Indiginous Australians
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Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
prior to British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups, which include many ethnic groups: the
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 ...
of the mainland and many islands, including
Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...
, and the
Torres Strait Islanders Torres Strait Islanders ( ) are the Indigenous Melanesians, Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal peoples of the res ...
of the seas between
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 ...
and
Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...
, located in
Melanesia Melanesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from New Guinea in the west to the Fiji Islands in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea. The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, Vanu ...
. 812,728 people self-identified as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin in the 2021 Australian Census, representing 3.2% of the total population of Australia. Of these Indigenous Australians, 91.4% identified as Aboriginal, 4.2% identified as Torres Strait Islander, and 4.4% identified with both groups. The term Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples or the person's specific cultural group, is often preferred, though the terms First Nations of Australia, First Peoples of Australia and First Australians are also increasingly common. Since 1995, the Australian Aboriginal flag and the
Torres Strait Islander flag The Torres Strait Islander flag is the official flag of the Torres Strait Islanders, an Indigenous people of Australia. It was designed in 1992 by Bernard Namok, who won a local competition held by the Islands Coordinating Council. It was re ...
have been official
flags of Australia This is a list of flags of different designs that have been used in Australia. National flags State and territory flags Unofficial territory flags Historic state flags Nationally proclaimed flags of Indigenous peoples Royal a ...
. The time of arrival of the first human beings in Australia is a matter of debate and ongoing investigation. The earliest conclusively human remains found in Australia are those of Mungo Man LM3 and Mungo Lady, which have been dated to around 40,000 years ago, although Indigenous Australians have most likely been living in Australia for upwards of 65,000 years. Isolated for millennia by rising sea water after the last Ice Age, Australian Aboriginal peoples developed a variety of regional cultures and languages, invented distinct
artistic Art is a diverse range of culture, cultural activity centered around works of art, ''works'' utilizing Creativity, creative or imagination, imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an express ...
and
religious Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural ...
traditions, and affected the environment of the continent in a number of ways through hunting,
fire-stick farming Fire-stick farming, also known as cultural burning and cool burning, is the practice of Aboriginal Australians regularly using fire to burn vegetation, which has been practised for thousands of years. There are a number of purposes for doing this ...
, and possibly the introduction of the
dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the gray wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it was selectively bred from a population of wolves during the Late Pleistocene by hunter-gatherers. ...
. Technologies for warfare and hunting like the
boomerang A boomerang () is a thrown tool typically constructed with airfoil sections and designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight, designed to return to the thrower. The origin of the word is from Australian Aborigin ...
and spear were constructed of natural materials, as were musical instruments like the
didgeridoo The didgeridoo (;()), also spelt didjeridu, among other variants, is a wind instrument, played with vibrating lips to produce a continuous Drone (music), drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. The didgerido ...
. Although there are a number of cultural commonalities among Indigenous Australians, there is also a great diversity among different communities. The 2022 Australian census recorded 167 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages used at home by some 76,978 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. At the time of European colonisation, it is estimated that there were over 250
Aboriginal languages Aboriginal language may refer to: * Indigenous language * Australian Aboriginal languages * Taiwanese aboriginal languages * Indigenous languages of the Americas The Indigenous languages of the Americas are the languages that were used by the ...
. It is now estimated that all but 13 remaining Indigenous languages are considered endangered. Aboriginal people today mostly speak English, with Aboriginal phrases and words being added to create
Australian Aboriginal English Australian Aboriginal English (AAE or AbE) is a set of dialects of the English language used by a large section of the Indigenous Australian (Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander) population as a result of the colonisation of Aust ...
(which also has a tangible influence of Indigenous languages in the phonology and grammatical structure). Around three quarters of Australian place names are of Aboriginal origin. The Indigenous population prior to European settlement was small, with estimates ranging widely from 318,000 to more than 3,000,000 in total. Given geographic and habitat conditions, they were distributed in a pattern similar to that of the current Australian population. The majority were living in the south-east, centred along the
Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray; Ngarrindjeri language, Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta language, Yorta Yorta: ''Dhungala'' or ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is List of rivers of Australia, Aust ...
. The
First Fleet The First Fleet were eleven British ships which transported a group of settlers to mainland Australia, marking the beginning of the History of Australia (1788–1850), European colonisation of Australia. It consisted of two Royal Navy vessel ...
of British settlers arrived with instructions to "live in amity and kindness" with the Aboriginal population. Nevertheless, a population collapse, principally from new infectious diseases, followed European colonisation. A
smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...
epidemic spread for three years after the arrival of Europeans.
Massacres A massacre is an event of killing people who are not engaged in hostilities or are defenseless. It is generally used to describe a targeted killing of civilians en masse by an armed group or person. The word is a loan of a French term for "b ...
, frontier armed conflicts and competition over resources with European settlers also contributed to the decline of the Aboriginal peoples. Numerous scholars have classified elements of the colonization process as comprising genocide against Indigenous Australians. From the 19th to the mid-20th century, government policy removed many
mixed heritage The term multiracial people refers to people who are mixed with two or more races and the term multi-ethnic people refers to people who are of more than one ethnicities. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mult ...
children from Aboriginal communities, with the intent to assimilate them to what had become the majority white culture. Such policy was judged "
genocidal Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" b ...
" in the ''
Bringing Them Home ''Bringing Them Home'' is the 1997 Australian ''Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families''. The report marked a pivotal moment in the controversy that has come to ...
'' report (1997) published by the government in the late 20th century, as it reviewed human rights abuses during colonisation.


Terminology


Variations

There are a number of contemporary appropriate terms to use when referring to Indigenous peoples of Australia. In contrast to when settlers referred to them by various terms, in the 21st century there is consensus that it is important to respect the "preferences of individuals, families, or communities, and allow them to define what they are most comfortable with" when referring to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The word '' aboriginal'' has been in the English language since at least the 16th century to mean "first or earliest known, indigenous". It comes from the
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
''ab'' (from) and ''origo'' (origin, beginning). The term was used in Australia as early as 1789 to describe its
Aboriginal peoples There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...
. It became capitalised and was used as the common term to refer to both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Today the latter peoples are not included in this term. The term "Aborigine" (as opposed to "Aboriginal") is often disfavoured, as it is regarded as having
colonialist Colonialism is the control of another territory, natural resources and people by a foreign group. Colonizers control the political and tribal power of the colonised territory. While frequently an Imperialism, imperialist project, colonialism c ...
connotations. While the term "Indigenous Australians" has grown in popularity since the 1980s, many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples dislike it. They feel that it is too generic and removes their distinct clan and people identity. However, many people think that the term is useful and convenient, and can be used where appropriate. In recent years, terms such as "First Nations", "First Peoples" and "First Australians" have become more common. Being as specific as possible, for example naming the
language group 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 ...
(such as
Arrernte Arrernte (also spelt Aranda, etc.) is a descriptor related to a group of Aboriginal Australian peoples from Central Australia. It may refer to: * Arrernte (area), land controlled by the Arrernte Council (?) * Arrernte people, Aboriginal Australi ...
), or
demonym A demonym (; ) or 'gentilic' () is a word that identifies a group of people ( inhabitants, residents, natives) in relation to a particular place. Demonyms are usually derived from the name of the place ( hamlet, village, town, city, region, ...
relating to geographic area (such as
Nunga Nunga is a term of self-identification for Aboriginal Australians, originally used by Aboriginal people in the southern settled areas of South Australia, and now used throughout Adelaide and surrounding towns. It is used by contrast with ''Gu ...
), is preferred as a way to affirm and maintain a sense of identity.


Terms "Black" and "Blackfella"

European colonials from their early settlement used the term "Black" to refer to Aboriginal Australians. While the term originally related to
skin colour Human skin color ranges from the darkest brown to the lightest hues. Differences in skin color among individuals is caused by variation in pigmentation, which is largely the result of genetics (inherited from one's biological parents), and in ...
and was often used pejoratively, today the term is used to indicate Aboriginal heritage or culture in general. It refers to any people of such heritage regardless of their level of skin pigmentation. In the 1970s, with a rise in Aboriginal activism, leaders such as
Gary Foley Gary Edward Foley (born 1950) is an Aboriginal Australian activist of the Gumbaynggirr people, academic, writer and actor. He is best known for his role in establishing the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra in 1972 and for establishing an Ab ...
proudly embraced the term "Black". For example, writer Kevin Gilbert's book of that time was entitled ''Living Black''. The book included interviews with several members of the Aboriginal community, including Robert Jabanungga, who reflected on contemporary Aboriginal culture. ''
Living Black ''Living Black'' is a current affairs program aired on SBS, Australia, addressed primarily to the interests of Australia's indigenous community. Karla Grant has been executive producer of this program, which she developed, since 2002. She has ...
'' is also the name of an Australian TV news and current affairs program covering "issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians". It is presented and produced by
Karla Grant Karla Grant is an Australian presenter, producer and journalist for the SBS's national Indigenous current affairs program '' Living Black'', focusing on issues concerning Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities within Australia. Pers ...
, an
Arrernte Arrernte (also spelt Aranda, etc.) is a descriptor related to a group of Aboriginal Australian peoples from Central Australia. It may refer to: * Arrernte (area), land controlled by the Arrernte Council (?) * Arrernte people, Aboriginal Australi ...
woman. Use of the term "Black" varies depending on context, and its use may be deemed inappropriate. Furthermore, the term sometimes causes confusion as it can refer not only to Indigenous Australians, but also to other groups such as
African Australians African Australians are Australians descended from any peoples of Sub-Saharan Africa, including naturalised Australians who are immigrants from various regions in Sub-Saharan Africa and descendants of such immigrants. At the 2021 census, the n ...
. A related cause of confusion is the fact that the term can be used to refer to a particular group, such as Indigenous Australians, or it can be used inclusively to refer to all
Black people Black is a racial classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid- to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin and often additional phenotypical ...
. A significant number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people use the term "
Blackfella ''Blackfella'' (also ''blackfellah'', ''blackfulla'', ''black fella'', or ''black fellah'') is an informal term in Australian English to refer to Indigenous Australians, in particular Aboriginal Australians, most commonly among themselves. Simi ...
" and its associated forms to refer to Aboriginal Australians.


"Blak"

The term ''blak'' is sometimes used as part of a wider social movement (seen in terms such as "Blaktivism" and "Blak History Month"). The term was coined in 1991 by photographer and multimedia artist
Destiny Deacon Destiny Deacon HonFRPS (6 February 1957 – 23 May 2024) was an Australian photographer, broadcaster, political activist and media artist. She exhibited photographs and films across Australia and also internationally, focusing on politics and ...
, in an exhibition entitled ''Blak lik mi''. For Deacon's 2004 exhibition at the
Museum of Contemporary Art Museum of Contemporary Art (often abbreviated to MCA, MoCA or MOCA) may refer to: Africa * Museum of Contemporary Art (Tangier), Morocco, officially le Galerie d'Art Contemporain Mohamed Drissi Asia East Asia * Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai ...
, ''blak'' was defined in a museum guide as: "a term used by some Aboriginal people to reclaim historical, representational, symbolical, stereotypical and romanticised notions of Black or Blackness. Often used as ammunition or inspiration." Deacon said that removing the ''c'' from ''black'' to "de-weaponise the term 'black
cunt "Cunt" () is a vulgar word for the vulva in its primary sense, and it is used in a variety of ways, including as a term of disparagement. "Cunt" is often used as a disparaging and obscene term for a woman in the United States, an unpleas ...
was "taking on the 'colonisers' language and flipping it on its head". Contemporary Aboriginal arts in the 21st century are sometimes referred to as a "Blak" arts movement, expressed in names such as BlakDance, BlakLash Collective, and the title of
Thelma Plum Thelma Amelina Plumbe (born 21 December 1994), known professionally as Thelma Plum, is an Aboriginal Australian ( Gamilaraay) singer, songwriter, guitarist and musician from Delungra, New South Wales. Her debut album, '' Better in Blak'', was ...
's song and album, ''
Better in Blak ''Better in Blak'' is the debut studio album by Australian singer-songwriter Thelma Plum, released on 12 July 2019 through Warner Music Australia. ''Better in Blak'' achieved commercial success, peaking at number 4 on the ARIA Albums Chart, ...
''. Melbourne has an annual Blak & Bright literary festival, Blak Dot Gallery, Blak Markets, and Blak Cabaret.


