The
Indigenous peoples of Australia, that is
Aboriginal Australians
Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands.
Humans first migrated to Australia (co ...
and
Torres Strait Islander people, have strong and complex relationships with the concept of "Country" (often capitalised). In this sense it does not refer to the nation of Australia, but rather different aspects of how the
traditional lands of a particular First Nations group affects their culture, way of seeing the world, and interactions with other people.
Country and identity
Margo Ngawa Neale, senior Indigenous art and history curator at the
National Museum of Australia
The National Museum of Australia (NMA), in the national capital Canberra, preserves and interprets Australia's social history, exploring the key issues, people and events that have shaped the nation. It was formally established by the ''Nation ...
, and author of books explaining Indigenous knowledge, says:
Country is traditionally related to self-identity, and with relation to an individual, describes family origins and associations with particular parts of Australia. For example, a
Gamilaraay
The Gamilaroi, also known as Gomeroi, Kamilaroi, Kamillaroi and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people whose lands extend from New South Wales to southern Queensland. They form one of the four largest Indigenous nations in Austr ...
man, whose traditional lands ("country") lies in south-west
Queensland
Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...
might refer to his country as "Gamilaraay country".
Australian Aboriginal identity
Aboriginal Australian identity, sometimes known as Aboriginality, is the perception of oneself as Aboriginal Australian, or the recognition by others of that identity. Aboriginal Australians are one of two Indigenous Australian groups of peopl ...
often links to their
language groups
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term ''family'' is a metaphor borrowed from biology, with the tree model used in historical linguistics anal ...
and
traditional country of their ancestors.
Connection to Country
Land is of great significance to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, often expressed as "connection to Country". Country can be spoken about as if it is a person, and it implies an interdependent and reciprocal relationship between an individual and the lands and seas of their ancestors. The relationship is enhanced and sustained by the living environment and
cultural knowledge
Cultural heritage is the heritage of tangible and intangible heritage assets of a group or society that is inherited from past generations. Not all heritages of past generations are "heritage"; rather, heritage is a product of selection by socie ...
.
Because everything is connected, animals, trees, rocks, land and sky all deserve respect. Past is connected to present, and there is a sense it is important to acknowledge and respect the country of other peoples, wherever one travels in Australia. The term "on Country", or "on
specific peoplecountry" is often used. Connection to country, "the most fundamental pillar of Indigenous identity", is a difficult concept for non-Indigenous Australians to understand, and disconnection from country has been shown to have an impact on Indigenous peoples' health and well-being.
The connection to country is frequently expressed in
Indigenous art.
,
Gaagudju elder, expressed that it is by “feeling” country that a person is "made" (exists).
woman
Ambelin Kwaymullina:
[ "Country is filled with relations speaking language and following ]Law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...
... Country is family, culture, identity. Country is self."
Aileen Moreton-Robinson, Professor of Indigenous Research at RMIT University
The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (abbreviated as RMIT University) is a public research university located in the city of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia., section 4(b) Established in 1887 by Francis Ormond, it is the seventh-o ...
, has written that the sense of belonging, home and place experienced by Indigenous peoples of Australia stands in sharp contrast to that of non-Indigenous peoples, many of whom descend from the original colonisers. According to her, white Australians' sense of belonging is "derived from ownership and achievement and is inextricably tied to a racialised social status...", and based on the persistence of the idea of ''terra nullius
''Terra nullius'' (, plural ''terrae nullius'') is a Latin expression meaning " nobody's land".
Since the nineteenth century it has occasionally been used in international law as a principle to justify claims that territory may be acquired ...
''. The deep spiritual connection felt by Aboriginal Australians
Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands.
Humans first migrated to Australia (co ...
is related to their continuing occupation of the Australian continent for around 60,000 years, and the belief that Aboriginal lore/law was created by spirit ancestors to look after the land and its people. Songline
A songline, also called dreaming track, is one of the paths across the land (or sometimes the sky) within the animist belief systems of the Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal cultures of Australia. They mark the route followed by localised "crea ...
s perform several functions, including mapping routes across the continent and passing on culture, and express connectedness to country.
Caring for Country
"Caring for Country" is another term commonly used in an Indigenous context, defined as "participating in interrelated activities on Aboriginal lands and seas with the objective of promoting ecological
Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere levels. Ecology overlaps with the closely re ...
, spiritual and human health
Health has a variety of definitions, which have been used for different purposes over time. In general, it refers to physical and emotional well-being, especially that associated with normal functioning of the human body, absent of disease, pain ...
".[ Caring for Country projects in operation across Australia involve collaborative partnerships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people working to repair Indigenous lands and to preserve the environment using cultural knowledge.][
]
Welcome to Country
A Welcome to Country (or Acknowledgement of Country) is a ritual
A ritual is a repeated, structured sequence of actions or behaviors that alters the internal or external state of an individual, group, or environment, regardless of conscious understanding, emotional context, or symbolic meaning. Traditionally ...
or formal ceremony performed at many events held in Australia, intended to highlight the cultural significance of the surrounding area to a particular Aboriginal clan or language group who are recognised as traditional owners of the land.
References
Further reading
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{{Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australian culture