(Redirected from Australian Aborigines)
'Indigenous Australians' are descendants of the first known human inhabitants of the
Australian continent and its nearby islands. The term includes both the '
Torres Strait Islanders' and the 'Aboriginal People', who together make up about 2.5% of Australia's population. The latter term is usually used to refer to those who live in mainland Australia,
Tasmania, and some of the other
adjacent islands. The Torres Strait Islanders are indigenous Australians who live in the
Torres Strait Islands between Australia and
New Guinea. Indigenous Australians are recognised to have arrived between 40,000 and 70,000 years ago, though the lower end of this range has wider acceptance.
The term ''Indigenous Australians'' encompasses many diverse communities and societies, and these are further divided into local communities with unique cultures. Fewer than 200 of the languages of these groups remain in use — all but 20 are highly endangered. It is estimated that prior to the arrival of British settlers the population of Indigenous Australians was up to 1 million. The distribution of people was similar to that of the current Australian population, with the majority living in the south east centered along the
Murray River.
Definitions
Although the culture and lifestyle of Aboriginal groups have much in common, Aboriginal society is not a single entity. The diverse Aboriginal communities have different modes of subsistence, cultural practices, languages, and technologies. However, these peoples also share a larger set of traits, and are otherwise seen as being broadly related. A collective identity as Indigenous Australians is recognised and exists along names from the indigenous languages which are commonly used to identify groups based on regional geography and other affiliations. These include: ''
Koori'' (or ''Koorie'') in
New South Wales and
Victoria; ''
Murri'' in
Queensland; ''
Noongar'' in southern
Western Australia; ''
Yamatji'' in Central Western Australia; ''
Wangkai'' in the Western Australian
Goldfields; ''
Nunga'' in southern
South Australia; ''
Anangu'' in northern South Australia, and neighbouring parts of
Western Australia and
Northern Territory; ''
Yapa'' in western central Northern Territory; ''
Yolngu'' in eastern
Arnhem Land (NT) and ''
Palawah'' (or ''Pallawah'') in
Tasmania.
These larger groups may be further subdivided; for example, Anangu (meaning a person from Australia's central desert region) recognises localised subdivisions such as
Yankunytjatjara,
Pitjantjatjara,
Ngaanyatjara,
Luritja and
Antikirinya.
The term "blacks" has often been applied to Indigenous Australians. This owes rather more to
racial stereotyping than
ethnology, as it categorises Indigenous Australians with the other
black peoples of
Asia and
Africa, despite the relationships only being ones of very distant shared ancestry. In the 1970s, many Aboriginal activists, such as
Gary Foley proudly embraced the term "black", and writer
Kevin Gilbert's groundbreaking book from the time was entitled ''Living Black''. In recent years young Indigenous Australians — particularly in urban areas — have increasingly adopted aspects of black American and
Afro-Caribbean culture, creating what has been described as a form of "black transnationalism."
[1]
Aboriginal Australians
The word , appearing in
English since at least the 17th century and meaning "first or earliest known, indigenous," (Latin ''Aborigines'', from ''ab'': from, and ''origo'': origin, beginning),
[2] has been used in Australia to describe its indigenous peoples as early as 1789. It soon became capitalised and employed as the common name to refer to all Indigenous Australians. Strictly speaking, "Aborigine" is the noun and "Aboriginal" the adjectival form; however the latter is often also employed to stand as a noun. Note that the use of "Aborigine(s)" or "Aboriginal(s)" in this sense, i.e. as a noun, has acquired negative, even derogatory connotations among some sectors of the community, who regard it as insensitive, and even offensive.
[3] The more acceptable and correct expression is "Aboriginal Australians" or "Aboriginal people", though even this is sometimes regarded as an expression to be avoided because of its historical associations with colonialism. "Indigenous Australians" has found increasing acceptance, particularly since the 1980s.
Torres Strait Islanders
The
Torres Strait Islanders possess a heritage and cultural history distinct from Aboriginal traditions; the eastern Torres Strait Islanders in particular are related to the Papuan peoples of
New Guinea, and speak a
Papuan language. Accordingly, they are not generally included under the designation "Aboriginal Australians." This has been another factor in the promotion of the more inclusive term "Indigenous Australians".
