were directed more towards the hunting carried out by males, beginning to recognize the calls and notes of animals and birds. They came to recognize the tracks of game, until they could even distinguish between individuals of the same species. They began to hunt for reptiles and birds and gather food for the camp. Parents gradually demanded more from their children, requiring them to understand their responsibilities as members of a group. Proper behavior towards parents was expected. Then as children grew older they learned songs and dances, preparing for the important future learning of ceremonial songs and dances. They also learned to bear pain and hunger, which they would probably experience in ceremonies and on other occasions in later life.

 The men were responsible for providing food, shelter and clothing. Women were responsible for the domestic sphere and were viewed as both life-givers and the caretakers of life. Elders are initiated men who are selected to be ritual leaders upon the basis of their personal qualities (such as bravery and compassion) and upon their knowledge of the Law. Elders provide leadership in matters affecting the group, including dispute resolution, educating the young and advising on marriage partners. In traditional Aboriginal society the advice of the Elders is usually “heeded and unquestioned”. Elders assume responsibility for sacred objects, spiritual matters and the performance of ritual. The Elders are vested with custodianship of the Law. Their overriding duty is to honor and maintain the Law, and pass it down to the next generation.

Subsistence & Economy

Cooking in hot ashes was the most common method of preparing tubers, roots, and similar plant products including yams and the onion-shaped tubers of spike rush both of which were important foods for Aborigines in northern Australia. Witchetty grubs and similar grubs from other trees were also cooked in hot ashes, if not eaten raw. Witchetty grub is a Fat-rich larva used as food and crushed to provide a protective covering for wounds and burns. Aboriginal people achieved two world firsts with stone technology.

They were the first to introduce ground edges on cutting tools and to grind seed. They used stone tools for many things including: to make other tools, to get and prepare food, chop wood, and to prepare animal skins. Tools and implements reflect the geographical location of different groups. For example, coastal tribes used fish bone to tip their weapons, whereas desert tribes used stone tips. While tools varied by group and location, Aboriginal people all had knives, scrapers, axe-heads, spears, various vessels for eating and drinking, and digging sticks.

Boomerangs

 In traditional aboriginal society the aboriginal people are hunter gatherers. Aborigines living in the urban environment can have “normal” modern jobs like the rest of the population. Some, like the ones in Uluru in Central Australia receive money from tourism and due to the natural resources under the ground throughout Australia, some aboriginal societies who have had their land returned to them, rent their land for mining as well. Fifty four percent of Australian aborigines between the ages of 15-64 were employed in 2008. As semi-nomadic people, trade was an important part of their lifestyle as they traveled, for example, coastal tribes could trade seafood with inland tribes.

Trading networks were frequently incorporated into formal exchange systems. Large, gatherings of people came together for "exchange ceremonies" where regional specialties were traded. Ritual paraphernalia, sacred ceremonial objects, song verses and dance styles were also passed on from one group to the next at such gatherings.

Marriage & Kinship

In traditional Aboriginal society marriages are significant to the forging of alliances, and often betrothal arrangements are made when the prospective bride is very young, or possibly even unborn. A man may not marry until he has undergone a significant part of the lengthy initiation process: thus, at marriage a man will be in his twenties or even thirties. Often a man’s first wife is the widow of an older man, and his subsequent wives may be much younger. A marriage may be signaled by the simple act of a couple living together and being accepted as married by their kin. It has been noted that the mere act of a woman walking through a camp to join a man at his request may constitute a marriage ritual. A family group might include secondary wives or husbands, children, grandparents and other old or close relatives. Where possible, a family lives and moves around its traditional territory together.

In traditional Aboriginal society inter-personal relationships are governed by a complex and intricate system of rules, known as the classificatory system of kinship. The kinship system is based upon an expanded concept of family, and a concomitant extension of family rights and obligations. The kinship system enables each person in a language group to ascertain precisely where he or she stands in relation to every other person in that group, and to persons outside that group. By providing a mental map of social relationships, each person knows precisely how to behave in relation to every other person.

Social & Political Organization

Australian Aboriginal Flag

The aboriginal way of life came to an end with the beginning of European settlement in 1788, when the British landed on the east coast of Australia. The diseases brought in by the white settlers (smallpox, colds and measles) killed almost half the aboriginal population between Botany Bay and Broken Bay. The settlers were mostly male, and the rape of aboriginal women by them was a frequent occurrence. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries most of the coastal and eastern Australian tribes were annihilated in violent confrontations with white settlers.