Regional groups


Aboriginal groups

Aboriginal peoples of Australia are the various peoples indigenous to mainland Australia and associated islands, excluding the Torres Strait Islands. The broad term Aboriginal Australians includes many regional groups that may be identified under names based on local language, locality, or what they are called by neighbouring groups. Some communities, cultures or groups may be inclusive of others and alter or overlap; significant changes have occurred in the generations after colonisation. The word "community" is often used to describe groups identifying by
kinship In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that ...
,
language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...
, or belonging to a particular place or "country". A community may draw on separate cultural values and individuals can conceivably belong to a number of communities within Australia; identification within them may be adopted or rejected. An individual community may identify itself by many names, each of which can have alternative English spellings. The naming of peoples is complex, but a few examples are Anangu in northern
South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...
, and neighbouring parts of Western Australia and
Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...
;
Arrernte Arrernte (also spelt Aranda, etc.) is a descriptor related to a group of Aboriginal Australian peoples from Central Australia. It may refer to: * Arrernte (area), land controlled by the Arrernte Council (?) * Arrernte people, Aboriginal Australi ...
in central Australia;
Koori Koori (also spelt koorie, goori or goorie) is a demonym for Aboriginal Australians from a region that approximately corresponds to southern New South Wales and Victoria. The word derives from the Indigenous language Awabakal. For some people ...
(or Koorie) in New South Wales and
Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...
(
Aboriginal Victorians Aboriginal Victorians, the Aboriginal Australians of Victoria, Australia, occupied the land for tens of thousands of years prior to European settlement. Aboriginal people have lived a semi-nomadic existence of fishing, hunting and gathering an ...
); Goorie (variant pronunciation and spelling of Koori) in South East Queensland and some parts of northern New South Wales; Murri, used in parts of Queensland and northern New South Wales where specific collective names are not used;
Tiwi people The Tiwi people (or Tunuvivi) are one of the many Aboriginal Australian, Aboriginal groups of Australia. Nearly 2,000 Tiwi people live on Bathurst Island (Northern Territory), Bathurst and Melville Island, Northern Territory, Melville Islands, ...
of the
Tiwi Islands The Tiwi Islands ( meaning "two islands") are part of the Northern Territory, Australia, to the north of Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin adjoining the Timor Sea. They comprise Melville Island, Northern Territory, Melville Island, Bathurst I ...
off Northern Territory; and
Palawah The Aboriginal Tasmanians (palawa kani: ''Palawa'' or ''Pakana'') are the Aboriginal people of the Australian island of Tasmania, located south of the mainland. At the time of European contact, Aboriginal Tasmanians were divided into a numb ...
in
Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...
. The largest Aboriginal communities – the
Pitjantjatjara The Pitjantjatjara (; or ) are an Aboriginal people of the Central Australian desert near Uluru. They are closely related to the Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra and their languages are, to a large extent, mutually intelligible (all are v ...
, the Arrernte, the
Luritja The Luritja or Loritja people, also known as Kukatja or Kukatja-Luritja, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory. Their traditional lands are immediately west of the Derwent River, that forms a frontier with the Arrernte p ...
, and the Warlpiri – are all from
Central Australia Central Australia, also sometimes referred to as the Red Centre, is an inexactly defined region associated with the geographic centre of Australia. In its narrowest sense it describes a region that is limited to the town of Alice Springs and ...
. Throughout the history of the continent, there have been many different Aboriginal groups, each with its own individual
language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...
, culture, and belief structure. At the time of British settlement, there were over 200 distinct languages. The Tasmanian Aboriginal population are thought to have first crossed into
Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...
approximately 40,000 years ago via a land bridge between the island and the rest of mainland Australia during the last glacial period. Estimates of the population of the Aboriginal people of Tasmania, before European arrival, are in the range of 3,000 to 15,000 people. However, genetic studies have suggested significantly higher figures, which are supported by Indigenous oral traditions that indicate a decline in population from diseases introduced by British and American sealers before settlement. The original population was further reduced to around 300 between 1803 and 1833 due to disease, warfare, and other actions of British settlers. Despite more than 170 years of debate over who or what was responsible for this near-extinction, no consensus exists on its origins, process, or whether or not it was genocide. However, according to Benjamin Madley, using the "UN definition, sufficient evidence exists to designate the Tasmanian catastrophe genocide". A woman commonly identified as
Truganini Truganini ( 1812 – 8 May 1876), also known as Lalla Rookh and Lydgugee, was widely described as the last of the "full-blooded" Aboriginal Tasmanians after British colonisation and one of the last speakers of the Tasmanian languages. As a t ...
, who died in 1876, was, and still is, widely believed to be the last of the "full-blooded" Tasmanian Aboriginal people. However, in 1889 Parliament recognised
Fanny Cochrane Smith Fanny Cochrane Smith (; December 1834 – 24 February 1905) was an Aboriginal Tasmanian considered to be the last fluent speaker of the Flinders Island lingua franca and thus the Tasmanian languages. Her wax cylinder recordings of songs are t ...
(d. 1905) as the last surviving "full-blooded" Tasmanian Aboriginal person. The 2016 census reported 23,572 Indigenous Australians in the state of Tasmania.


Torres Strait Islanders

The Torres Strait Islander people possess a heritage and cultural history distinct from Aboriginal traditions. The eastern Torres Strait Islanders in particular are related to the Papuan peoples of
New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...
, and speak a
Papuan language The Papuan languages are the non-Austronesian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands in Indonesia, Solomon Islands, and East Timor. It is a strictly geographical grouping, and does not imply a ...
. Accordingly, they are not generally included under the designation "Aboriginal Australians". This has been another factor in the promotion of the more inclusive term "Indigenous Australians". Six percent of Indigenous Australians identify fully as
Torres Strait The Torres Strait (), also known as Zenadh Kes ( Kalaw Lagaw Ya#Phonology 2, zen̪ad̪ kes, is a strait between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, ...
Islanders. A further 4% of Indigenous Australians identify as having both Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal heritage. The
Torres Strait Islands The Torres Strait Islands are an archipelago of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait, a waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They span an area of , but their tot ...
comprise over 100 islands, which were annexed by Queensland in 1879. Many Indigenous organisations incorporate the phrase "Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander" to highlight the distinctiveness and importance of Torres Strait Islanders in Australia's Indigenous population.
Eddie Mabo Edward Koiki Mabo ( ; Sambo) (29 June 1936 – 21 January 1992) was an Indigenous Australian man from the Torres Strait Islands known for his role in campaigning for Indigenous land rights in Australia, in particular the landmark decision of t ...
was from "Mer" or Murray Island in the Torres Strait. He was a party in the ''Mabo'' decision of 1992. File:Torres Strait Islander Indigenous Status.jpg, Geographical distribution of people with Torres Strait Islander Indigenous status File:Both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Indigenous Status.jpg, Geographical distribution of people with both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Indigenous status File:Torres Strait Islander ancestry.jpg, Geographical distribution of people with Torres Strait Islander ancestry File:Torres Strait Islander localities by Indigenous Status.jpg, Indigenous status of population in localities with significant share of Torres Strait islander population File:Torres Strait Islander localities by ancestry.jpg, Ancestry of population in localities with significant share of Torres Strait islander population (Torres Strait Islander or other) File:Torres Strait Islander Languages used at home.jpg, Languages used at home by Torres Strait Islanders in localities with significant share of Torres Strait islander population File:Torres Strait Islander Religious affiliation.jpg, Religious affiliations of Torres Strait islanders in localities with significant share of Torres Strait islander population


Other groupings

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people also sometimes refer to themselves by descriptions that relate to their
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 ...
environment, such as saltwater people for coast-dwellers (including Torres Strait Islander people), freshwater people, rainforest people, desert people, or spinifex people, (the latter referring to the
Pila Nguru The Pila Nguru, often referred to in English as the Spinifex people, are an Aboriginal Australian people of Western Australia, whose lands extend to the border with South Australia and to the north of the Nullarbor Plain. The centre of their h ...
of
Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...
).


History


Migration to Australia


Aboriginal peoples

Several settlements of humans in Australia have been dated around 49,000 years ago.
Luminescence dating Luminescence dating refers to a group of chronological dating methods of determining how long ago mineral grains were last exposed to sunlight or sufficient heating. It is useful to geologists and archaeologists who want to know when such an event ...
of sediments surrounding stone artefacts at Madjedbebe, a rock shelter in northern Australia, indicates human activity as early as 65,000 years BP. Genomic studies, however, suggest that the main wave of modern humans into Australia ancestral to Aboriginal Australians happened as recently as 37,000 to 50,000 years ago.Genetics and material culture support repeated expansions into Paleolithic Eurasia from a population hub out of Africa, Vallini et al. 2022 (4 April 2022) Quote: "''Taken together with a lower bound of the final settlement of Sahul at 37 kya it is reasonable to describe Papuans as either an almost even mixture between East-Eurasians and a lineage basal to West and East-Eurasians which occurred sometimes between 45 and 38kya ...''" Accordingly, earlier groups either went extinct or contributed around ~2% ancestry to modern Aboriginal Australians. Indigenous Australians and other Oceanians were probably part of the same southern route dispersal as the ancestors of
Ancient Ancestral South Indians Genetics and archaeogenetics of South Asia is the study of the genetics and archaeogenetics of the ethnic groups of South Asia. It aims at uncovering these groups' genetic histories. The geographic position of the Indian subcontinent makes its ...
,
Andamanese The Andamanese are the various indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, part of India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the union territory in the southeastern part of the Bay of Bengal. The Andamanese are a designated Scheduled Tribe in Indi ...
, and
East Asians East Asian people (also East Asians) are the people from East Asia, which consists of China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. The total population of all countries within this region is estimated to be 1.677 billion and 21% ...
. The earliest anatomically modern human remains found in Australia (and outside of Africa) are those of
Mungo Man Mungo may refer to: People * Mungo (name), a list of people with the given name or surname * Mungo people, an ethnic group in Cameroon Places * Mungo, Angola, a town and municipality * Mungo National Park, Australia * Lake Mungo, Australi ...
; they have been dated at 42,000 years old. The initial comparison of the
mitochondrial DNA Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA and mDNA) is the DNA located in the mitochondrion, mitochondria organelles in a eukaryotic cell that converts chemical energy from food into adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA is a small portion of the D ...
from the skeleton known as ''Lake Mungo 3'' (LM3) with that of ancient and modern Aboriginal peoples indicated that Mungo Man is not related to Australian Aboriginal peoples. The sequence has been criticised as there has been no independent testing, and it has been suggested that the results may be due to posthumous modification and thermal degradation of the DNA. Although the contested results seem to indicate that Mungo Man may have been an extinct subspecies that diverged before the most recent common ancestor of contemporary humans, the administrative body for the
Mungo National Park Mungo National Park is a protected national park that is located in south-western New South Wales, in eastern Australia. The national park is situated approximately west of Sydney in the Balranald Shire. Mungo National Park is the traditi ...
believes that present-day local Aboriginal peoples are descended from the
Lake Mungo Lake Mungo is a dry lake located in New South Wales, Australia. It is about 760 km (472 miles) due west of Sydney and 90 km (56 miles) north-east of Mildura. The lake is the central feature of Mungo National Park, and is one of seve ...
remains. It is generally believed that Aboriginal people are the descendants of a single migration into the continent, a people that split from the ancestors of East Asians. Recent work with mitochondrial DNA suggests a founder population of between 1,000 and 3,000 women to produce the genetic diversity observed, which suggests that "initial colonisation of the continent would have required deliberate organised sea travel, involving hundreds of people". Aboriginal people seem to have lived a long time in the same environment as the now extinct
Australian megafauna The term Australian megafauna refers to the megafauna in Australia (continent), Australia during the Pleistocene, Pleistocene Epoch. Most of these species became extinct during the latter half of the Pleistocene, as part of the broader global L ...
. Some evidence from the analysis of charcoal and artefacts revealing human use suggests a date as early as 65,000 BP.
Luminescence dating Luminescence dating refers to a group of chronological dating methods of determining how long ago mineral grains were last exposed to sunlight or sufficient heating. It is useful to geologists and archaeologists who want to know when such an event ...
has suggested habitation in
Arnhem Land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territorial capital, Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compa ...
as far back as 60,000 years BP. Evidence of fires in South-West Victoria suggest "human presence in Australia 120,000 years ago", although more research is required.