Languages
Main articles: Australian Aboriginal languages,
Australian Aboriginal sign languages
The
indigenous languages of mainland Australia and Tasmania have not been shown to be related to any languages outside Australia. In the late 18th century, there were anywhere between 350 and 750 distinct groupings and a similar number of languages and dialects. At the start of the 21st century, fewer than 200 Indigenous Australian languages remain in use and all but about 20 of these are highly endangered. Linguists classify mainland Australian languages into two distinct groups, the
Pama-Nyungan languages and the non-Pama Nyungan. The Pama-Nyungan languages comprise the majority, covering most of Australia, and is a family of related languages. In the north, stretching from the Western
Kimberley to the
Gulf of Carpentaria, are found a number of groups of languages which have not been shown to be related to the Pama-Nyungan family or to each other: these are known as the non-Pama-Nyungan languages. While it has sometimes proven difficult to work out familial relationships within the Pama-Nyungan language family many Australianist linguists feel there has been substantial success.
[4] Against this some linguists, such as
R. M. W. Dixon, suggest that the Pama-Nyungan group, and indeed the entire Australian linguistic area, is rather a ''
sprachbund'', or group of languages having very long and intimate contact, rather than a typical linguistic phylum.
[5]
Given their long occupation of Australia, it has been suggested that Aboriginal languages form one specific sub-grouping. Certainly, similarities in the
phoneme set of Aboriginal languages throughout the continent is suggestive of a common origin. A common feature of many Australian languages is that they display so-called mother-in-law languages, special speech registers used only in the presence of certain close relatives. The position of Tasmanian languages is unknown, and it is also unknown whether they comprised one or more than one specific language family, as only a few poor-quality word-lists have survived the impact of colonisation and social dislocation.
History
Main articles: History of Indigenous Australians,
Prehistory of Australia
A 19th century engraving of an Indigenous Australian encampment, showing the indigenous mode of life in the cooler parts of Australia at the time of European settlement.
The general
consensus among scholars for the arrival of humans in Australia is placed at 40,000 to 50,000 years ago with a possible range of up to 70,000 years ago though not as widely supported. At the time of first European contact, it is estimated that a minimum of 315,000 and as many as 1 million people lived in Australia. The mode of life and material cultures varied greatly from region to region. The greatest
population density was to be found in the southern and eastern regions of the continent, the
Murray River valley in particular.
British colonisation of Australia began in
Sydney in
1788. The most immediate consequence of British settlement - within weeks of the first colonists' arrival - was a wave of
Old World epidemic diseases.
Smallpox alone had killed more than 50% of the Aboriginal population.
[6][7] The second consequence of British settlement was appropriation of land and water resources. The combination of
disease, loss of land and direct violence reduced the Aboriginal population by an estimated 90% between
1788 and
1900.
A wave of massacres and resistance followed the frontier of British settlement. By the 1870s all the fertile areas of Australia had been appropriated, and indigenous communities reduced to impoverished remnants living either on the fringes of Australian communities or on lands considered unsuitable for settlement. Many indigenous people adapted to European culture, working as stock hands or labourers. With the exception of a few in the remote interior, all surviving indigenous communities gradually became dependent on the settler population for their livelihood. By the early 20th century the indigenous population had declined to between 50,000 and 90,000.
Commonwealth legislation in
1962 specifically gave Aborigines the right to vote in Commonwealth elections.
The
1967 referendum allowed the Commonwealth to make laws with respect to Aboriginal people, and for Aboriginal people to be included when the country does a count to determine electoral representation. In the 1971 controversial
Gove land rights case, Justice Blackburn ruled that Australia had been
terra nullius before British settlement, and that no concept of
native title existed in Australian law. In
1972, the
Aboriginal Tent Embassy was established on the steps of
Parliament House in
Canberra. In
1992, the Australian High Court handed down its decision in the
Mabo Case, declaring the previous legal concept of ''
terra nullius'' to be invalid. In
2004, the Australian Government abolished The
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (
ATSIC), which had been Australia's peak indigenous organisation.
