Indigenous People: Aboriginals And Torres Strait Islanders

Describe and explain Australian Indigenous people’s historical and contemporary connections to land and sea and the resources derived from them. How have settler discourses associated with colonization affected these connections to country?

Aboriginals or indigenous Australians are the native people of Australia. Aboriginals were nomadic people who came to Australia about 40,000 – 60,000 years ago from Southeast Asia. Religion is a great part of Aboriginal culture. The essay answers these questions: What do Aboriginals belief? What is a Kinship system? What is Dreaming and Dreamtime? What rituals does Aboriginals have?

Archaeologists believe that aboriginals first came to Australia about 45, 000 years ago and were the only population of humans in Australia until the British invasion. There are about 500 different aboriginal groups each with their own language and territory and usually made up of several separate clans. The aboriginals of Australia are marginalised in today society. This marginalisation began right back during the British invasion where they were evicted from their own country, the stolen generation occurred and their health care, education, employment and housing was severely limited. Aboriginals generally live in poor conditions and choose unhealthy lifestyle choices

To begin with, a clarification must be made. Although for the purposes of this assessment I will be using the term Indigenous Australians, it is not the most appropriate term to be using, as the technical definition of indigenous is ‘originating or occurring naturally in a particular place; native’ (‘Indigenous’, 1987). The more correct term would be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander.

The Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander people are Australia’s first people. They’re the Indigenous and traditional owners of our beautiful land. However, until the last few decades, this hasn’t always been recognised. The Indigenous people of Australia have faced colonization, oppression, the Stolen Generation, and all kinds of disrespect to their cultural heritage.

The term ‘Native Title’ refers to the right of Indigenous people to their traditional land. In Australia it has a legal significance of the right to an area of land, claimed by people whose ancestors were the original inhabitants of the land before European settlement. Also who can prove that they have had a continuous connection with the land. Native Title is the term given by the High Court to Indigenous land rights by the Court in Mabo and others v State of Queensland (No.2) [1992] HCA 23. The case required

a person who is accepted by the Aboriginal community in which he or she lives

One of the great untold truths of Australian history has been the courageous contribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to the Australian Defence Force. For decades this contribution was unacknowledged and their sacrifices were unmentioned at official ceremonies.” Alistair Nicholson, Reconciliation Australia (2014).

Aboriginals concept of land is different compared to the Europeans view of land being an economic resource or investment, but to indigenous land is so much more, it is a part of their identity and soul. But when settlers came they classified the land as terra nullius which is Latin term for “land belonging to no one”. soon enough aboriginals had no control over their land or even their own properties until the 1900s where aboriginals fought for the land but didn’t receive anything but small victories in the 1970s until a

It is then imperative to recognise that Aboriginality is not just about skin colour, physicality, culture or land. For some, Aboriginal identity may simply be a sense of self, community and belonging, which may or may not be accompanied by knowledge of land, language, or particular physical traits.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have faced disadvantages in various areas, particularly housing. The disadvantages these people face now are the result of policies introduced by the European settlers, then the government. The policies introduced were protection, assimilation, integration and self-determination. It is hard to understand the housing disadvantages faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people if their history is not known.

Profile of indigenous people in Australia: The Aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islanders are the indigenous populations of Australia and they consist of hundreds of different sub-groups, each having their own distinct languages, history and cultures. They are spread out across Australia in urban areas, remote villages, outskirts of the central desert and most tropical regions. The Australian Government identifies indigenous people as being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Island origins and the indigenous people identify themselves as such or of both origins. The estimate population of indigenous people is around 670,000 across Australia, which consists of about 3 percent of the total population of Australia, as of 2011 according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. About 90% of the indigenous people identify themselves as Aboriginals, while just 6% identify as Torres Strait Islanders and the remaining 4% as both. The indigenous population is much younger as compared to the non-indigenous population, mainly because of the high death rates correspondingly high birth rates. The fertility among indigenous

Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people can be respectfully referred to by the following terms:

- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples inhabited the land of Australia for many thousands of years

Indigenous people are those that are native to an area. Throughout the world, there are many groups or tribes of people that have been taken over by the Europeans in their early conquests throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, by immigrating groups of individuals, and by greedy corporate businesses trying to take their land. The people indigenous to Australia, Brazil and South America, and Hawaii are currently fighting for their rights as people: the rights to own land, to be free from prejudice, and to have their lands protected from society.