Aboriginal People Part 1 - Pre Contact

The Aboriginal People of Australia have a long history on the continent and a complex history post European contact.  Needless to say it is not possible to adequately cover this in a blog.  But it seems to me avoiding the topic would ignore an ever present issue here - like race in America. Yet I am aware that in a short piece I potentially offend or ignore other valid perspectives.  So take this as a snapshot in time of one man's evolving perspective.  While I have consciously left this discussion for the last post to incorporate conversations with locals in different regions (including playing pool with an Elder in the Red Center), internet searches, and books it is not a scholorly research paper.  If interested in this topic I highly recommend "Aboriginal Australians: A History since 1788" by Richard Broome.  

Over the past decades the date of the first humans to arrive in Australia has steadily been pushed back from 20,000 years ago to the recent estimate of 70,000 years ago.  Homo Sapiens appeared in Africa about 200,000 years ago and this migration is the earliest and furthest of our species - before we even settled in Europe.  In fact, the Aboriginal People carry a different pre-Homo Sapien DNA than Europeans, who intermixed with Neanderthals.  Since then, due to isolation by sea rise, they have occupied this continent, along with all the flora and fauna, without other specie contact.  They are the oldest continuous culture in human history! 

Nomadic Aboriginal People in bush.

While referred to as Aboriginal People they did not view themselves collectively. There were over 600,000 people in over 500 mobs (their term for tribes) prior to European contact.  They were also not the Noble Savage of nineteenth century romantic myth.  They warred with each other, practice infanticide, and had customs far from noble and closer to savage.  However, living in this harsh land they adapted to it.  They were a hunter gatherer culture that evolved to put in effort when necessary to eat and survive; but not to expend energy unnecessarily.  

Map identifying Aboriginal Mobs

They developed their culture, rules, sacred sites, rituals, and myths in relation to spirituality, kin, and nature.  This was maintained and passed on in their art, music, and stories through "Dreamtime", that all worldly knowlege is accumulated through ones ancestors.  

Spirit in Rock Art

Elder Graham playing ceremonial diggeridoo and clap sticks

I don't have a full understanding of the meaning of this word, but this is what I generally get. They were nomades and, while having a deep relationship with the land, did not own it in the Western sense.  In this context the Aboriginal People lived in harmony with the land - and "owned" it spiritually.

Next Post:  Aboriginal People Part 2 - Post Contact