Culture
Main articles: Indigenous Australian culture
There are a large number of
tribal divisions and
language groups in Aboriginal
Australia, and, corresponding to this, a wide variety of diversity exists within cultural practices. However, there are some similarities between cultures.
Belief systems
Main articles: Indigenous Australian mythology,
Dreamtime,
Dreaming,
Religious demography among Indigenous Australians is not conclusive because of flaws in the census. See
Indigenous Australian culture. This 1996 census reported that almost 72 percent of Aborigines practised some form of Christianity, and 16 percent listed no religion. The 2001 census contained no comparable updated data.
[8]There has also been an increase in the growth of Islam among the Indigenous Australian community.
[9] This growing community has also seen high profile members such as the boxer,
Anthony Mundine. (See
Islam in Australia).
''In the world's oldest continent the creative epoch known as the
Dreamtime stretches back into a remote era in history when the creator ancestors known as the First Peoples travelled across the great southern land of ''Bandaiyan'' (Australia), creating and naming as they went.
[10]
Indigenous Australia's
oral tradition and spiritual values are based upon reverence for the land and a belief in this
Dreamtime. The Dreaming is at once both the ancient time of creation and the present day reality of Dreaming. There were a great many different groups, each with their own individual culture, belief structure, and language. These cultures overlapped to a greater or lesser extent, and evolved over time. Major Ancestral spirits include the
Rainbow Serpent,
Baiame, and
Bunjil. The
Yowie and
Bunyip are also well known Ancestral beings.
One version of the Dreaming story runs as follows:
''The whole world was asleep. Everything was quiet, nothing moved, nothing grew. The animals slept under the earth. One day the rainbow snake woke up and crawled to the surface of the earth. She pushed everything aside that was in her way. She wandered through the whole country and when she was tired she coiled up and slept. So she left her tracks. After she had been everywhere she went back and called the frogs. When they came out their tubby stomachs were full of water. The rainbow snake tickled them and the frogs laughed. The water poured out of their mouths and filled the tracks of the rainbow snake. That's how rivers and lakes were created. Then grass and trees began to grow and the earth filled with life.''
Music
Main articles: Indigenous Australian music
Aboriginal people developed unique instruments and folk styles. The 'yirdaki' or
didgeridoo is commonly considered the national instrument of Aboriginal people, and it is claimed to be the world's oldest wind instrument. However, it was traditionally only played by
Arnhem Land people, such as the
Yolngu, and then only by the men. It has possibly been used by the people of the
Kakadu region for 1500 years.
Clapping sticks are probably the more ubiquitous musical instrument, especially because they help maintain the rhythm for the song. Much contemporary Aboriginal music is predominantly of the
country music genre. Most indigenous radio stations - particularly in metropolitan areas - serve a double purpose as the local country music station. An example is 4AAA in
Brisbane. More recently,
Indigenous Australian musicians have branched into
rock and roll, hip hop and reggae. One of the most well known modern bands is
Yothu Yindi playing in a style which has been called
Aboriginal rock.
Art
Aboriginal memorial at the
NGA
Australia has a tradition of Aboriginal art which is thousands of years old, the best known forms being rock art and
bark painting. These paintings usually consist of paint using earthly colours, specifically, from paint made from ochre. Traditionally, Aboriginals have painted stories from their dreamtime.
Modern Aboriginal artists continue the tradition using modern materials in their artworks. Aboriginal art is the most internationally recognisable form of Australian art. Several styles of Aboriginal art have developed in modern times including the watercolour paintings of
Albert Namatjira; the
Hermannsburg School, and the acrylic
Papunya Tula "dot art" movement. Painting is a large source of income for some Central Australian communities such as at
Yuendumu today.
Poetry
Australian Aboriginal poetry is found throughout Australia. It ranges from the sacred to the every day. Ronald M Berndt has published traditional Aboriginal song-poetry in his book "Three Faces of Love", Nelson 1976. R.M.W. Dixon and M. Duwell have published two books dealing with sacred and every day poetry- "The Honey Ant men's love song" and "Little Eva at Moonlight Creek", University of Queensland Press, 1994, There is also a collection of poetry called
Quinkin: erotic poems from the Australian Aborigines
Traditional recreation
The Djabwurrung and Jardwadjali people of western Victoria once participated in the traditional game of
Marn Grook, a type of
football played with
possum hide.