Genetics

Genetic studies have suggested that Aboriginal Australians largely descended from an Eastern Eurasian population wave during the
Initial Upper Paleolithic The Initial Upper Paleolithic (also IUP, ) covers the first stage of the Upper Paleolithic, during which modern human populations expanded throughout Eurasia. Technology, art and distribution The Initial Upper Paleolithic period is characteri ...
, and are most closely related to other
Oceania Oceania ( , ) is a region, geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Mainland Australia is regarded as its co ...
ns, such as
Melanesians Melanesians are the predominant and Indigenous peoples of Oceania, indigenous inhabitants of Melanesia, in an area stretching from New Guinea to the Fiji Islands. Most speak one of the many languages of the Austronesian languages, Austronesian l ...
. The Aboriginal Australians also show affinity to
Ancient Ancestral South Indians Genetics and archaeogenetics of South Asia is the study of the genetics and archaeogenetics of the ethnic groups of South Asia. It aims at uncovering these groups' genetic histories. The geographic position of the Indian subcontinent makes its ...
, the
Andamanese people The Andamanese are the various indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, part of India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the union territory in the southeastern part of the Bay of Bengal. The Andamanese are a designated Scheduled Tribe in Indi ...
, as well as to
East Asian peoples East Asian people (also East Asians) are the people from East Asia, which consists of China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. The total population of all countries within this region is estimated to be 1.677 billion and 21% ...
. Phylogenetic data suggests that an early initial eastern non-African (ENA) or East-Eurasian meta-population trifurcated, and gave rise to Australasians (Oceanians), the Ancient Ancestral South Indians,
Andamanese The Andamanese are the various indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, part of India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the union territory in the southeastern part of the Bay of Bengal. The Andamanese are a designated Scheduled Tribe in Indi ...
and the East/Southeast Asian lineage including the ancestors of
Native Americans Native Americans or Native American usually refers to Native Americans in the United States. Related terms and peoples include: Ethnic groups * Indigenous peoples of the Americas, the pre-Columbian peoples of North, South, and Central America ...
, although Papuans may have also received some geneflow from an earlier group (xOOA) as well, around 2%, next to additional archaic admixture in the
Sahul __NOTOC__ Sahul (), also called Sahul-land, Meganesia, Papualand and Greater Australia, was a paleocontinent that encompassed the modern-day landmasses of mainland Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea, and the Aru Islands. Sahul was in the south- ...
region. Rasmussen et al. 2011 shows that Aboriginal Australian have a lower proportion of European alleles compared to Asians, which they believe is indicative of a multiple dispersal model. Genetically, while Aboriginal Australians are most closely related to Melanesian and Papuan people, McEvoy et al. 2010 believed there is also another component that could indicate Ancient Ancestral South Indian admixture or more recent European influence. Research indicates a single founding
Sahul __NOTOC__ Sahul (), also called Sahul-land, Meganesia, Papualand and Greater Australia, was a paleocontinent that encompassed the modern-day landmasses of mainland Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea, and the Aru Islands. Sahul was in the south- ...
group with subsequent isolation between regional populations which were relatively unaffected by later migrations from the Asian mainland, which may have introduced the
dingo The dingo (either included in the species ''Canis familiaris'', or considered one of the following independent taxa: ''Canis familiaris dingo'', ''Canis dingo'', or ''Canis lupus dingo'') is an ancient (basal (phylogenetics), basal) lineage ...
4–5,000 years ago. The research also suggests a divergence from the Papuan people of
New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...
and the
Mamanwa The Lumad are a group of Austronesian indigenous peoples in the southern Philippines. It is a Cebuano term meaning "native" or "indigenous". The term is short for Katawhang Lumad (Literally: "indigenous people"), the autonym officially ado ...
people of the
Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
about 32,000 years ago, with a rapid population expansion about 5,000 years ago. A 2011 genetic study found evidence that the Aboriginal, Papuan and Mamanwa peoples carry some of the alleles associated with the
Denisovan The Denisovans or Denisova hominins ( ) are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human that ranged across Asia during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic, and lived, based on current evidence, from 285 thousand to 25 thousand years ago. D ...
peoples of Asia, (not found amongst populations in mainland Asia) suggesting that modern and archaic humans interbred in Asia approximately 44,000 years ago, before Australia separated from New Guinea and the migration to Australia. A 2012 paper reports that there is also evidence of a substantial genetic flow from India to northern Australia estimated at slightly over four thousand years ago, a time when changes in tool technology and food processing appear in the Australian archaeological record, suggesting that these may be related. Bergström et al 2016 and Nagle et al 2016 could not replicate 2012 study, noting that Indigenous Australians split from mainland Asia 50,000 years ago. Mallick et al. 2016 and Mark Lipson et al. 2017 study found that the bifurcation of Eastern Eurasian and Western Eurasian dates back to least 45,000 years ago, with Australasians nested inside the Eastern Eurasian clade. Vallini et al. 2024 noted that the divergence between Ancient East Eurasians and West Eurasians most likely occurred on the
Persian Plateau The Iranian plateau or Persian plateau is a geological feature spanning parts of the Caucasus, Central Asia, South Asia, and West Asia. It makes up part of the Eurasian plate, and is wedged between the Arabian plate and the Indian plate. T ...
>48,000 years ago, with East Eurasians dispersing throughout the Asia-Pacific region >45,000 years ago.


Uniparentals

Aboriginal Australian men have
Haplogroup C-M347 Haplogroup C-B477, also known as Haplogroup C1b2, is a Y-chromosome haplogroup. It is one of two primary branches of Haplogroup C1b, one of the descendants of Haplogroup C1. Previously, this haplogroup was called C4 (C-M347). It is distributed ...
in high frequencies with peak estimates ranging from 60.2% to 68.7%. In addition, the basal form K2* (K-M526) of the extremely ancient
Haplogroup K2 Haplogroup K2, also known as K-M526 and formerly known as MNOPS, is a human Y-DNA haplogroup. Relative to its age, the internal structure of K2 is extremely complex, and subclades of it are carried by males native to regions including Austral ...
– whose subclades
Haplogroup R Haplogroup R may refer to: * Haplogroup R (mtDNA) Haplogroup R is a widely distributed Human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup, human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup. Haplogroup R is associated with the peopling of Eurasia after about 70,000 ye ...
, haplogroup Q, haplogroup M and haplogroup S can be found in the majority of Europeans, South Asians,
Native Americans Native Americans or Native American usually refers to Native Americans in the United States. Related terms and peoples include: Ethnic groups * Indigenous peoples of the Americas, the pre-Columbian peoples of North, South, and Central America ...
and the
Indigenous peoples of Oceania The Indigenous people of Oceania are Aboriginal Australians, Papuans, and Austronesians (Melanesians,Including Torres Strait Islanders Micronesians, and Polynesians). These indigenous peoples have a historical continuity with pre-colonial societ ...
– has only been found in living humans today amongst Aboriginal Australians. 27% of them may carry K2* and approximately 29% of Aboriginal Australian males belong to subclades of K2b1, a.k.a. M and S. Aboriginal Australians possess deep rooted clades of both mtDNA Haplogroup M and Haplogroup N.


Torres Strait Islands

Although it is estimated that people migrated from the Indonesian archipelago and New Guinea to mainland Australia about 70,000 years ago, evidence of human settlement in the Torres Strait has only been uncovered by archaeologists dating back to about 2500 years ago.


Before European contact


Aboriginal people

Aboriginal people in some regions lived as
foragers A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, especially wi ...
and
hunter-gatherer A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived Lifestyle, lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, esp ...
s. Although Aboriginal society was generally mobile, or
semi-nomadic Nomads are communities without fixed habitation who regularly move to and from areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the population of nomadic pas ...
, moving according to the changing food availability found across different areas as seasons changed, the mode of life and material cultures varied greatly from region to region, and there were permanent settlements and agriculture in some areas. The greatest population density was to be found in the southern and eastern regions of the continent, the
River Murray The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray; Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta: ''Dhungala'' or ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is Australia's longest river at extent. Its tributaries include five of the n ...
valley in particular. There is some evidence that, before outside contact, some groups of Aboriginal Australians had a complex subsistence system with elements of agriculture, that was only recorded by the first European explorers. One early settler took notes on the life styles of the
Wathaurung The Wadawurrung nation, also called the Wathaurong, or Wathaurung, are an Aboriginal Australian people living in the area near Melbourne, Geelong, and the Bellarine Peninsula in the state of Victoria. They are part of the Kulin alliance. The Wa ...
people whom he lived near in Victoria. He saw women harvesting
Murnong The murnong or yam daisy is any of the plants ''Microseris walteri'', '' Microseris lanceolata'' and ''Microseris scapigera'', which are an important food source for many Aboriginal peoples in southern parts of Australia. Murnong is a Woiwurrung ...
tubers, a native yam that is now almost extinct. However, the area that they were harvesting from was already cleared of other plants, making it easier to harvest Murnong (also known as yam daisy) exclusively. Along the northern coast of Australia, parsnip yams were harvested by leaving the bottom part of the yam still stuck in the ground so that it would grow again in the same spot. Similar to many other farmers in the world, Aboriginal peoples used slash and burn techniques to enrich the nutrients of their soil. However, sheep and cattle later brought over by Europeans would ruin this soil by trampling on it. To add on the complexity of Aboriginal farming techniques, farmers deliberately exchanged seeds to begin growing plants where they did not naturally occur. In fact there were so many examples of Aboriginal Australians managing farm land in a complex manner that Australian anthropologist
Norman Tindale Norman Barnett Tindale AO (12 October 1900 – 19 November 1993) was an Australian anthropologist, archaeologist, entomologist and ethnologist. He is best remembered for his work mapping the various tribal groupings of Aboriginal Australians ...
was able to draw an Aboriginal grain belt, detailing the specific areas where crops were once produced. In terms of aquaculture, explorer Thomas Mitchell noted large stone fish traps on the Darling River at Brewarrina. Each trap covers a pool, herding fish through a small entrance that would later be shut. Traps were created at different heights to accommodate different water levels during floods and droughts. Technology used by Indigenous Australian societies before European contact included weapons, tools, shelters, watercraft, and the
message stick ''Message Stick'' was an Australian television series about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lifestyles, culture and issues. History The weekly half-hour show began screening in 1999 on ABC Television. It featured profile stories, inte ...
. Weapons included
boomerang A boomerang () is a thrown tool typically constructed with airfoil sections and designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight, designed to return to the thrower. The origin of the word is from Australian Aborigin ...
s, spears (sometimes thrown with a woomera) with stone or fishbone tips, clubs, and (less commonly) axes. The
Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistory, prehistoric period during which Rock (geology), stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended b ...
tools available included knives with ground edges, grinding devices, and eating containers. Fibrecraft was well-developed, and fibre nets, baskets, and bags were used for fishing, hunting, and carrying liquids. Trade networks spanned the continent, and transportation included
canoe A canoe is a lightweight, narrow watercraft, water vessel, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel and using paddles. In British English, the term ' ...
s. Shelters varied regionally, and included
wiltja Wiltjas are shelters made by the Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara and other Aboriginal Australian peoples. They are temporary dwellings, and are abandoned and rebuilt rather than maintained. Open and semi-circular, wiltjas are meant primarily as ...
s in the
Atherton Tablelands The Atherton Tableland is a fertile plateau, which is part of the Great Dividing Range in Queensland, Australia. It has very deep, rich basaltic soils and the main industry is agriculture. The principal river flowing across the plateau is the ...
,
paperbark ''Melaleuca'' () is a genus of nearly 300 species of plants in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, commonly known as paperbarks, honey-myrtles, bottlebrushes or tea-trees (although the last name is also applied to species of '' Leptospermum''). They ...
and
stringybark A stringybark can be any of the many ''Eucalyptus'' species which have thick, fibrous bark. Like all eucalypts, stringybarks belong to the family Myrtaceae. In exceptionally fertile locations some stringybark species (in particular messmate strin ...
sheets and raised platforms in
Arnhem Land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territorial capital, Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compa ...
, whalebone
hut A hut is a small dwelling, which may be constructed of various local materials. Huts are a type of vernacular architecture because they are built of readily available materials such as wood, snow, stone, grass, palm leaves, branches, clay, hid ...
s in what is now South Australia, stone shelters in what is now western Victoria, and a multi-room pole and bark structure found in
Corranderrk Coranderrk was an Aboriginal reserve run by the Victorian government between 1863 and 1924, located around north-east of Melbourne. The residents were mainly of the Woiwurrung, Bunurong and Taungurung peoples, and the first inhabitants chose ...
. A bark tent or lean-to is known as a
humpy A humpy, also known as a gunyah, wurley, wurly, wurlie, mia-mia, or wiltija, is a small, temporary shelter, traditionally used by Australian Aboriginal people. These impermanent dwellings, made of branches and bark, are sometimes called a ...
, gunyah, or wurley. Clothing included the
possum-skin cloak Possum-skin cloaks were a form of clothing worn by Aboriginal people in the south-east of Australia – present-day Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales. In Western Australia, Buka cloak was worn. They are made from pelts of various ...
in the southeast, buka cloak in the southwest and riji (pearl shells) in the northeast. There is evidence that some Aboriginal populations in northern Australia regularly
traded Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. Traders generally negotiate through a medium of credi ...
with
Makassan Makassar ( ), formerly Ujung Pandang ( ), is the capital of the Indonesian province of South Sulawesi. It is the largest city in the region of Eastern Indonesia and the country's fifth-largest urban center after Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan, and Ba ...
fishermen from Indonesia before the arrival of Europeans. At the time of first European contact, it is generally estimated that the pre-1788 population was 314,000, while recent archaeological finds suggest that a population of 500,000 to 750,000 could have been sustained, with some ecologists estimating that a population of up to a million or even two million people was possible. More recent work suggests that Aboriginal populations exceeded 1.2 million 500 years ago, but may have fallen somewhat with the introduction of disease pathogens from Eurasia in the last 500 years. The population was split into 250 individual nations, many of which were in alliance with one another, and within each nation there existed separate, often related
clan A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, a clan may claim descent from a founding member or apical ancestor who serves as a symbol of the clan's unity. Many societie ...
s, from as few as 5 or 6 to as many as 30 or 40. Each nation had its own language, and a few had several. There is some evidence to suggest that the section of the Australian continent now occupied by Queensland was the single most densely populated area of pre-contact Australia. There are also signs that the population density of Aboriginal Australia was comparatively higher in the north-eastern sections of New South Wales, and along the northern coast from the
Gulf of Carpentaria The Gulf of Carpentaria is a sea off the northern coast of Australia. It is enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the eastern Arafura Sea, which separates Australia and New Guinea. The northern boundary ...
and westward including certain sections of Northern Territory and Western Australia.


