Aborigines in Australia

The immigration

The Aborigines have the longest cultural history in the world, with origins dating back to the last Ice Age. The first humans travelled across the sea from Indonesia over a landbridge to Australia and Tasmania, about 70,000 years ago. The next immigration followed 20,000 years later. The members of this group which had spread over the western part of Australia are the Aborigines' ancestors. The whole continent was colonised within a few thousand years. When the Europeans came to Australia in the 18^th century, they found about 750,000 "primitive" natives, as they called them, who seemed to live there as in the Stone Age.

Life

The Aborigines did not have agriculture and did not learn how to tame animals. They therefore had to live from what nature gave them. Hunting was therefore the only thing which they could do to get food. The men hunted animals such as kangaroos, snakes and emus. The women caught smaller animals and picked fruits, honey and seeds. They dug with graving tools for edible roots. The Aborigines had to walk around very much. Therefore they only carried the items they really needed with them: e. g. a spear, a boomerang, a wooden shild, a bag, wooden bowls, grindstones, graving tools and their cult objects (for example their famous paintings on barks).

Social organisation

Approximatly 500 various tribes existed. Each had their own territory, dialect or language. The leadership, if we can talk of a leadership, consisted of some of the oldest men of the tribe. When the Europeans came they could not find any uniform language, because after the immigration the Aborigines dispersed very much.

Appearance, looks

Their appearance varies within the different tribes. Generally they have a small figure and long thin legs. The skin is brown and different from Blacks' and Indonesians'. The head is small, the face is flat and the noses are wide. The hair is developed on all parts of the body. On the head it is long, black and wavy.

Why the Aborigines seem to look primative

Their sophisticated usage , their view of life and their philosophical-religious philosophy of life is not real primitive. There are other reasons, why the Aborigines live so close to nature. The most important reason may be that the Australian native sees nature as a process of spiritual power from their forefathers. It is therefore not allowed to interfere with sowing or plants. The forefathers walked over the same paths and ground as the Aborigines today. Therefore, one could explain the deep connections on their ground and territory.

Religion

The Aborigines say it had been the "Creation Ancestors" (animal and human) who created the landscape and the first people. When this creatures disappeared, they left their spirits in the mountains and rocks. The laws are for the Aborigines made by the Creation Ancestors. They turned animals or plants, which did not obey that law, into stones. The hills and mountains were made in that way. Some plants and animals were rewarded for obeying the laws and were made into people. Specific traditions, rituals, laws and art link the people of each clan to the land they occupy. All clans have places to which their spirits return when they die. The Aborigines believe that to destroy or damage a sacred site threatens not only the living but also the spiritual inhabitants of the land.

Totemism

The links between the Aborigines and their ancestors are called "totem". Every individual has his own own totem. The Australian native feels a relation between himself and a specific plant or animal or a cosmical phenomenon. This connection is very important and he must obey a great deal of of rights, duties and prohibitions. An example for the importance of totems is that totem groups determine the relation system and marriage. The totem groups celebrate various ceremonies. There are people or groups from different tribes which have the same totem and feel therefore related. As a result the Aborigines have a uniform culture, although they speak different languages.

Way of life: Childhood

When a mother gives birth to her baby, the father is not allowed to be there. In some tribes, the father asks a "message stick" for the sex of the baby. If the stick is long, it is a boy and if it is short, it is a girl. A baby does not get its name until it is one year old. Before the naming the Aborigines say the baby is not a real person.

How the Aborigines get grown-up

The boys and girls became men and women between the age of 10 and 15. There is a special ceremony called "initiation." After the girls' ceremony, they are women and therefore ready to get married. One tribe says that when the boys' beards begin to grow, it is yet time for the initiation. His body is painted with earth colours and he must dance around a fire. Then the men circumcise him, break him a teeth with a stone and he gets deep cuts on his chest, back, arms and legs. They put some ash on the wounds, in order that the wounds begin to swell. If there are scars this is the symbol that he now belongs to the tribe. In the end, the young man must drink blood from the oldest man of the tribe. This is the ceremony of "blood brotherhood."