The game is believed by some to have inspired
Tom Wills, inventor of the code of
Australian rules football, a popular Australian winter sport. Similarities between Marn Grook and Australian football include the unique skill of jumping to catch the ball or high "marking", which results in a free kick. The word "mark" may have originated in "mumarki", which is "an Aboriginal word meaning catch" in a dialect of a Marn Grook playing tribe.
Indeed, Aussie Rules has seen many indigenous players at elite football, and have produced some of the most exciting and skillful to play the modern game. Approximately one in ten AFL players are of indigenous origin.
[11]
The contribution the Aboriginal people have made to the game is recognised by the annual AFL "Dreamtime at the 'G" match at the
Melbourne Cricket Ground between
Essendon and
Richmond football clubs (the colours of the two clubs combine to form the colours of the
Aboriginal flag, and many great players have come from these clubs, including Essendon's
Michael Long and Richmond's
Maurice Rioli).
Testifying to this abundance of indigenous talent, the
Aboriginal All-Stars are an AFL-level all-Aboriginal football side competes against any one of the
Australian Football League's current football teams in pre-season tests.
The
Clontarf Foundation and football academy is just one organisation aimed at further developing aboriginal football talent. The
Tiwi Bombers began playing in the
Northern Territory Football League and became the first and only all-Aboriginal side to compete in a major Australian competition.
Issues facing Indigenous Australians today
The Indigenous Australian population is a mostly urbanised demographic, but a substantial number (27%
[Australian Bureau of Statistics]) live in remote settlements often located on the site of former church
missions. The health and economic difficulties facing both groups are substantial. Both the remote and urban populations have adverse ratings on a number of social indicators, including health, education, unemployment, poverty and crime.
[Australian Bureau of Statistics. Year Book Australia 2005] In 2004 Prime Minister
John Howard initiated contracts with Aboriginal communities, where substantial financial benefits are available in return for commitments such as ensuring children wash regularly and attend school. These contracts are known as Shared Responsibility Agreements. This sees a political shift from 'self determination' for Aboriginal communities to 'mutual obligation'
[Mutual obligation, shared responsibility agreements & indigenous health strategy, Ian PS Anderson [2]], which has been criticised as a "paternalistic and dictatorial arrangement"
[Nothing mutual about denying Aborigines a voice, Larissa Behrendt, The Age newspaper, December 8, 2004 [3]].
Health
In 2002 data collected on health status reported that Indigenous Australians were twice as likely as non-indigenous people to report their health as fair/poor and one-and-a-half times more likely to have a disability or long-term health condition (after adjusting for demographic structures).
[Australian Bureau of Statistics. [4]] In 1996-2001, the life expectancy of an Indigenous Australian was 59.4 years for males and, in 2004-05, 65.0 years for females
[ The health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women: A snapshot, 2004-05 ], approximately 17 years lower than the Australian average.
[Australian Bureau of Statistics. [5]]
Health problems with the highest disparity (compared with the non-Indigenous population) in incidence are circulatory system diseases (5-10-fold increase in rheumatic heart disease and hypertensive disease, 2-fold increase in other heart disease, 3-fold increase in death from circulatory system disorders, 24% of total indigenous deaths), type 2 diabetes (11% incidence in Indigenous Australians, 3% in non-indigenous population, 10-20-fold increase in death rate from diabetes, 18% of total indigenous deaths), chronic kidney disease (2-3-fold increase in listing on the dialysis and transplant registry, up to 30-fold increase in end stage renal disease, 8-fold increase in death rates from kidney disease, 2.5% of total indigenous deaths), cancer (60% increased death rate), respiratory disease (3-4-fold increased death rate, 8% of total indigenous deaths), communicable diseases (10-fold increase in TB, HBV and HCV, 20-fold increase in Chlamydia, 40-fold increase in Shigellosis and Syphilis, 70-fold increase in Gonococcal infection), injury (3-fold increase in fatality, of Indigenous fatal injuries 24% are from suicide, 26% from transport and 17% from assault), vision problems (2-fold increase in cataracts), oral health (2-fold increase in children with dental decay) and mental health (5-fold increase in drug-induce mental disorders, 2-fold increase in schizophrenia, 2-3-fold increase in suicide, 3-fold increase in death rate).
[Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. [6]] Each of these indicators is expected to underestimate the true prevalence of disease in the Indigenous population, due to reduced levels of diagnosis.
[Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. [7]]
The following factors have been at least partially implicated in the racial inequality in life expectancy:
[Australian Bureau of Statistics.][Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. [8]]
★ poverty (low income)
★ poor education
★ substance abuse (smoking, alcohol, illicit drugs)
★ for remote communities poor access to health services including immunisation
★ for urbanised Indigenous Australians, social pressures which prevent access to health services
★ cultural differences resulting in poor communication between Indigenous Australians and health workers.
★ exposure to violence
Additional problems are created by the reluctance of many rural indigenous people to leave their homelands to access medical treatment in larger urban areas, particularly when they have need for on-going treatments such as dialysis.[Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. [9]]
Successive Federal Governments have responded to the problem by implementing programs such as the Office of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health (OATSIH). There have been some small successes, such as the reduction of infant mortality since the 1970s (down to twice the non-Indigenous levels in 1996-2001),[Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. [10]] effected by bringing health services into indigenous communities, but on the whole the problem remains unsolved.
Education
Indigenous students as a group leave school earlier, and live with a lower standard of education, compared with their non-indigenous peers. Although the situation is slowly improving (with significant gains between 1994 and 2004),[Australian Bureau of Statistics. [11]] both the levels of participation in education and training among Indigenous Australians and their levels of attainment remain well below those of non-Indigenous Australians.
★ 39% of indigenous students stayed on to year 12 at high school, compared with 75% for the Australian population as a whole. ABS
★ 22% of indigenous adults had a vocational or higher education qualification, compared with 48% for the Australian population as a whole. ABS
★ 4% of Indigenous Australians held a bachelor degree or higher, compared with 21% for the population as a whole. While this fraction is increasing, it is increasing at a slower rate than that for non-Indigenous Australians. ABS
In response to this problem, the Commonwealth Government formulated a National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Policy. A number of government initiatives have resulted, some of which are listed by the Commonwealth Government's Indigenous Education page.
Crime
An Indigenous Australian is 11 times more likely to be in prison than a non-Indigenous Australian, and in June 2004, 21% of prisoners in Australia were Indigenous. [12] This over-representation of Indigenous Australians in prisons was drawn to public attention by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody.
Violent crime, including domestic and sexual abuse, is a problem in many communities. Indigenous Australians are twice as likely to be a victim of violence than non-Indigenous Australians,
An estimated three in five children have suffered some kind of sexual abuse in the southeast Queensland Aboriginal community of Cherbourg [13]. In May, 2006, Alice Springs crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers publicly declared child sexual abuse in Aboriginal communities a "National problem".[14] Australia-wide, Indigenous Australian children are 20-fold overrepresented in the juvenile corrective service[Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. [12]] and 20-fold more likely to be involved in child abuse and neglect cases.[Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. [13]]
Unemployment and housing
According to the 2001 Census, an Indigenous Australian is almost three times more likely to be unemployed (20.0% unemployment) than a non-Indigenous Australian (7.6%). The difference is not solely due to the increased proportion of Indigenous Australians living in rural communities, for unemployment is higher in Indigenous Australian populations living in urban centres (Source: ABS). The average household income for Indigenous Australian populations is 60% of the non-Indigenous average.[Australian Bureau of Statistics. [14]]. Indigenous Australians are 6-fold more likely to be homeless, 15-fold more likely to be living in improvised dwellings, and 25-fold more likely to be living with 10 or more people.[Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. [15]]
Substance abuse
Signpost outside
Yirrkala, NT, where kava has been introduced as a safer alternative to alcohol
A number of Indigenous communities suffer from a range of health and social problems associated with substance abuse of both legal and illegal drugs.