Torres Strait Island people

The Torres Strait peoples' fishing economy relied on boats, which they built themselves. There is also evidence of the construction of large, complex buildings on stilts and
dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...
d structures using
bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial plant, perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily (biology), subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in th ...
, with
thatched roofs Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of t ...
, which catered for extended family members living together.


British colonisation


First contact

British exploration of the Australian coastline began with the buccaneer
William Dampier William Dampier (baptised 5 September 1651; died March 1715) was an English explorer, pirate, privateer, navigator, and naturalist who became the first Englishman to explore parts of what is today Australia, and the first person to circumnavig ...
in 1688 and 1699. Dampier was impressed neither by the country nor the people of the west Australian coast. Almost a century later, the explorer
James Cook Captain (Royal Navy), Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 176 ...
mapped the east coast of Australia and claimed the territory for Britain in the name of
King George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...
. Cook was impressed both by the land and the people whom he encountered, writing in his journal: "From what I have said of the Natives of New Holland they may appear to some to be the most wretched people upon Earth, but in reality they are far more happier than we Europeans; being wholy unacquainted not only with the superfluous but the necessary conveniencies so much sought after in Europe, they are happy in not knowing the use of them. They live in a Tranquillity which is not disturb'd by the Inequality of Condition". Nevertheless, Cook also noted in his journal two men at Botany Bay who "seem'd resolved to oppose" his first landing. According to Cook, after one of the men threw a rock, Cook fired a musquet loaded with small shott, which struck him with little effect. Some shott was lodged into one of the men's shields and was taken back to England by Cook, where it remains in the British Museum. Cook spent a greater period of time among the Guugu Yimithirr people around modern
Cooktown Cooktown is a coastal town and locality in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. Cooktown is at the mouth of the Endeavour River, on Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland where James Cook beached his ship, the '' Endeavour'', for ...
in Queensland, where his ship was nearly wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef. Here relations were generally amicable and Cook recorded words from their language including "kangaroo", though a fight broke out when the British took turtles from the river without sharing them. Peace was restored when an elder presented Cook with a broken-tipped spear as a peace offering – remembered as a first "act of reconciliation". The encounter is commemorated annually by the Guugu Yimithirr to this day. Cook's favourable impression of the East Coast of Australia led directly to the commencement of the British colonisation of Australia, commencing at Sydney in 1788. The
First Fleet The First Fleet were eleven British ships which transported a group of settlers to mainland Australia, marking the beginning of the History of Australia (1788–1850), European colonisation of Australia. It consisted of two Royal Navy vessel ...
of British ships was commanded by Governor
Arthur Phillip Arthur Phillip (11 October 1738 – 31 August 1814) was a British Royal Navy officer who served as the first Governor of New South Wales, governor of the Colony of New South Wales. Phillip was educated at Royal Hospital School, Gree ...
, who had been instructed to "endeavour by every possible means to open an intercourse with the natives, and to conciliate their affections", and to enjoin his British subjects to "live in amity and kindness with them" so as "to cultivate an acquaintance with them without their having an idea of our great superiority over them".


Dates by area

British colonisation of Australia The history of Australia is the history of the land and peoples which comprise the Commonwealth of Australia. The modern nation came into existence on 1 January 1901 as a federation of former British colonies. The human history of Australia, ...
began with the arrival of the
First Fleet The First Fleet were eleven British ships which transported a group of settlers to mainland Australia, marking the beginning of the History of Australia (1788–1850), European colonisation of Australia. It consisted of two Royal Navy vessel ...
in
Botany Bay Botany Bay (Dharawal language, Dharawal: ''Kamay'') is an open oceanic embayment, located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, south of the Sydney central business district. Its source is the confluence of the Georges River at Taren Point a ...
, New South Wales, in 1788. Settlements were subsequently established in
Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...
(1803),
Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...
(1803),
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 ...
(1824),
Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...
(1826), and the
Colony of South Australia A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their '' metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often or ...
(1836). The first settlement in the
Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...
was built after Captain
Gordon Bremer Sir James John Gordon Bremer (26 September 1786 – 14 February 1850) was a British Royal Navy officer. He served in the Napoleonic Wars against France, the First Anglo-Burmese War in Burma, and the First Opium War in China. Born in Portsea, ...
took possession of the
Tiwi Islands The Tiwi Islands ( meaning "two islands") are part of the Northern Territory, Australia, to the north of Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin adjoining the Timor Sea. They comprise Melville Island, Northern Territory, Melville Island, Bathurst I ...
of
Bathurst Bathurst may refer to: People * Bathurst (surname) * Bathurst Bellers Mann (1858–1948), Irish-born rugby union player in Wales * Bathurst Peachy (1893–1953), American college head baseball coach Places and jurisdictions Australia * Bat ...
and Melville, claiming them for the
colony of New South Wales The Colony of New South Wales was a colony of the British Empire from 1788 to 1901, when it became a State of the Commonwealth of Australia. At its greatest extent, the colony of New South Wales included the present-day Australian states of New ...
, although that settlement failed after a few years, along with a couple of later attempts; permanent settlement was only finally achieved at Darwin in 1869. Australia was the exception to British imperial colonisation practices, in that no treaty was drawn up setting out terms of agreement between the settlers and native proprietors, as was the case in North America and
New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
. Many of the men on the First Fleet had had military experience among Native American tribes in North America, and tended to attribute to the Aboriginal people alien and misleading systems or concepts like
chieftainship A tribal chief, chieftain, or headman is a leader of a tribal society or chiefdom. Tribal societies There is no definition for "tribe". The concept of tribe is a broadly applied concept, based on tribal concepts of societies of western Afr ...
and
tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...
with which they had become acquainted in the northern hemisphere. British administrative control began in the Torres Strait Islands in 1862, with the appointment of John Jardine, police magistrate at
Rockhampton Rockhampton is a city in the Rockhampton Region of Central Queensland, Australia. In the , the population of Rockhampton was 79,293. A common nickname for Rockhampton is "Rocky", and the demonym of Rockhampton is Rockhamptonite. The Scottish- ...
, as Government Resident in the Torres Straits. He originally established a small settlement on
Albany Island Albany Island or Pabaju is an island off the north-eastern coast of Cape York Peninsula in the Adolphus Channel of Queensland, Australia. It is within the locality of Somerset in the Shire of Torres. Geography Albany Island is off the no ...
, but on 1 August 1864 he went to Somerset Island. English missionaries arrived on Erub (Darnley Island) on 1 July 1871. In 1872 the boundary of Queensland was extended to include
Thursday Island Thursday Island, colloquially known as TI, or in the Kalaw Lagaw Ya, Kawrareg dialect, Waiben or Waibene, is an island of the Torres Strait Islands, an archipelago of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait. TI is located approximately ...
and some other islands in Torres Strait within of the Queensland coast, and in 1879 Queensland
annexed Annexation, in international law, is the forcible acquisition and assertion of legal title over one state's territory by another state, usually following military occupation of the territory. In current international law, it is generally held to ...
the other islands, which became part of the British
colony of Queensland The Colony of Queensland was a colony of the British Empire from 1859 to 1901, when it became a State in the federal Australia, Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901. At its greatest extent, the colony included the present-day Queensland, ...
.


Impact

One immediate consequence was a series of epidemics of European diseases such as
measles Measles (probably from Middle Dutch or Middle High German ''masel(e)'', meaning "blemish, blood blister") is a highly contagious, Vaccine-preventable diseases, vaccine-preventable infectious disease caused by Measles morbillivirus, measles v ...
,
smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...
and
tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
. In the 19th century, smallpox was the principal cause of Aboriginal deaths, and vaccinations of the "native inhabitants" had begun in earnest by the 1840s. This smallpox epidemic in 1789 is estimated to have killed up to 90% of the
Darug people The Dharug or Darug people, are a nation of Aboriginal Australian clans, who share ties of kinship, country and culture. In pre-colonial times, they lived as hunters in the region of current day Sydney. The Darug speak one of two dialects o ...
. The cause of the outbreak is disputed. Some scholars have attributed it to European settlers, but it is also argued that
Macassan Makassar ( ), formerly Ujung Pandang ( ), is the capital of the Indonesian province of South Sulawesi. It is the largest city in the region of Eastern Indonesia and the country's fifth-largest urban center after Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan, and Ba ...
fishermen from
South Sulawesi South Sulawesi () is a Provinces of Indonesia, province in the South Peninsula, Sulawesi, southern peninsula of Sulawesi, Indonesia. The Selayar Islands archipelago to the south of Sulawesi is also part of the province. The capital and largest ci ...
and nearby islands may have introduced smallpox to Australia before the arrival of Europeans. A third suggestion is that the outbreak was caused by contact with members of the
First Fleet The First Fleet were eleven British ships which transported a group of settlers to mainland Australia, marking the beginning of the History of Australia (1788–1850), European colonisation of Australia. It consisted of two Royal Navy vessel ...
. A fourth theory is that the epidemic was of
chickenpox Chickenpox, also known as varicella ( ), is a highly contagious disease caused by varicella zoster virus (VZV), a member of the herpesvirus family. The disease results in a characteristic skin rash that forms small, itchy blisters, which ...
, not smallpox, carried by members of the First Fleet, and to which the Aboriginal people also had no immunity. Moreover, Aboriginal people were infected with sexually transmitted infections, especially syphilis and gonorrhea. Another consequence of British colonisation was European seizure of land and water resources, with the decimation of kangaroo and other food sources which continued throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries as rural lands were converted for sheep and cattle grazing. Settlers also participated in the rape and forcible prostitution of Aboriginal women. Some Europeans, for example escaped convicts, lived in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. In 1834 there occurred the first recorded use of
Aboriginal tracker Aboriginal trackers were enlisted by Europeans in the years following History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation of Australia, to assist them in exploring the Australian landscape. The excellent tracking skills of these Aboriginal ...
s, who proved very adept at navigating their way through the Australian landscape and finding people. During the 1860s,
Tasmanian Aboriginal The Aboriginal Tasmanians (palawa kani: ''Palawa'' or ''Pakana'') are the Aboriginal people of the Australian island of Tasmania, located south of the mainland. At the time of European contact, Aboriginal Tasmanians were divided into a numb ...
skulls were particularly sought internationally for studies into
craniofacial anthropometry The history of anthropometry includes its use as an early tool of anthropology, use for identification, use for the purposes of understanding human physical variation in paleoanthropology and in various attempts to correlate physical with racial ...
. The skeleton of
Truganini Truganini ( 1812 – 8 May 1876), also known as Lalla Rookh and Lydgugee, was widely described as the last of the "full-blooded" Aboriginal Tasmanians after British colonisation and one of the last speakers of the Tasmanian languages. As a t ...
, a Tasmanian Aboriginal who died in 1876, was exhumed within two years of her death despite her pleas to the contrary by the
Royal Society of Tasmania The Royal Society of Tasmania (RST) was formed in 1843. It was the first Royal Society outside the United Kingdom, and its mission was the advancement of knowledge. The work of the Royal Society of Tasmania includes: * Promoting Tasmanian hist ...
, and later placed on display. Campaigns continue to have Aboriginal body parts returned to Australia for burial; Truganini's body was returned in 1976 and cremated, and her ashes were scattered according to her wishes. Place names sometimes reveal discrimination, such as Mount Jim Crow in
Rockhampton, Queensland Rockhampton is a city in the Rockhampton Region of Central Queensland, Australia. In the , the population of Rockhampton was 79,293. A common nickname for Rockhampton is "Rocky", and the demonym of Rockhampton is Rockhamptonite. The Scottish- ...
(now Mount Baga), as well as racist policies, like Brisbane's Boundary Streets, which used to indicate boundaries where Aboriginal people were not allowed to cross during certain times of the day. There is ongoing discussion about changing many of these names. Throughout most of the 19th and 20th centuries, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had their lives under the jurisdiction of various state-based protection laws. These Acts of Parliament appointed Protectors of Aborigines and
Aboriginal Protection Board Aboriginal Protection Board, also known as Aborigines Protection Board, Board for the Protection of Aborigines, Aborigines Welfare Board (and in later sources, incorrectly as Aboriginal Welfare Board), and similar names, refers to a number of hi ...
s, whose role was to control the lives of Indigenous Australians. Wages were controlled by the Protectors, and Indigenous Australians received less income than their non-Indigenous counterparts in employment. During this time, many Aboriginal people were victims of slavery by colonists alongside
Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...
peoples who were kidnapped from their homes, in a practice known as
blackbirding Blackbirding was the trade in indentured labourers from the Pacific in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It is often described as a form of slavery, despite the British Slavery Abolition Act 1833 banning slavery throughout the British Empire, ...
. Between 1860 and 1970, under the guise of protectionist policies, people, including children as young as 12, were forced to work on properties where they worked under horrific conditions and most did not receive any wages. In the pearling industry, Aboriginal peoples were bought for about 5 pounds, with pregnant Aboriginal women "prized because their lungs were believed to have greater air capacity". Aboriginal prisoners in the Aboriginal-only prison on
Rottnest Island Rottnest Island (), often colloquially referred to as "Rotto", is a Islands of Perth, Western Australia, island off the coast of Western Australia, located west of Fremantle. A sandy, low-lying island formed on a base of aeolianite limestone, ...
, many of whom were there on trumped up charges, were chained up and forced to work. In 1971, 373 Aboriginal men were found buried in unmarked graves on the island. Up until June 2018, the former prison was being used as holiday accommodation. From 1810, Aboriginal peoples were moved onto mission stations, run by churches and the state. After this period of protectionist policies that aimed to segregate and control Aboriginal populations, in 1937 the Commonwealth government agreed to move towards assimilation policies. These policies aimed to integrate Aboriginal persons who were "not of full blood" into the white community in an effort to eliminate the "Aboriginal problem". As part of this, there was an increase in the number of children forcibly removed from their homes and placed with white people, either in institutions or foster homes.