Family life and marriages

The western social structure, with the just-as-you-like-choice of your marriage-partner looks for the Aborigines very primitive. Marriage is more than a contract between parts of different tribes for the Aborigines. A man must choose a woman from another tribe. The daughter of one of the brothers of the mother is preferred in most of the cases. Marriage and relationship are a matter of various rights and commitments. One must obey complicated rules of etiquette after the degree of relationship. A woman usually has more than one husband. The first one is sometimes 30 years older than herself. She is allowed to choose her next husbands on her own after the first. A woman's status is improved by having many children. If she was unable to have any children, she was given a child. The man's status grows too, if he has many wives and children.

Historical events: Early history

Willem Janszoon (Dutch) was the first European on the Australian continent (1605). The north, the west and the south of Australia were discovered in the next years and painted on maps by the Dutch. Their reports about the natives there were not very positive. The last Dutch, Abel Janszoon Tasman, sailed around Australia and discovered Tasmania and New Zealand. James Cook (British) rediscovered New Zealand after one century of silence,explored the east coast of Australia and named it "Newsouthwales". Before the Independence War in America, there had been 500 convicted men and women, which were sent to America annually. Afterwards the government of Britain decided to use Australia for the new penal colony. In the year 1788, a fleet under Captain Philip came with approximately 700 prisoners. They founded Sydney.

The wiping out

There were approximately 750000 Aborigines when Sydney was first settled by the British. The British thought they could take away the land from the natives, because they saw no system of government, no commerce or permanent settlements and no evidence of landownership. The Sydney Cove colony was founded on the legal principle of "terra nullius" - this meant that the land belonged to no one. The settlers were able to take land from the Aborigines. Finally, in 1993, they recognised that the native title had existed before the arrival of the British and the notion of terra nullius was overthrown.

Cruelties, done by the Whites

Many Aborigines were driven away from their land by force and a large number got numerous diseases. The balance between nature and the people was broken down, because many bought alcohol and drugs from the settlers. Sheep and cattle destroyed waterholes and many species disappeared. Whole tribes were massacred when the Aborigines fought back. The survivors were put into reservations and church missions. Many women were raped. Some Europeans saw the Aborigines as wild animals and hunting them was a kind of sport. Full-blood Aborigines in Tasmania were therefore wiped out. There were only 61,000 left in the early thirties of the 20th century.

The History went on

The scientific interest for the Aborigines came. By the early 1900s, the British wanted to segregate and "protect" the Aboriginal people. Employment and property rights were restricted and the state removed children from mothers if the father was non-Aboriginal. The positive side was that full-blood Aborigines living in reservations were protected in some way. The assimilation policy of the 1960s completely controlled the peoples' life. They decided where the Aborigines could live and whom they could marry. The Aborigines were forced to adapt the European culture. The Aborigines became better educated and more organised after WW II. Citizenship was bestowed in 1967. The assimilation policy was replaced by policy of self-determination in 1972.

Life today: The outback

Large parts of the outback are desert. Many Aborigines live there nowadays. Today 200,000 Aborigines live in Australia. They had begun to forget their traditions and culture. Many had become sick and had begun to fight one another, but recent laws made it possible to regain there land. The problems disappeared when they came back to their land and lived there their traditional way of life. They live like before on some of these outstations: The Aborigines collect berries and seeds and they hunt kangaroos and other animals. The children learn more about their culture and language as well as English and mathematics. They are proud of their culture and their life, although they live in very poor houses and water is far away.

The town and its problems

The majority of the Aborigines live in towns. Many live in very bad conditions: Poor houses (slums), illiteracy, low wages, high unemployement rate and infant mortality rate, low life expectancy and alcohol and drugs are widespread proplems. There are racial discrimination and prejudices by the Whites to the Aborigines.

A small warning

Their culture seems to die out under the western culture. I believe it is now our duty to do something against it. I feel it is very important that we learn more about other people, cultures, religions when we study them more. We see that all people are equal and should have the right to live their way of life. We cannot force them to take over our cultur. We must learn from the history and not make the same mistakes.