Alcohol consumption within certain Indigenous communities is seen as a significant issue, as are the domestic violence and associated issues resulting from the behaviour. A large 2004-05 health survey by the ABS found that the proportion of the Indigenous adult population engaged in 'risky' and 'high-risk' alcohol consumption (15%) was comparable with that of the non-Indigenous population (14%), based on age-standardised data.[15]
One study[16] by the Australian National Commission on Drugs (ANCD) published in 2002 attributes the "public misperception of high alcohol use [in indigenous communities]" to "the disproportionate level of harm caused (to the individual and community) by those drinking at very high levels in public" (ANCD 2002:p.2). Even so, other studies have indicated that those in the Indigenous communities who do drink excessively are at greater risk of harm (to themselves and others) than similar-level alcohol consumers in the wider population[17]
To combat the problem, a number of programs to prevent or mitigate against alcohol abuse have been attempted in different regions, many initiated from within the communities themselves. These strategies include such actions as the declaration of "Dry Zones" within indigenous communities, prohibition and restriction on point-of-sale access, and community policing and licensing. Some communities (particularly in the Northern Territory) have introduced kava as a safer alternative to alcohol, as over-indulgence in kava produces sleepiness, in contrast to the violence that can result from over-indulgence in alcohol. These and other measures have met with variable success, and while a number of communities have seen decreases in associated social problems caused by excessive drinking, others continue to struggle with the issue and it remains an ongoing concern. The ANCD study notes that in order to be effective, programs in general need also to address "...the underlying structural determinants that have a significant impact on alcohol and drug misuse" (''Op. cit.'', p.26).
Petrol sniffing is also a problem among some remote Indigenous communities. Petrol vapour produces euphoria and dulling effect in those who inhale it, and due to its relatively low price and widespread availability, is an increasingly popular substance of abuse. Proposed solutions to the problem are a topic of heated debate among politicians and the community at large.[18][19]
In 2005 a new fuel Opal began to be rolled out across the Northern Territory to combat the problem. Opal fuel does not give the 'high' that regular fuel does.[20]
Kava is now banned in the Northern Territory http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/23/2012707.htm?site=darwin
Political representation
Indigenous Australians gained the right to vote in Federal elections in 1965, but it was not until 1967 that they were counted in the distribution of electoral seats and the Australian government gained the power to legislate for Aborigines. Only two Indigenous Australians have been elected to the Australian Parliament, Neville Bonner (1971-1983) and Aden Ridgeway (1999-2005). There are currently no elected Indigenous Australians in the Australian Parliament.
ATSIC, the representative body of Aborigine and Torres Strait Islanders, was disbanded and replaced by a network of 30 Indigenous Coordination Centres that administer Shared Responsibility Agreements and Regional Partnership Agreements with Aboriginal communities at a local level.[21]
Mainland Australia
Groups and communities
Main articles: List of Indigenous Australian group names, Australian Aboriginal kinship, Australian Aboriginal language
Throughout the history of the continent, there have been many different Aboriginal groups, each with their own individual language, culture, and belief structure.
At the time of British settlement there were over 200 distinct languages.
There are an indeterminate number of indigenous communities, comprised of several hundred groupings.
Some communities, cultures or groups may be inclusive of others and alter or overlap; significant changes have occurred in the generations after colonisation.
The word 'community' is often used to describe groups identifying by kinship, language or belonging to a particular place or 'country'.
A community may draw on separate cultural values and individuals can conceivably belong to a number of communities within Australia, identification within them may be adopted or rejected.
An individual community may identify itself by many names, each of which can have alternate English spellings. The largest Aboriginal communities, the Pitjantjatjara, the Arrernte, the Luritja and the Warlpiri are all from Central Australia.
Tiwi Islands and Groote Eylandt
Main articles: Tiwi Islands, Groote Eylandt
The Tiwi islands are inhabited by the Tiwi, an Aboriginal people culturally and linguistically distinct from those of Arnhem Land on the mainland just across the water. They number around 2,500. Groote Eylandt belongs to the Anindilyakwa Aboriginal people, and is part of the Arnhem Land Aboriginal Reserve.