Frontier wars and massacres

As part of the colonisation process, there were many conflicts and clashes between colonists and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across the continent and islands. In Queensland, the killing of Aboriginal peoples was largely perpetrated by civilian "hunting" parties and the Native Police, armed groups of Aboriginal men who were recruited at gunpoint and led by government officers to eliminate Aboriginal resistance. There is evidence that massacres of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, which began with arrival of British colonists, continued until the 1930s. Researchers at the University of Newcastle under
Lyndall Ryan Lyndall Ryan, (14 April 1943 – 30 April 2024) was an Australian academic and historian. She held positions in Australian studies and women's studies at Griffith University and Flinders University and was the foundation professor of Australian ...
have been mapping the massacres. they have mapped almost 500 places where massacres happened, with 12,361 Aboriginal people killed and 204 Colonists killed, numbering at least 311 massacres over a period of about 140 years. After losing a significant number of their social unit in one blow, the survivors were left very vulnerable – with reduced ability to gather food, reproduce, or fulfill their ceremonial obligations, as well as defend themselves against further attack. Estimating the total number of deaths during the frontier wars is difficult due to lack of records and the fact that many massacres of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander were kept secret. It is often quoted that 20,000 Aboriginal Australians and 2000 colonists died in the frontier wars; however, recent research indicates at least 40,000 Aboriginal dead and 2,000 to 2,500 settlers dead. Other research indicates a minimum of 65,000 Aboriginal peoples may have been killed in Queensland alone. There have been arguments over whether deaths of Aboriginal peoples, particularly in Tasmania, as well as the forcible removal of children from Aboriginal communities, constitutes
genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...
. There has been broad range of historical research on the massacres and treatment of Aboriginal peoples, including by Lyndall Ryan at the Centre for 21st Century Humanities, the Frontier Conflict Database, and the Australian Commonwealth government's Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children From their Families. According to the analysis of Justice Ronald Wilson in the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Report Australia's policy of forcible removal was genocidal in nature. Quoting Raphael Lemkin, Wilson defined genocide as "a coordinated plan of different actions aimed at the destruction of the essential foundations of the lives of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves." The objectives of which were "the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, the destruction of personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups." Wilson states that "Genocide can be committed by means other than actual physical extermination. It is committed by the forcible transfer of children, provided the other elements of the crime are established." He points out that "Genocide is committed even when the destruction has not been carried out. A conspiracy to commit genocide and an attempt at genocide are both crimes which are committed whether or not any actual destruction occurred." Further, Wilson found that "The debates at the time of the drafting of the Genocide Convention establish clearly that an act or policy is still genocidal when it is motivated by a number of objectives. To constitute an act of genocide the planned extermination of a group need not be solely motivated by animosity or hatred."...and that "reasonable foreseeability...is sufficient to establish the Convention's intent element." He concluded that "The policy of forcible removal of children from Indigenous Australians to other groups for the purpose of raising them separately from and ignorant of their culture and people could properly be labelled 'genocidal' in breach of binding international law from at least 11 December 1946...The practice continued for almost another quarter of a century." There are few memorials in Australia acknowledging the widespread massacres of Aboriginal Peoples, and no memorials describing it as genocide. However, the massacres were often recorded by Australians as place names, for example: Murdering Gully in Newcastle, Murdering Creek at Lake Weyba, Skull Pocket and Skeleton Creek near Cairns, Rifle Creek near Mt Molloy Qld, Skull Lagoon near Mt Carbine Qld, Skull Hole near Winton Qld, Battle Camp Road, Range and Station east of Laura Qld, Slaughterhouse Creek (Waterloo Creek) NSW.


1871–1969: Stolen Generations

The Stolen Generations were those children of Australian Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Torres Strait Islanders ( ) are the Indigenous Melanesians, Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal peoples of the res ...
descent who were forcibly removed from their families by the Australian federal and
state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...
government agencies and church missions for the purpose of eradicating Aboriginal culture, under acts of their respective parliaments. The forcible removal of these children occurred in the period between approximately 1871 and 1969, although in some places children were still being taken in the 1970s.


Early 20th century

By 1900, the recorded Indigenous population of Australia had declined to approximately 93,000. However, this was only a partial count, as both Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders were poorly covered, with desert Aboriginal peoples not counted at all until the 1930s. During the first half of the twentieth century, many Indigenous Australians worked as stockmen on
sheep station A sheep station is a large property ( station, the equivalent of a ranch) in Australia or New Zealand, whose main activity is the raising of sheep for their wool and/or meat. In Australia, sheep stations are usually in the south-east or sout ...
s and
cattle station In Australia and New Zealand, a cattle station is a large farm ( station is equivalent to the American ranch), the main activity of which is the rearing of cattle. The owner of a cattle station is called a '' grazier''. The largest cattle stati ...
s for extremely low wages. The Indigenous population continued to decline, reaching a low of 74,000 in 1933 before numbers began to recover. By 1995, population numbers had reached pre-colonisation levels, and in 2010 there were around 563,000 Indigenous Australians. Although, as
British subject The term "British subject" has several different meanings depending on the time period. Before 1949, it referred to almost all subjects of the British Empire (including the United Kingdom, Dominions, and colonies, but excluding protectorates ...
s, all Indigenous Australians were nominally entitled to vote, generally only those who merged into mainstream society did so. Only Western Australia and Queensland specifically excluded Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from the electoral rolls. Despite the
Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902 The Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902 (Cth) was an Act of the Parliament of Australia which set out who was entitled to vote in Australian federal elections. The Act established, in time for the 1903 Australian federal election, suffrage for fed ...
, which excluded "Aboriginal natives of Australia, Asia, Africa and Pacific Islands except New Zealand" from voting unless they were on the roll before 1901, South Australia insisted that all voters enfranchised within its borders would remain eligible to vote in the Commonwealth, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continued to be added to their rolls, albeit haphazardly. Despite efforts to bar their enlistment, over 1,000 Indigenous Australians fought for Australia in the First World War. 1934 saw the first appeal to the High Court by an Aboriginal Australian, and it succeeded. Dhakiyarr was found to have been wrongly convicted of the murder of a white policeman, for which he had been sentenced to death; the case focused national attention on Aboriginal rights issues. Dhakiyarr disappeared upon release. In 1938, the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the British
First Fleet The First Fleet were eleven British ships which transported a group of settlers to mainland Australia, marking the beginning of the History of Australia (1788–1850), European colonisation of Australia. It consisted of two Royal Navy vessel ...
was marked as a
Day of Mourning A national day of mourning is a day, or one of several days, marked by mourning and memorial activities observed among the majority of a country's populace. They are designated by the national government. Such days include those marking the deat ...
and Protest at an Aboriginal meeting in Sydney, and has since become marked around Australia as "Invasion Day" or "Survival Day" by Aboriginal protesters and their supporters. Hundreds of Indigenous Australians served in the Australian armed forces during World War Two – including with the
Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion The Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion was an infantry battalion of the Australian Army during the Second World War. Initially raised as a Company (military unit), company-sized unit in 1941, it was expanded to a full battalion in 1942 and w ...
and The
Northern Territory Special Reconnaissance Unit The Northern Territory Special Reconnaissance Unit (NTSRU) was an irregular warfare unit of the Australian Army during World War II, composed mainly of Aboriginal people from the Northern Territory. Formed in 1941, the unit patrolled the coast o ...
, which were established to guard Australia's North against the threat of Japanese invasion. However, most were denied pension rights and military allotments, except in Victoria, where each case was judged individually, without a blanket denial of rights accruing from their service.


