Ten facts about Aboriginals

1. Aboriginal culture is the world’s most ancient living culture. Australia’s indigenous people, have a continuous history going back at least 50,000 years. Students who want to find out more about Aboriginals should visit local museums or galleries like the Melbourne Museum, or the National Gallery in Canberra.

2. Aboriginal Australia developed as a network of separate, independent “tribes”. At the time of British settlement at Sydney, just over 200 years ago, it is estimated that 300,000 aboriginal people, speaking around 250 languages and 700 dialects inhabited Australia. If members of different tribes would meet, they could often understand their neighbours but not people from other areas.
3. Today only around 20 languages are spoken. Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2008) tell that Australia's Indigenous population has reached half a million people, or 2.5 per cent of the total population.
4. Australian Indigenous art is the oldest art tradition in the world, dating back more than 40,000 years. Initial forms of art were animal images on rocks, body painting and ground designs. Nowadays around the country there are well over 100,000 rock art sites, most of them less than 10,000 years old. In recent years, Aboriginal art has become more widely appreciated, which is reflected in the price. A painting by the late brilliant artist Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, sold in July 2007 for $2.4 million. He had sold it originally for $1,200 in 1977.
5. Music, song and dance are important in Indigenous culture, but not only for pleasure. There are songs for healing the wounded and the sick, injuring the enemy and bringing rain. Songs make up a series or a ‘songline’ which is a map of the country based on the travels of the Dreaming ancestors. Older aboriginal people, seeing a painting or a design will think about a specific song. Many senior painters sing whilst they paint the story of their song. The didgeridoo is possibly the world’s oldest musical instrument, and now known all around the world for its distinct sound. Made from hollow tree trunks and branches, it has become the symbol of Aboriginal music.
6. Aboriginal words commonly used in everyday Australian language are:

• Cooee (cry made to signal one’s presence)
• Willy-willy (sudden circling gust of wind)
• Billabong (water hole)
• Native flora and fauna such as kangaroo, barramundi, and koala.

7. Statistics about social and health circumstances of indigenous people show that Aboriginals are disadvantaged. According to the Australian bureau of statistics, the Indigenous infant mortality rate was almost four times the national rate in 2004 (15.4 deaths per 1000 to 4.69 deaths per 1000 nationally). Indigenous males' life expectation was estimated to be only 59.4 years (2001), while female life expectation was estimated to be 64.8 years. This is well below the 82.0 years and 76.6 years for total females and males. Indigenous peoples’ life expectation appears to be similar to that of people in low development nations as for example: indigenous peoples appear to have a life expectation approximating that of the people of Turkmenistan. Also: Aboriginals are about 15 times more likely to die of violence than average Australians and 25% of Aboriginals reported severe physical (or threatened physical) violence.
8. Following the release of a disturbing report into indigenous child sex abuse in 2007, The Federal Government has declared a national emergency and launched intervention in communities in the Northern Territory, taking control of 60 Aboriginal communities for the next five years. Police and army troops have been sent into communities to restore law and order. Widespread alcohol and pornography bans have been put in place.
9. Aboriginals lived on traditional Aboriginal food – or `bush tucker` for millennia. As Aboriginals did not know any legal possession of land, they did not develop a system of agriculture. However they ate what plants, animals and seafood were available to them. Like nomads, Aboriginal clans would move during winter to more bountiful areas. Favourite food was amongst others: Kangaroo-tales, emu eggs, snakes, lizards and all kind of plants like the Kakadu plums, which have a very high source of vitamin C, about fifty times more than oranges. Some restaurants serve quandongs (native peach), wattle seeds (a nutty, mocha flavour), bunya nuts (perfect for satay sauce) and bush tomatoes.
10. The black top half of the Aboriginal flag symbolises Aboriginal people and the yellow circle represents the sun, the constant `renewer` of life. Red depicts the earth and also represents ochre, which is used by Aboriginal people in ceremonies. The flag was designed by Harold Thomas in 1971 and has been adopted by all Aboriginals. It is flown or displayed at Aboriginal centres throughout Australia.