Who are the
Aborigines?
Aborigines
o Indigenous people of
Australia
o Have occupied Australia
for at least 40,000 years!
o Arrived from Southeast
Asia
o The word aborigines
means “people who were
here from the beginning”
Aborigines
o Developed efficient ways to adapt to the harsh
Australian environment
o Built containers for storing water and built wells to
collect water underground
o They were hunters and gatherers: ate animals,
wild nuts, fruits, and berries.
o They were nomadic--moved from place to place
in search of food
Aborigines
o Archaeologists have found early Aboriginal
inventions:
o Rock art, boomerangs, ground axes, and grindstones
o There is no written record of prehistoric
Aborigines
o Kept their history by telling stories that were
passed down from generation to generation…
Social Structure
o Consisted of a tribe or “language group” of
as many as 500 people
o A tribe included bands called “hordes” of
10 to 20 people
o Hordes joined for daily food gathering and
hunting
Where?
o Settled in the same places as present-day
Australians
o Climate was mild and water was available
o Before Europeans arrived in 1788, around
500,000 Aborigines lived in Australia
Arrival of Europeans
oAborigines lived on Australia’s
coast, which is where the
Europeans wanted to settle
oEuropeans waged war against
the Aborigines in order to take
their land
Advantage of Europeans
1. Guns
2. Soldiers
3. Diseases
oMore than half of the Aborigines in
Australia died
oEntire population died in Tasmania.
What happened to remaining
Aborigines?
1. Forced to live on reservations in the
Outback
2. Forced to work for Europeans on sheep
and cattle ranches
o Laws were made to limit where Aborigines
could live and work.
o The British hoped to end all Aboriginal culture
with their policies.
Aborigines Today…
 300,000 live in Australia today
 In the 1960s, policies were changed to be in favor of
Aborigines
Can hold a seat in Parliament
Can have their own schools which teach their
culture, language, and art
Live modern lives, some are teachers, lawyers,
mechanics, nurses and politicians
Religion -- Dreamtime
o Aboriginal religion is called “Dreamtime”
o “The Dreaming” is what Aborigines call the beginning of
life on Earth
o During the Dreaming, spirits created the land, people, and
animals
o Most of the spirits disappeared, but some live on in objects
o Believe the earth is a link to the spiritual world
o
The land itself is sacred to Aborigines
o Aborigines have Dreamtime legends that describe how the
earth was created…
Stories of the Dreaming
o Let’s watch a few Dreamtime legends:
o Dust Echos
o Mystic Lands