Late 20th century

The 1960s was a pivotal decade in the assertion of Aboriginal rights and a time of growing collaboration between Aboriginal activists and white Australian activists. In 1962, Commonwealth legislation guaranteed Aboriginal people the right to vote in Commonwealth elections, which had previously been denied to Indigenous people in Queensland and Western Australia. A group of
University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...
students organised a bus tour of western and coastal New South Wales towns in 1965 to raise awareness of the state of Aboriginal health and living conditions. This Freedom Ride also aimed to highlight the social discrimination faced by Aboriginal people and encourage Aboriginal people themselves to resist discrimination. As mentioned above, Indigenous Australians received lower wages than their non-Indigenous counterparts in employment. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Queensland in particular had their income quarantined by the Protector and were allowed a minimal amount of their income. In 1966,
Vincent Lingiari Vincent Lingiari (; 13 June 1908 or 1919 – 21 January 1988) was an Australian Aboriginal rights activist of the Gurindji people. In his early life he started as a stockman at Wave Hill Station, where the Aboriginal workers were given no ...
led the famous
Wave Hill walk-off The Wave Hill walk-off, also known as the Gurindji strike, was a walk-off and strike by 200 Gurindji stockmen, house servants and their families, starting on 23 August 1966 and lasting for seven years. It took place at Wave Hill, a cattle stati ...
(Gurindji strike) of Indigenous employees of
Wave Hill Station Wave Hill Station, most commonly referred to as Wave Hill, is a pastoral lease in the Northern Territory operating as a cattle station. The property is best known as the scene of the Wave Hill walk-off, a strike by Indigenous Australian w ...
in protest against poor pay and conditions (later the subject of the Paul Kelly and
Kev Carmody Kevin Daniel Carmody (born 1946), better known by his stage name Kev Carmody, is an Aboriginal Australian singer-songwriter and musician, a Murri man from northern Queensland. He is best known for the song " From Little Things Big Things Grow" ...
song " From Little Things Big Things Grow"). Since 1999, the
Queensland Government The Queensland Government is the state government of Queensland, Australia, a Parliament, parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Government is formed by the party or coalition that has gained a majority in the Queensland Legislative Assembly, ...
, under pressure from the
Queensland Council of Unions The Queensland Council of Unions (QCU) is the peak body representing trade union organisations in Queensland, Australia. As of 2024, 28 unions and 13 regional branches are affiliated with the QCU. The QCU represents unions covering around 400 ...
, has established a number of schemes to give any earned income not received at the time back to Indigenous Australians. The landmark
1967 referendum Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 6 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and Army of ...
called by Prime Minister
Harold Holt Harold Edward Holt (5 August 190817 December 1967) was an Australian politician and lawyer who served as the 17th prime minister of Australia from 1966 until Disappearance of Harold Holt, his disappearance and presumed death in 1967. He held o ...
allowed the
Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the 15th century. Originally a phrase (the common-wealth ...
to make laws with respect to Aboriginal people by modifying section 51(xxvi) of the Constitution, and for Aboriginal people to be included when the country does a count to determine electoral representation by repealing section 127. The referendum passed with 90.77% voter support. In the controversial 1971
Gove land rights case ''Milirrpum v Nabalco Pty Ltd'', also known as the Gove land rights case because its subject was land known as the Gove Peninsula in the Northern Territory, was the first litigation on native title in Australia, and the first significant legal ...
, Justice Blackburn ruled that Australia had been ''
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 ...
'' before British settlement, and that no concept of native title existed in Australian law. Following the 1973 Woodward commission, in 1975 the federal government under
Gough Whitlam Edward Gough Whitlam (11 July 191621 October 2014) was the 21st prime minister of Australia, serving from December 1972 to November 1975. To date the longest-serving federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), he was notable for being ...
drafted the Aboriginal Land Rights Bill. This was enacted the following year under the
Fraser government The Fraser government was the federal executive government of Australia led by Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser. It was made up of members of a Liberal–Country party coalition in the Australian Parliament from November 1975 to March 1983. Init ...
as the ''
Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 The ''Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976'' (ALRA) is Australian federal government legislation that provides the basis upon which Aboriginal Australian people in the Northern Territory can claim rights to land based on traditi ...
'', which recognised Aboriginal Australians' system of land rights in the Northern Territory, and established the basis upon which Aboriginal people in the NT could claim rights to land based on traditional occupation. In 1985, the Australian government returned ownership of
Uluru Uluru (; ), also known as Ayers Rock ( ) and officially gazetted as UluruAyers Rock, is a large sandstone monolith. It outcrop, crops out near the centre of Australia in the southern part of the Northern Territory, south-west of Alice Spri ...
(Ayers Rock) to the
Pitjantjatjara The Pitjantjatjara (; or ) are an Aboriginal people of the Central Australian desert near Uluru. They are closely related to the Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra and their languages are, to a large extent, mutually intelligible (all are v ...
Aboriginal people. In 1992, the
High Court of Australia The High Court of Australia is the apex court of the Australian legal system. It exercises original and appellate jurisdiction on matters specified in the Constitution of Australia and supplementary legislation. The High Court was establi ...
reversed Justice Blackburn's ruling and handed down its decision in the Mabo Case, declaring the previous legal concept of ''terra nullius'' to be invalid and confirming the existence of
native title in Australia Native title is the set of rights, recognised by Australian law, held by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups or individuals to land that derive from their maintenance of their traditional laws and customs. These Aboriginal title righ ...
. Indigenous Australians began to serve in parliaments from the late 1960s. In 1971,
Neville Bonner Neville Thomas Bonner AO (28 March 19225 February 1999) was an Australian politician, and the first Aboriginal Australian to become a member of the Parliament of Australia. He was appointed by the Queensland Parliament to fill a casual vacancy ...
joined the
Australian Senate The Senate is the upper house of the Bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the Australian House of Representatives, House of Representatives. The powers, role and composition of the Senate are set out in Chap ...
as a Senator for Queensland for the
Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...
, becoming the first Indigenous Australian in the Federal Parliament. A year later, the
Aboriginal Tent Embassy The Aboriginal Tent Embassy is a permanent protest occupation site as a focus for representing the political rights of Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander people. Established on 26 January (Australia Day) 1972, and celebrating ...
was established on the steps of
Parliament House Parliament House may refer to: Meeting places of parliament Australia * Parliament House, Canberra, Parliament of Australia * Parliament House, Adelaide, Parliament of South Australia * Parliament House, Brisbane, Parliament of Queensland * P ...
in
Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...
. In 1976, Sir
Douglas Nicholls Sir Douglas Ralph Nicholls (9 December 1906 – 4 June 1988) was a prominent Aboriginal Australian from the Yorta Yorta people. He was a professional athlete, Churches of Christ pastor and church planter, ceremonial officer and a pioneerin ...
was appointed as the 28th Governor of South Australia, the first Aboriginal person appointed to vice-regal office. In the general election of 2010,
Ken Wyatt Kenneth George Wyatt (born 4 August 1952) is an Australian former politician. He was a member of the House of Representatives (Australia), House of Representatives from 2010 to 2022, representing the Division of Hasluck for the Liberal Party of ...
of the
Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...
became the first Indigenous Australian elected to the
Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Australian Senate, Senate. Its composition and powers are set out in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. ...
. In the general election of 2016,
Linda Burney Linda Jean Burney (born 25 April 1957) is an Australian Labor Party (ALP) politician who was the member of Parliament (MP) for the division of Barton from 2016 to 2025. She was the minister for Indigenous Australians from 2022 to July 2024. S ...
of the
Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...
became the second Indigenous Australian, and the first Indigenous Australian woman, elected to the
Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Australian Senate, Senate. Its composition and powers are set out in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. ...
. She was immediately appointed Shadow Minister for Human Services. In sport
Evonne Goolagong Cawley Evonne Fay Goolagong Cawley (née Goolagong; born 31 July 1951) is an Australian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis ...
became the world number-one ranked tennis player in 1971 and won 14 Grand Slam titles during her career. In 1973
Arthur Beetson Arthur Henry "Artie" Beetson Medal of the Order of Australia, OAM (21 January 1945 – 1 December 2011
became the first Indigenous Australian to captain his country in any sport when he first led the Australian National Rugby League team, the Kangaroos. In 1982,
Mark Ella Mark Gordon Ella, Order of Australia, AM (born 5 June 1959) is an indigenous Australian former rugby union footballer. Ella played at flyhalf, flyhalf/five-eighth and was capped by the Australia national rugby union team, Wallabies 25 times, capt ...
became captain of the
Australia national rugby union team The Australia men's national rugby union team, nicknamed the Wallabies, is the representative men's national team in the sport of rugby union for Australia. The Wallabies first played at Sydney in 1899, winning their first Test match (rugby u ...
. In 2000, Aboriginal sprinter
Cathy Freeman Catherine Astrid Salome Freeman (born 16 February 1973) is an Australian former sprinter, who specialised in the 400 metres event. Her personal best of 48.63 seconds currently ranks her as the ninth-fastest woman of all time, set while fin ...
lit the
Olympic flame The Olympic flame is a Olympic symbols, symbol used in the Olympic movement. It is also a symbol of continuity between ancient and modern games. The Olympic flame is lit at Olympia, Greece, several months before the Olympic Games. This ceremony s ...
at the opening ceremony of the
2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...
in Sydney, and went on to win the
400 metres The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor running track, it is ...
at the Games. In 2019, tennis player
Ashleigh Barty Ashleigh Jacinta Barty (born 24 April 1996) is an Australian former professional tennis player and cricketer. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Assoc ...
was ranked world number one. In 1984, a group of
Pintupi The Pintupi are an Australian Aboriginal group who are part of the Western Desert cultural group and whose traditional land is in the area west of Lake Macdonald and Lake Mackay in Western Australia. These people moved (or were moved) into th ...
people who were living a traditional
hunter-gatherer A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived Lifestyle, lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, esp ...
desert-dwelling life were tracked down in the
Gibson Desert The Gibson Desert is a large desert in Western Australia, largely in an almost pristine state. It is about in size, making it the fifth largest desert in Australia, after the Great Victoria, Great Sandy, Tanami and Simpson deserts. The ...
in Western Australia and brought in to a settlement. They are believed to have been the last
uncontacted tribe Uncontacted peoples are groups of Indigenous peoples living without sustained contact with neighbouring communities and the world community. Groups who decide to remain uncontacted are referred to as indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation. Leg ...
in Australia. During this period, the federal government enacted a number of significant, but controversial, policy initiatives in relation to Indigenous Australians. A representative body, the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) (1990–2005) was the Australian Government body through which Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders were formally involved in the processes of government affecting thei ...
(ATSIC), was set up in 1990.


Reconciliation

Reconciliation between non-Indigenous and Indigenous Australians became a significant issue in Australian politics in the late 20th century. In 1991, the
Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation Reconciliation in Australia is a process which officially began in 1991, focused on the improvement of relations between the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia and the rest of the population. The Council for Aboriginal R ...
was established by the federal government to facilitate reconciliation. In 1998, a Constitutional Convention which selected a Republican model for a referendum included just six Indigenous participants, leading Monarchist delegate
Neville Bonner Neville Thomas Bonner AO (28 March 19225 February 1999) was an Australian politician, and the first Aboriginal Australian to become a member of the Parliament of Australia. He was appointed by the Queensland Parliament to fill a casual vacancy ...
to end his contribution to the convention with his Jagera tribal "Sorry Chant" in sadness at the low number of Indigenous representatives. An inquiry into the
Stolen Generations The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Aboriginal Australians, Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian Gover ...
was launched in 1995 by the
Keating government The Keating government was the federal executive government of Australia led by Prime Minister Paul Keating of the Australian Labor Party from 1991 to 1996. The government followed on from the Hawke government after Paul Keating replaced Bob ...
, and the final report delivered in 1997 – the ''Bringing Them Home'' report – estimated that around 10% to 33% of all Aboriginal children had been separated from their families for the duration of the policies. The succeeding
Howard government The Howard government refers to the Government of Australia, federal executive government of Australia led by Prime Minister John Howard between 11 March 1996 and 3 December 2007. It was made up of members of the Liberal Party of Australia, Li ...
largely ignored the recommendations provided by the report, one of which was a formal apology to Aboriginal Australians for the Stolen Generations. The republican model, as well as a proposal for a new Constitutional preamble which would have included the "honouring" of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, was put to
referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...
but did not succeed. In 1999, the Australian Parliament passed a Motion of Reconciliation drafted by Prime Minister
John Howard John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. His eleven-year tenure as prime min ...
in consultation with Aboriginal Senator
Aden Ridgeway Aden Derek Ridgeway (born 18 September 1962) is an Australian former politician. He was a member of the Australian Senate for New South Wales from 1999 to 2005, representing the Australian Democrats. During his term he was the only Aboriginal m ...
naming mistreatment of Indigenous Australians as the most "blemished chapter in our national history", although Howard refused to offer any formal apology. On 13 February 2008, Prime Minister
Kevin Rudd Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957) is an Australian diplomat and former politician who served as the 26th prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010 and June to September 2013. He held office as the Leaders of the Australian Labo ...
issued a formal
apology to Australia's Indigenous peoples On 13 February 2008, the Parliament of Australia issued a formal apology to Indigenous Australians for forced removals of Indigenous Australians, Australian Indigenous children (often referred to as the Stolen Generations) from their familie ...
, on behalf of the federal government of Australia, for the suffering caused by the Stolen Generations.


21st century

In 2001, the Federal Government dedicated
Reconciliation Place Reconciliation Place is an urban landscape design in the Parliamentary Triangle Canberra, Australia dedicated to reconciliation in Australia, reconciliation between Australia's Indigenous peoples and the mainly European settler population. Reconc ...
in Canberra. On 13 February 2008, Prime Minister
Kevin Rudd Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957) is an Australian diplomat and former politician who served as the 26th prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010 and June to September 2013. He held office as the Leaders of the Australian Labo ...
reversed Howard's decision and issued a
public apology A public apology is a component of reparation as stipulated in the United Nations Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights resolution proclaiming the Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for ...
to members of the
Stolen Generations The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Aboriginal Australians, Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian Gover ...
on behalf of the Australian Government. ATSIC was abolished by the Australian Government in 2004 amidst allegations of corruption.


Emergency Response/Stronger Futures

The
Northern Territory National Emergency Response The Northern Territory National Emergency Response, also known as "The Intervention" or the Northern Territory Intervention, and sometimes the abbreviation "NTER" (for Northern Territory Emergency Response) was a package of measures enforced by ...
(also known as the Intervention) was launched in 2007 by the government of Prime Minister
John Howard John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. His eleven-year tenure as prime min ...
, in response to the ''
Little Children are Sacred ''Little Children are Sacred'', or ''Ampe Akelyernemane Meke Mekarle'' (derived from Arandic languages), is the report of a Board of Inquiry into the Protection of Aboriginal Children from Sexual Abuse, chaired by Rex Wild and Patricia Anderso ...
'' report into allegations of
child abuse Child abuse (also called child endangerment or child maltreatment) is physical abuse, physical, child sexual abuse, sexual, emotional and/or psychological abuse, psychological maltreatment or Child neglect, neglect of a child, especially by a p ...
among Aboriginal communities in the NT. The government banned alcohol in prescribed communities in the Territory; quarantined a percentage of welfare payments for essential goods purchasing; dispatched additional police and medical personnel to the region; and suspended the permit system for access to Aboriginal communities. In addition to these measures, the
army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...
were released into communities and there were increased police powers, which were later further increased with the so-called "paperless arrests" legislation. In 2010, United Nations Special Rapporteur James Anaya found the Emergency Response to be racially discriminatory, and said that aspects of it represented a limitation on "individual autonomy". These findings were criticised by the government's Indigenous Affairs Minister
Jenny Macklin Jennifer Louise Macklin (born 29 December 1953) is an Australian former politician. She was elected to federal parliament at the 1996 federal election and served as the deputy leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 2001 to 2006, und ...
, the Opposition and Indigenous leaders like
Warren Mundine Nyunggai Warren Stephen Mundine (born 11 August 1956) is an Australian businessman, political strategist, advocate for Indigenous affairs, and former politician. Starting his political career in 1995, Mundine became the first Indigenous person ...
and
Bess Price Bess Nungarrayi Price (born 22 October 1960) is an Aboriginal Australian activist and politician. She was a Country Liberal Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 2012 to 2016, representing the electorate of Stuart, a ...
. In 2011, the Australian government enacted legislation to implement the
Stronger Futures policy The Stronger Futures policy was a multifaceted social policy of the Australian government concerning the Aboriginal population of the Northern Territory. It was underpinned by the ''Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory Act 2012'', which ce ...
, which is intended to address key issues that exist within Aboriginal communities of the Northern Territory such as unemployment, school attendance and enrolment,
alcohol abuse Alcohol abuse encompasses a spectrum of alcohol-related substance abuse. This spectrum can range from being mild, moderate, or severe. This can look like consumption of more than 2 drinks per day on average for men, or more than 1 drink per ...
, community safety and child protection, food security and housing and land reforms. The policy has been criticised by organisations such as
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...
and other groups, including on the basis that it maintains "racially-discriminatory" elements of the ''Emergency Response Act'' and continues control by the federal government over "Aboriginal people and their lands".


