1. Aborigines of Australia

3. About 40,000 years ago, the first people came to Australia from South East Asia. For generations these inhabitants, the Aborigines, lived as hunters and gatherers and were in total harmony with nature and what it
had to
offer.

4. The Aborigines learned to live in the Outback as nomads
The Aborigines learned to live in the Outback as nomads. They had strong religious beliefs about nature and the land. Such beliefs played a key role in their way of life.

5. In the 1600’s, European explorers heard about the mysterious continent that lay south of Asia, and several ships set sail and reached either Australia or New Zealand. British Captain James Cook claimed both Australia and New Zealand for the British.

6. In the late 1700’s, the British Government decided to establish a penal colony in Australia. The white Europeans started a penalty expedition against the Aborigines and they were forced to leave their homes in order not to be killed.

7. Aborigines were gathered in reservations and missionary stations where they were supposed to be offered "protection" when it was really all about segregation and getting rid of them. The consequences of this were that many contracted illnesses that the Europeans had brought with them, such as measles, smallpox, and influenza. Alcoholism was also a reason why the number of the Aborigines so drastically decreased.

9. Australia, which now was a "white" country, did not see the Aborigines as adequate members of society. Therefore, Aboriginal children could not go to school, Aborigines did not have a right to vote, they could not own any land, and they were not counted in THE population census.

10. Missionaries who came to Australia tried to reverse the Aborigines to Christianity, even though the Aborigines already had their beliefs and their religion.

11. THE STOLEN CHILDREN
The British forcibly transferred Aboriginal children between 4 and 7 years old to foster homes and institutions and cut off all family ties. The idea was that after the children had been in a foster home or an institution for a while, they would be able to take their place in society on the same conditions as other Australians. In reality the boys most often became farmers and earned very little, and the girls became nannies or had to work in a white household, often without any salary.

12. In the foster homes and institutions the children were not allowed to speak their own language. The only language accepted was English. A large amount of time was also dedicated to trying to reverse their religion to the Christian belief. The conditions under which the children lived were often poor and the education was often held by non-educated people which resulted in poor education. The children who were placed in private foster homes were totally isolated, in contrary to the children in the institutions, where they at least had each other, and this contributed to the fact that the foster parents in the private foster homes often saw the children as free labor.

13. GOLD!!!
In the mid 1800’s, gold was discovered in Australia and the population soared! Soon, Britain stopped sending convicts to Australia. Some 50 years later, in 1901, Australia would gain its independence.

14. Things began to change when the number of Aborigines started to increase mainly due to a higher number of births and better access to medical care. Aborigines are now reclaiming land, getting positions high in government, and passing laws to improve equality and representation of their people.

15. ABORIGINES TODAY
Today, there are about 200,000 Aborigines that live in Australia. Even though the number of Aborigines who go to and finish school has almost quadrupled, there are still problems with the education. Some problems come from bad home situations, a weak economy, long periods of illnesses, and low self-esteem. Aboriginal children are also being bullied and harassed in school because of their origin - which in turn leads to many of them dropping out of school. Another big problem in the suburbs is that English is the second language for many Aborigines and in Australian schools English is the language of communication.

16. Religion
Even though the Aborigines are very religious, they do not have any priests. Instead it is the oldest man in each tribe who acts the "priest" and who translates the messages he gets from the ancestors and the spiritual world and then passes the messages on to the rest of the tribe. A very important thing for the Aborigines is the expression Dreamtime which was when everything was created; the land, the sea and all living creatures.

17. ABORIGINAL ART
Since the Aborigines did not have a written language they had to communicate and pass on their stories and traditions through their paintings. Aboriginal artworks always contain a story behind them that talk about the history, the land and the creation time Dreamtime. Other stories were also passed on through paintings, such as stories of hunting and animals.

23. The Aborigines also strongly believe that every little thing contains their ancestors' souls; mountains, caves, trees, stones, everything, and that is one of the reasons why the Aborigines, or at least some today, are so in touch with the Earth.

24. DIDGERIDOO
Something the Aborigines are well known for is the didgeridoo. The didgeridoo is a trunk of the eucalyptus tree hollowed out by termites or white ants that eat their way through it. After you have found a suitable piece of hollow wood you have to clean the pipe by drenching it in water for approximately five days. You then strip away the bark from outside and if there are any cracks in the piece of wood you have to fill the cracks with beeswax. The mouthpiece is also made out of beeswax.

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28. As well as the didgeridoo, the boomerang is also a very popular thing to use in Aboriginal art and is a way of passing on stories through paintings. The boomerang is also a very popular sport today and there are several associations over the world.

29. Australian Boomerang

32. The Outback

33. The Aboriginal population is generally twice as likely to live in rural or outback areas than the non-Aboriginal population.

34. Uluru (Ayers Rock)

36. According to Aboriginal legends, in the mythic period of the beginning of the world known as the Dreamtime, ancestral beings in the form of totemic animals and humans emerged from the interior of the Earth and began to wander over the land. As these Dreamtime ancestors roamed the Earth they created features of the landscape through such everyday actions as birth, play, singing, fishing, hunting, marriage, and death. At the end of the Dreamtime, these features hardened into stone, and the bodies of the ancestors turned into hills, boulders, caves, lakes, and other distinctive landforms. These places, such as Uluru (Ayers Rock) became sacred sites.
Totemic - any entity that watches over or assists a group of people

37. ayers rock.asx