Tasmania
Fanny Cochrane Smith
The Tasmanian Aborigines are thought to have first crossed into Tasmania approximately 40,000 years ago via a land bridge between the island and the rest of mainland Australia during an ice age. The original population, estimated at 8,000 people was reduced to a population of around 300 between 1803 and 1833 often due to the actions of British settlers. Almost all of the Tasmanian Aboriginal peoples today are descendants of two women: Fanny Cochrane Smith and Dolly Dalrymple. A woman named Truganini, who died in 1876, is generally considered to be the last first-generation tribal Tasmanian Aborigine.
This conflict is a subject of the Australian history wars, the 2002 publication of ''The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, Volume One: Van Diemen's Land 1803-1847'' by Keith Windschuttle,[22] questioned the historical evidence used to identify the actual number of Aborigines killed stating that it was exaggerated and challenged what is labelled the "Black armband view of history" of Tasmanian colonisation. [16] After years of research, though only using officially-recorded deaths, Keith Windschuttle speculated that only 118 Tasmanian Aborigines had been killed in the whole period between 1803, when British settlement began, and 1847, when the frontier nature of Tasmanian society ended. Most Tasmanian Aboriginal deaths were the result of virulent diseases to which the natives had no immunity (including syphilis) and alcoholism.[''Historian dismisses Tasmanian aboriginal genocide "myth"'',PM show, ABC Local Radio, 12 December,2002. Transcript accessed 22 June 2007. ] His argument has been challenged by a number of authors, for example see "Contra Windschuttle" by S.G. Foster in ''Quadrant'', March 2003, 47:3.[23]
Torres Strait Islanders
Main articles: Torres Strait Islanders
6% of Indigenous Australians identify themselves as fully as Torres Strait Islanders. A further 4% of Indigenous Australians identify themselves as having both Torres Strait Islanders and Aboriginal heritage.[24]
More than 100 islands make up the Torres Strait Islands where they come from.[25] There are 6,800 Torres Strait Islanders who live in the area of the Torres Strait, and 42,000 others who live outside of this area, mostly in the north of Queensland, such as in the coastal cities of Townsville and Cairns. Many organisations to do with Indigenous people in Australia are named "Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander", showing the importance of Torres Strait Islanders in Australia's indigenous population. The islands were annexed by Queensland in 1879.
Eddie Mabo is from Murray Island in the Torres Strait, which the famous Mabo decision of 1992 involved.
Population
The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics 2005 snapshot of Australia shows the indigenous population has grown at twice the rate of the overall population since 1996 when the indigenous population stood at 283,000. As at June 2001, the Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated the total resident indigenous population to be 458,520 (2.4% of Australia's total), 90% of whom identified as Aboriginal, 6% Torres Strait Islander and the remaining 4% being of dual Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parentage. The proportion of indigenous adults married (de facto or de jure) to non-indigenous spouses was 69%, up from 46% in 1986, and the majority of Aborigines are now of mixed descent. Much of the increase since 1996 can be attributed to higher rates of people identifying themselves as Aborigines and changed definitions of aboriginality.
The preliminary census of Indigenous estimated resident population of Australia, at 30 June 2006, is 517,200.[26]
In the 2001 census the Aboriginal population in different States was:
★ New South Wales - 134,888
★ Queensland - 125,910
★ Western Australia - 65,931
★ Northern Territory - 56,875
★ Victoria - 27,846
★ South Australia - 25,544
★ Tasmania - 17,384
★ ACT - 3,909
★ Other Territories - 233
While the State with the largest total Aboriginal population is New South Wales, as a percentage this constitutes only 2.1% of the overall population of the State. The Northern Territory has the largest Aboriginal population in percentage terms for a State or Territory, with 28.8%. All the other States and Territories have less than 4% of their total populations identifying as Aboriginal; Victoria has the lowest percentage (0.6%).
The vast majority of Aboriginal people do not live in separate communities away from the rest of the Australian population: in 2001 about 30% were living in major cities and another 43% in or close to rural towns, an increase from the 46% living in urban areas in 1971. The populations in the eastern states are more likely to be urbanised sometimes in city communities such as at Redfern in Sydney, whereas many of the populations of the western states live in remote areas, closer to a traditional Aboriginal way of life.