Constitutional change proposed

In 2010, the federal government appointed a panel comprising Indigenous leaders, other legal experts and some members of parliament (including Ken Wyatt) to provide advice on how best to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the federal Constitution. The panel's recommendations, reported to the federal government in January 2012, included deletion of provisions of the Constitution referencing race ( Section 25 and Section 51(xxvi)), and new provisions on meaningful recognition and further protection from discrimination. Subsequently, a proposed referendum on Constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians was ultimately abandoned in 2013. The ''
Uluru Statement from the Heart The ''Uluru Statement from the Heart'' is a 2017 petition to the people of Australia, written and endorsed by the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders selected as delegates to the First Nations National Constitutional Conv ...
'' was released 26 May 2017 by delegates to an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Referendum Convention, held near
Uluru Uluru (; ), also known as Ayers Rock ( ) and officially gazetted as UluruAyers Rock, is a large sandstone monolith. It outcrop, crops out near the centre of Australia in the southern part of the Northern Territory, south-west of Alice Spri ...
in Central Australia. The statement calls for a "First Nations Voice" in the Australian Constitution and a "Makarrata Commission" to supervise a process of "agreement-making" and "truth-telling" between government and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The statement references the
1967 referendum Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 6 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and Army of ...
which brought about changes to the Constitution to include Indigenous Australians.


Population


Pre-colonisation

It has been variously estimated that before the arrival of British settlers, the population of Indigenous (probably Aboriginal only) Australians was approximately 318,000–1,000,000 with the distribution being similar to that of the current Australian population, the majority living in the south-east, centred along the
Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray; Ngarrindjeri language, Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta language, Yorta Yorta: ''Dhungala'' or ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is List of rivers of Australia, Aust ...
.


Definition

Over time Australia has used various means to determine membership of ethnic groups such as lineage,
blood quantum Blood quantum laws or Indian blood laws are laws that define Native Americans in the United States status by fractions of Native American ancestry. These laws were enacted by the Federal government of the United States, federal government and S ...
, birth and
self-determination Self-determination refers to a people's right to form its own political entity, and internal self-determination is the right to representative government with full suffrage. Self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international la ...
. From 1869 until well into the 1970s, children under 12 years of age with 25% or less Aboriginal blood were considered "white" and were often removed from their families by the Australian Federal and
State State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...
government agencies and church missions, under
acts The Acts of the Apostles (, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; ) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of its message to the Roman Empire. Acts and the Gospel of Luke make up a two-par ...
of their respective parliaments in order that they would have "a reasonable chance of absorption into the white community to which they rightly belong". Grey areas in determination of ethnicity led to people of mixed ancestry being caught in the middle of divisive policies which often led to absurd situations:
In 1935, an Australian of part Indigenous descent left his home on a reserve to visit a nearby hotel where he was ejected for being Aboriginal. He returned home but was refused entry to the reserve because he was not Aboriginal. He attempted to remove his children from the reserve but was told he could not because they were Aboriginal. He then walked to the next town where he was arrested for being an Aboriginal vagrant and sent to the reserve there. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
he tried to enlist but was rejected because he was an Aborigine so he moved to another state where he enlisted as a non-Aborigine. After the end of the war he applied for a passport but was rejected as he was an Aborigine, he obtained an exemption under the Aborigines Protection Act but was now told he could no longer visit his relatives as he was not an Aborigine. He was later told he could not join the Returned Servicemens Club because he was an Aborigine.
In 1983 the
High Court of Australia The High Court of Australia is the apex court of the Australian legal system. It exercises original and appellate jurisdiction on matters specified in the Constitution of Australia and supplementary legislation. The High Court was establi ...
(in the ''
Commonwealth v Tasmania ''Commonwealth v Tasmania'' (popularly known as the ''Tasmanian Dam Case'') was a significant Australian court case, decided in the High Court of Australia on 1 July 1983. The case was a landmark decision in Australian constitutional law, and w ...
'' or "''Tasmanian dam(s) case''") defined an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander as "a person of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent who identifies as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and is accepted as such by the community in which he or she lives". The ruling was a three-part definition comprising descent, self-identification and community identification. The first part – descent – was genetic descent and unambiguous, but led to cases where a lack of records to prove ancestry excluded some. Self- and community identification were more problematic as they meant that an Indigenous person separated from his or her community due to a family dispute could no longer identify as Aboriginal. As a result, there arose court cases throughout the 1990s where excluded people demanded that their Aboriginality be recognised. As a result, lower courts refined the High Court test when subsequently applying it. In 1995, Justice Drummond in the Federal Court held in ''Gibbs v Capewell'' "...either genuine self-identification as Aboriginal alone or Aboriginal communal recognition as such by itself may suffice, according to the circumstances." This contributed to an increase of 31% in the number of people identifying as Indigenous Australians in the 1996 census when compared to the 1991 census. In 1998 Justice Merkel held in ''Shaw v Wolf'' that Aboriginal descent is "technical" rather than "real" – thereby eliminating a genetic requirement. This decision established that anyone can classify him or herself legally as an Aboriginal, provided he or she is accepted as such by his or her community.


Demographics


Inclusion in the national Census

Indigenous Australians have been counted in every census albeit only approximately and using inconsistent definitions. Section 127 of the
Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...
, which was repealed in 1967, had excluded "aboriginal natives" from being counted in the overall population statistics for each state and territory and nationally with the
Attorney-General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...
providing a legal advice that a person was an "aboriginal native" if they were a "full-blood aboriginal". As a consequence of section 127, Indigenous Australians in remote areas uninhabited by non-Indigenous Australians were not counted prior to 1967 in censuses and sometimes estimated. Post 1967, Torres Strait Islanders were considered a separate Indigenous people. Prior to 1947, Torres Strait Islanders were considered to be Aboriginal in censuses. In the 1947 census, Torres Strait Islanders were considered to be Polynesian and in the 1954 and 1961 censuses were considered to be
Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...
s. In the 1966 census, Torres Strait Islanders were considered to be Aboriginal. A "Commonwealth working definition" for Indigenous Australians was developed from 1968 and endorsed by
Cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filin ...
in 1978 which contains elements of descent,
self-identification In the psychology of self, one's self-concept (also called self-construction, self-identity, self-perspective or self-structure) is a collection of beliefs about oneself. Generally, self-concept embodies the answer to the question ''"Who am I ...
and community recognition in contrast to the earlier preponderance of Aboriginal blood definition. As there is no formal procedure for any community to record acceptance, the primary method of determining Indigenous population is from self-identification on census forms. The
Australian Census The Census in Australia, officially the Census of Population and Housing, is the national census in Australia that occurs every five years. The census collects key demographic, social and economic data from all people in Australia on census nig ...
includes counts based on questions relating to individuals' self-identification as Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, or of both origins. Owing to various difficulties which lead to under-counting, the
Australian Bureau of Statistics The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is an List of Australian Government entities, Australian Government agency that collects and analyses statistics on economic, population, Natural environment, environmental, and social issues to advi ...
(ABS) follows a set method to estimate total numbers.


Distribution and growth

The 2006
Australian census The Census in Australia, officially the Census of Population and Housing, is the national census in Australia that occurs every five years. The census collects key demographic, social and economic data from all people in Australia on census nig ...
showed growth in the Indigenous population (recorded as 517,000) at twice the rate of overall population growth since 1996, when the Indigenous population stood at 283,000. In the 2011 census, there was a 20% rise in people who identify as Aboriginal. In the 2016 census, there was another 18.4% rise on the 2011 figure. 590,056 respondents identified themselves as Aboriginal, 32,345
Torres Strait Islander Torres Strait Islanders ( ) are the Indigenous Melanesians, Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal peoples of the res ...
, and a further 26,767 both Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islanders Torres Strait Islanders ( ) are the Indigenous Melanesians, Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal peoples of the res ...
. In the
2021 Australian census The 2021 Australian census, simply called the 2021 Census, was the eighteenth national Census of Population and Housing in Australia. The 2021 Census took place on 10 August 2021, and was conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). ...
, 812,000 people identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander, representing 3.2% of the population. This was an increase from 2.8% in 2016 (i.e. about 25% increase), and 2.5% in 2011. However, the net undercount of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people was 17.4%, and the estimated Indigenous population is around 952,000 to 1,000,000, or just under 4 per cent of the total population. Growth to 2016 was mainly in major cities and along the eastern coast of Australia. In 2018 the ABS published a report exploring the reasons for these findings, with some of the factors behind the increase being higher fertility rates of Indigenous women; people entering the population through migration; variation in census coverage and response rates; and people changing how they self-identify between census years. Another factor might be the children of mixed marriages: the proportion of Aboriginal adults married (''de facto'' or ''
de jure In law and government, ''de jure'' (; ; ) describes practices that are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms, regardless of whether the practice exists in reality. The phrase is often used in contrast with '' de facto'' ('from fa ...
'') to non-Aboriginal spouses increased to 78.2% in the 2016 census, (up from 74% in 2011, 64% in 1996, 51% in 1991 and 46% in 1986); it was reported in 2002 that up to 88% of the offspring of mixed marriages subsequently self-identify as Indigenous Australians. In the 2016, over 33% of the Indigenous population lived in major cities, compared with about 75% of the non-Indigenous population, with a further 24% in "inner regional" areas (compared with 18%), 20% in "outer regional" (8%), while nearly 18% lived in "remote" or "very remote" areas (2%). (Ten years earlier, 31% were living in major cities and 24% in remote areas.)


Indigenous Australians by state


= Queensland

= Image:Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Islanders by ILOC.jpg, Geographical distribution of the population self-identified as having both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Indigenous status by Indigenous Locations (ILOC), according to the 2016 census Image:Queensland Aboriginals by ILOC copy.jpg, Geographical distribution of the population self-identified as having Indigenous status (Aboriginals only) by Indigenous Locations (ILOC), according to the 2016 census Image:Queensland Indigenous Ancestry by SA1 copy.jpg, The prevalent 1st response about ancestry of the Queensland people self-identified as having Indigenous status (Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islanders or both) in Statistical Areas 1 (SA1) with more than 5% of Indigenous population Image:Queensland Indigenous by ILOC.jpg, Geographical distribution of the Queensland population self-identified as having Indigenous status (Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islanders or both) by Indigenous Locations (ILOC), according to the 2016 census Image:Queensland Indigenous by LGA.jpg, Geographical distribution of the Queensland population self-identified as having Indigenous status (Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islanders or both) by Local Government Areas (LGA), according to the 2016 census Image:Queensland Indigenous by SSC.jpg, Geographical distribution of the Queensland population self-identified as having Indigenous status (Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islanders or both) by State Suburbs (SSC), according to the 2016 census (uninhabited mesh blocks (MB) excluded) Image:Queensland Indigenous Languages by SA1.jpg, The languages most often spoken at home by people self-identified as having Indigenous status (Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islanders or both) in Statistical Areas 1 (SA1) with more than 5% of Indigenous population Image:Queensland Indigenous Languages Percentage by SA1 copy.jpg, Geographical distribution of the population self-identified as having Indigenous status (Torres Strait Islanders only) and spoken at home on one of Indigenous Australian languages by Statistical Areas 1 (SA1) Image:Queensland Indigenous Religions by SA1 copy.jpg, The prevalent religious affiliation of the people self-identified as having Indigenous status (Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islanders or both) in Statistical Areas 1 (SA1) with more than 5% of self-identified Indigenous population Image:Queensland Torres Islanders by ILOC.jpg, Geographical distribution of the Queensland population self-identified as having Indigenous status (Torres Strait Islanders only) by Indigenous Locations (ILOC), according to the 2016 census