During much of the 20th century, outright killings were replaced with a policy of removing Aboriginal children from their parents and giving them to white families or placing them in mission schools, to eradicate traces of Aboriginal culture and language.

Australian Flag

Today they still face racist attitudes, and there are periodic incidents of violence towards them, particularly affecting those in police custody. Their generally poor living conditions mean that Aboriginal people have a far higher infant mortality rate and suicide rate and a lower life expectancy than the rest of the population, and they make up a disproportionate section of the prison population. Australia’s new ethnic diversity and increasing independence from Britain contributed to an atmosphere of political, economic and social change. In 1967, Australians voted ‘yes’ in a referendum to let the government make laws on behalf of Aboriginal Australians. The result was a strong reform campaign by both Aboriginal and white Australians.

Belief System & Arts

In Australia, Indigenous communities keep their cultural heritage alive by passing their knowledge, arts, rituals and performances from one generation to another, speaking and teaching languages, protecting cultural materials, sacred and significant sites, and objects. The central tenet of traditional Aboriginal society is belief in the oneness of the spiritual, human and natural world. 

This spiritual worldview is known as the Dreaming, One Aboriginal man explained it thus:

    ‘By Dreaming we mean the belief that long ago these creatures started human society, they made all natural things and put them in a special place.

    ’These Dreaming creatures were connected to special places and special roads or tracks or paths. In many places the great creatures changed themselves into sites where their spirits stayed.

   ’Aboriginals have a special connection with everything that is natural. Aboriginals see themselves as part of nature … All things on earth we see as part human. It is true that people who belong to a particular area are really part of that area and if that area is destroyed they are also destroyed.’

Important aspect of Aboriginal spirituality is the belief that every person has a totem. “Totem-ism” describes the relationship between an individual with a plant or animal species, or a condition or a situation. There are a number of distinct schools of traditional Aboriginal visual art, which may be created on rock facings and in caves, on wood, bark, and even on clay or sand. Broad traditional Aboriginal “art areas” exists across the Australian continent, although each language group has its own distinctive form of artistic expression. Aboriginal visual art may be broadly described as a stylized form of communication which is inseparable from its cultural and social setting. 

Some common traditional aboriginal musical instruments are the didgeridoo, a hollowed out narrow log or branch and clapping sticks which are short, decorated solid pieces of wood. It is one of the oldest instruments to date. It consists of a long tube, without finger holes, through which the player blows. It is sometimes fitted with a mouthpiece of beeswax. The Aborigine would also listen to the sounds of wind, thunder, trees creaking, and water running. The essences of all these sounds were played with as much accuracy as possible within the droning sound of the didgeridoo. Skilled players use the technique of circular breathing to achieve a continuous sound, and also employ techniques for inducing multiple harmonic resonances. Listen to the music (right).

The ceremonies of the youths, at which no fully adult male or any women are present, are the most important to the participants. In these, the young actors, their bodies decorated with the creature they represent, mime the episodes of their creation during mythical times. These rituals, many of them of considerable beauty, are the youth's first step toward their integration into the life and responsibilities of the men.

Conclusion

Unfortunately the effects of this culture being invaded by another culture has caused anger,  sexual  and physical abuse, confusion and loss of heritage and language. It's sad to see it took so long for our government to recognize all the wrong doing by stealing their children and land for personal gain.Today their culture is not thriving Aboriginals have poor living conditions and have a far higher infant mortality rate and suicide rate and a lower life expectancy than the rest of the population. These Aboriginal children known as The Lost Generation needs support to rebuild what has been taken from them however the trauma can't be reversed and human rights need to be upheld!

Bibliography

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/43873/Australian-Aboriginal-languages

http://www.alrc.gov.au/publications/12.%20Aboriginal%20Marriages%20and%20Family%20Structures/marriage-traditional-aboriginal-societie

http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/economy/index.html

http://www.ausanthrop.net/research/kinship/kinship2.php

http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/austn-indigenous-cultural-heritage

http://www.gondwananet.com/australian-aboriginal-food.html

http://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/health-facts/health-faqs/what-are-the-main-references-about-indigenous-health/population-statistics

http://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/aboriginals

http://www.unpo.org/members/7855

http://aboriginalart.com.au/
 http://www.mcguinnessonline.com/australia/aussie_people_aboriginals1.htm