Prominent Indigenous Australians
Main articles: Prominent Indigenous Australians
There have been many distinguished Indigenous Australians, in politics, sports, the arts and other areas. These include (in alphabetical order):
★ Adam Goodes, dual Brownlow medalist
★ Gavin Wanganeen, Brownlow medalist
★ Arthur Beetson, former captain of the Australian national rugby league team
★ Neville Bonner, politician
★ Ernie Dingo, comedian, actor and presenter
★ Mark Ella, rugby union player
★ Cathy Freeman, Olympic athlete
★ Evonne Goolagong, tennis Grand Slam winner
★ David Gulpilil, actor
★ Albert Namatjira, painter
★ Sir Douglas Nicholls, Australian rules footballer, clergyman and Governor of South Australia,
★ Oodgeroo Noonuccal, poet, author, playwright, civil rights activist, educator
★ Lowitja O'Donoghue, nurse and activist
★ Johnathan Thurston, rugby league player
★ Charles Perkins, soccer player, sports administrator and civil rights activist
★ Mandawuy Yunupingu, singer and songwriter
★ Kurtley Beale, rugby union player
See also
References
1. Chris Gibson, Peter Dunbar-Hall, ''Deadly Sounds, Deadly Places: Contemporary Aboriginal Music in Australia'', pp. 120-121 (UNSW Press, 2005)
2. Originally used by the Romans to denote the (mythical) indigenous people of ancient Italy; see Sallust, ''Bellum Catilinae'', ch. 6.
3. UNSW guide on How to avoid Discriminatory Treatment on Racial of Ethnic Grounds
4. Bowern, Claire and Harold Koch (eds.). 2004. ''Australian Languages: Classification and the comparative method''. John Benjamins, Sydney.
5. Dixon, R.M.W. 1997. ''The Rise and Fall of Languages''. CUP.
6. Smallpox Through History
7. [http://www.ahc.org.au/history/history.html BC [Before Cook] and Colonisation]
8. Australian Bureau of Statistics - Religion
9. Aborigines turn to Islam
10. Andrews, M. (2004) 'The Seven Sisters', Spinifex Press, North Melbourne, p. 424
11. [1]
12. 4102.0 - Australian Social Trends, 2005: Crime and Justice: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People: Contact with the Law ABS
13. Women act after three in five kids abused
14. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19164035-601,00.html
15. The percentage-point difference between the two figures quoted is not statistically significant, and a similar result was obtained in the earlier 2000-01 survey. The definition of "risky" and "high-risk" consumption used is 4 or more standard drinks per day average for males, 2 or more for females.
16.
17. , p.32 ''et. seq.''
18. Effects of sniffing petrol Northern Territory Government Health Department
19. Petrol Sniffing in Remote Northern Territory Communities Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
20. Australian Health Ministry
21.
22. ''The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, Volume One: Van Diemen's Land 1803-1847'', Keith Windschuttle, 2002, ISBN 1-876492-05-8
23. "Contra Windschuttle", S.G. Foster ''Quadrant'', March 2003, 47:3 [17]
24. ''Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population'', Australian Bureau of Statistics 2004. Accessed 21 June2007.
25. ''Places - Torres Strait Islands'' ABC Radio Australia website, 2005. Accessed 21 June2007.
26. POPULATION DISTRIBUTION, ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER AUSTRALIANS Australian Bureau of Statistics 15 AUG 2007 pdf.
Further reading
★ Jamison, T. ''The Australian Aboriginal People: Dating the Colonization of Australia''
External links
★ Aborigines win 'native title' over Perth
★ Australia's largest circulating Indigenous Affairs Newspaper
★ Latest Indigenous news from ABC News Online
★ Indigenous Australians - State Library of NSW
★ Aboriginal Studies Virtual Library
★ Department of Indigenous Affairs (Australian Government)
★ European Network for Indigenous Australian Rights
★ Indigenous Australia - Australian Museum educational site
★ KooriWeb
★ Norman B. Tindale's Catalogue of Aboriginal Tribes
★ Reconciliation Australia
★ Australia worst in the world for indigenous health
★ Law and justice statistics - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people: a snapshot, 2002 Australian Bureau of Statistics
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