Languages


Aboriginal languages

According to the 2005 National Indigenous Languages Survey (NILS), at the time the Australian continent was colonised, there were around 250 different Indigenous languages, with the larger language groups each having up to 100 related dialects. Some of these languages were only ever spoken by perhaps 50 to 100 people. Indigenous languages are divided into language groups with from ten to twenty-four language families identified. It is currently estimated that up to 145 Indigenous languages remain in use, of which fewer than 20 are considered to be strong in the sense that they are still spoken by all age groups. All but 13 Indigenous languages are considered to be endangered. Several extinct Indigenous languages are being reconstructed. For example, the last fluent speaker of the
Ngarrindjeri language Ngarrindjeri, also written Narrinyeri, Ngarinyeri and other variants, is the language of the Ngarrindjeri and related peoples of southern South Australia. Five dialects have been distinguished by a 2002 study: Warki, Tanganekald, Ramindjeri, Por ...
died in the late 1960s; using recordings and written records as a guide, a Ngarrindjeri dictionary was published in 2009, and the Ngarrindjeri language is today spoken in complete sentences. Linguists classify many of the mainland Australian languages into one large group, the
Pama–Nyungan languages The Pama–Nyungan languages () are the most widespread language family, family of Australian Aboriginal languages, containing 306 out of 400 Aboriginal languages in Australia. The name "Pama–Nyungan" is a merism: it is derived from the two e ...
. The rest are sometimes lumped under the term "non-Pama–Nyungan". The Pama–Nyungan languages form the majority, covering most of Australia, and are generally thought to be a family of related languages. In the north, stretching from the Western
Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia Queensland * Kimberley, Queensland, a coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas South Australia * County of Kimberley, a cadastral unit in South Australia Ta ...
to the
Gulf of Carpentaria The Gulf of Carpentaria is a sea off the northern coast of Australia. It is enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the eastern Arafura Sea, which separates Australia and New Guinea. The northern boundary ...
, are found a number of non-Pama–Nyungan groups of languages which have not been shown to be related to the Pama–Nyungan family nor to each other. While it has sometimes proven difficult to work out familial relationships within the Pama–Nyungan language family, many Australian linguists feel there has been substantial success. Against this, some linguists, such as
R. M. W. Dixon Robert Malcolm Ward "Bob" Dixon (born 25 January 1939, in Gloucester, England) is a Professor of Linguistics in the College of Arts, Society, and Education and The Cairns Institute, James Cook University, Queensland. He is also Deputy Director ...
, suggest that the Pama–Nyungan group – and indeed the entire Australian linguistic area – is rather a ''
sprachbund A sprachbund (, from , 'language federation'), also known as a linguistic area, area of linguistic convergence, or diffusion area, is a group of languages that share areal features resulting from geographical proximity and language contact. Th ...
'', or group of languages having very long and intimate contact, rather than a genetic language family. It has been suggested that, given their long presence in Australia, Aboriginal languages form one specific sub-grouping. The position of Tasmanian languages is unknown, and it is also unknown whether they comprised one or more than one specific language family. Nearly three quarters of Australian place names have origins in Aboriginal languages. However, the method of recording names used by early colonial surveyors was often unreliable. When a surveyor was seeking the name of a river, the Aboriginal responder might have given the word for "sand" or "water". Unless living speakers of the original languages remained when systematic research of Indigenous languages began in the 1930s, the meaning of many place names was therefore lost, or is now open to several interpretations. The word "
Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...
" was chosen for the national capital. It is popularly believed to mean "meeting place", but this is contested. According to the anthropologist
Aldo Massola Aldo Massola (9 September 1910 – 6 July 1975) was an Italian-Australian anthropologist, a curator at the National Museum of Victoria in Melbourne from 1954 to 1964, who overcame scandal in his personal life to author a number of influentia ...
, the name comes from the word ''nganbirra'' meaning "a camping place".


Cross-cultural communications

Cross-cultural miscommunication can sometimes occur between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. According to Michael Walsh and
Ghil'ad Zuckermann Ghil'ad Zuckermann (, ; ) is an Israeli-born language revivalist and linguist who works in contact linguistics, lexicology and the study of language, culture and identity. Zuckermann was awarded the Rubinlicht Prize (2023) "for his researc ...
, Western conversational interaction is typically " dyadic", between two particular people, where eye contact is important and the speaker controls the interaction; and "contained" in a relatively short, defined time frame. However, traditional Aboriginal conversational interaction is "communal", broadcast to many people, eye contact is not important, the listener controls the interaction; and "continuous", spread over a longer, indefinite time frame.


Torres Strait Island languages

There are three languages spoken in the
Torres Strait Islands The Torres Strait Islands are an archipelago of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait, a waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They span an area of , but their tot ...
, two indigenous languages and an English-based creole. The indigenous language spoken mainly in the western and central islands is
Kalaw Lagaw Ya Kalau Lagau Ya, Kalaw Lagaw Ya, Kala Lagaw Ya (), or the Western Torres Strait language (also several other names, see below) is the language indigenous to the central and western Torres Strait Islands, Queensland, Australia. On some islands, ...
, a language related to the
Pama–Nyungan languages The Pama–Nyungan languages () are the most widespread language family, family of Australian Aboriginal languages, containing 306 out of 400 Aboriginal languages in Australia. The name "Pama–Nyungan" is a merism: it is derived from the two e ...
of the Australian mainland. The other indigenous language spoken mainly in the eastern islands is
Meriam Mir Meriam (; also ''Miriam, Meryam, Mer, Mir, Miriam-Mir'', etc. and ''Eastern, Isten, Esten'' and ''Able Able'') or the Eastern Torres Strait language is the language of the people of the small islands of ''Mer'' ( Murray Island), ''Waier'' and ...
: a member of the
Trans-Fly languages The Trans-Fly languages are a small family of Papuan languages The Papuan languages are the non- Austronesian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands in Indonesia, Solomon Islands, and East ...
spoken on the nearby south coast of New Guinea and the only
Papuan language The Papuan languages are the non-Austronesian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands in Indonesia, Solomon Islands, and East Timor. It is a strictly geographical grouping, and does not imply a ...
spoken on Australian territory. Both languages are
agglutinative In linguistics, agglutination is a morphological process in which words are formed by stringing together morphemes (word parts), each of which corresponds to a single syntactic feature. Languages that use agglutination widely are called agglu ...
; however Kalaw Lagaw Ya appears to be undergoing a transition into a
declension In linguistics, declension (verb: ''to decline'') is the changing of the form of a word, generally to express its syntactic function in the sentence by way of an inflection. Declension may apply to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and det ...
al language while Meriam Mìr is more clearly agglutinative.
Yumplatok Torres Strait Creole (), also known as Torres Strait Pidgin, Brokan/Broken, Cape York Creole, Lockhart Creole, Kriol, Papuan, Broken English, Blaikman, Big Thap, Pizin, and Ailan Tok, is an English-based creole language (a variety of Pidgin E ...
, or Torres Strait Creole, the third language, is a non-typical Pacific English Creole and is the main language of communication on the islands.


Belief systems


Traditional beliefs


Aboriginal

In Aboriginal communities knowledge and decision making is shared between tribal elders. Travellers had to seek elder recognition and acknowledge local Elders – this is increasingly practiced in public events in Australia. Within Aboriginal belief systems, a formative epoch known as "
the Dreaming The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal mythology. It was originally used by Francis Gillen, quickly adopted by hi ...
" or "the Dreamtime" stretches back into the distant past when the creator ancestors known as the First Peoples travelled across the land, and naming as they went. Indigenous Australia's
oral tradition Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication in which knowledge, art, ideas and culture are received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another.Jan Vansina, Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (19 ...
and religious values are based upon reverence for the land and a belief in this Dreamtime. The Dreaming is at once both the ancient time of creation and the present-day reality of Dreaming. Different language and cultural groups each had their own belief structures; these cultures overlapped to a greater or lesser extent, and evolved over time. Major
ancestral An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder, or a forebear, is a parent or ( recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from ...
spirits include the
Rainbow Serpent The Rainbow Serpent or Rainbow Snake is a common deity often seen as the Creator deity, creator God, known by numerous names in different Australian Aboriginal languages by the many List of Australian Aboriginal group names, different Aborigina ...
,
Baiame In Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology, Australian Aboriginal mythology, Baiame (or Biame, Biami, Baayami, Baayama or Byamee) is the Creator deity, creator god and sky father in the Dreaming of several Aboriginal Australian peoples o ...
,
Dirawong In Australian Aboriginal mythology (specifically Bundjalung, from the northern New South Wales coast and South-East Queensland) Dirawong is a goanna Ancestral Being who taught humans how to live on the land, as well as important ceremonies a ...
and
Bunjil Bunjil, also spelt Bundjil, is a creator deity, culture hero and ancestral being, often depicted as a wedge-tailed eagle in Australian Aboriginal mythology of some of the Aboriginal peoples of Victoria. Creation stories In the Kulin nati ...
. Knowledge contained in the Dreaming has been passed down through different stories,
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, dances and ceremonies, and even today provides a framework for ongoing relationships, kinship responsibilities and looking after country. Traditional healers (known as
Ngangkari Ngangkari are the traditional healers of the Aṉangu, Anangu, the Aboriginal Australian, Aboriginal peoples who live mostly in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY Lands) of South Australia and the Western Desert cultural bloc, Weste ...
in the
Western desert In Egypt, the Western Desert is an area of the Sahara that lies west of the river Nile, up to the Libyan border, and south from the Mediterranean Sea to the border with Sudan. It is named in contrast to the Eastern Desert which extends east fro ...
areas of Central Australia) were highly respected men and women who not only acted as healers or doctors, but were generally also custodians of important Dreaming stories.


Torres Strait Islander

Torres Strait Islander people have their own traditional belief systems. Stories of the Tagai represent Torres Strait Islanders as sea people, with a connection to the stars, as well as a system of order in which everything has its place in the world. Some Torres Strait Islander people share beliefs similar to the Aboriginal peoples' Dreaming and "Everywhen" concepts, passed down in
oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information from people, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people who pa ...
.


After colonisation

Christianity and
European culture The culture of Europe is diverse, and rooted in its art, architecture, traditions, cuisines, music, folklore, embroidery, film, literature, economics, philosophy and religious customs. Definition Whilst there are a great number of pers ...
have had a significant impact on Indigenous Australians, their religion and their culture. As in many colonial situations, the churches both facilitated the loss of Indigenous culture and religion and also facilitated its maintenance. In some cases, such as at
Hermannsburg, Northern Territory Hermannsburg, also known as Ntaria, is an Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal community in Ljirapinta Ward of the MacDonnell Shire in the Northern Territory of Australia, ; west southwest of Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Alice Springs, on t ...
and
Piltawodli The Adelaide Park Lands comprise the figure-eight configuration of land, spanning both banks of the River Torrens between Hackney and Thebarton, which encloses and separates the City of Adelaide area (including both the Adelaide city centre and ...
in Adelaide, the work of missionaries laid the foundations for later
language revival Language revitalization, also referred to as language revival or reversing language shift, is an attempt to halt or reverse the decline of a language or to revive an extinct one. Those involved can include linguists, cultural or community group ...
. The German missionaries
Christian Teichelmann Christian Gottlieb Teichelmann (15 December 1807 – 31 May 1888), also spelt Christian Gottlob Teichelmann, was a Lutheran missionary who worked among Australian Aboriginal people in South Australia. He was a pioneer in describing the Kaurna lan ...
and Schürmann went to
Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...
and taught the local
Kaurna The Kaurna people (, ; also Coorna, Kaura, Gaurna and other variations) are a group of Aboriginal people whose traditional lands include the Adelaide Plains of South Australia. They were known as the Adelaide tribe by the early settlers. Kau ...
people only in their own language and created textbooks in the language. However, some
missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Miss ...
taught only in English, and some
Christian mission A Christian mission is an organized effort to carry on evangelism, in the name of the Christian faith. Missions involve sending individuals and groups across boundaries, most commonly geographical boundaries. Sometimes individuals are sent and a ...
s were involved in the placement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children after they were removed from their parents upon orders of the government, and are therefore implicated in the
Stolen Generations The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Aboriginal Australians, Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian Gover ...
.


Aboriginal peoples

The involvement of Christians in Aboriginal affairs has evolved significantly since 1788. The Churches became involved in mission work among Aboriginal peoples in the 19th century as Europeans came to control much of the continent, and the majority of the population was eventually converted. Colonial clergy such as Sydney's first Catholic archbishop,
John Bede Polding John Bede Polding OSB (18 November 179416 March 1877) was an English Benedictine monk and the first Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Australia. Early life Polding was born in Liverpool, England, on 18 November 1794. His father was of Du ...
, strongly advocated for Aboriginal rights and dignity. Around the year 2000, many churches and church organisations officially apologised for past failures to adequately respect Indigenous cultures and address the injustices of the dispossession of Indigenous people. A small minority of Aboriginal people are followers of Islam as a result of intermarriage with "Afghan" camel drivers brought to Australia in the late 19th and early 20th century to help explore and open up the interior.


Torres Strait Islander peoples

From the 1870s,
Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...
spread throughout the Torres Strait Islands, and it remains strong today among Torres Strait Islander people everywhere. The
London Missionary Society The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed tradition, Reformed in outlook, with ...
mission led by Rev. Samuel Macfarlane arrived on Erub (Darnley Island) on 1 July 1871, establishing its first base in the region there. The Islanders refer to this as "The Coming of the Light", or "Coming of Light" and all Island communities celebrate the occasion annually on 1 July. However the coming of Christianity did not spell the end of the people's traditional beliefs; their culture informed their understanding of the new religion, as the
Christian God In Christianity, God is the eternal, supreme being who created and preserves all things. Christians believe in a monotheistic conception of God, which is both transcendent (wholly independent of, and removed from, the material universe) an ...
was welcomed and the new religion was integrated into every aspect of their everyday lives.


Recent census figures

In the 2016 Census, Australia's Indigenous and non-Indigenous population were broadly similar with 54% (vs 55%) reporting a
Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...
affiliation, while less than 2% reported traditional beliefs as their religion, and 36% reported no religion. The proportion of Indigenous people who reported no religion has increased gradually since 2001, standing at 36% in 2016. According to "Table 8: Religious Affiliation by Indigenous Status", 347,572 Indigenous people (out of the total 649,171 in Australia) declared an affiliation to some form of Christianity, with a higher proportion of Torres Strait Islander than Aboriginal people in this number. 7,773 reported traditional beliefs; 1,511 Islam; other religions numbered less than 1,000 each. However the question is optional; 48,670 did not respond, and in addition, nearly 4,000 were reported as "inadequately described". (In the 2006 census, 73% of the Indigenous population reported an affiliation with a Christian denomination, 24% reported no religious affiliation and 1% reported affiliation with an Australian Aboriginal traditional religion.)


Culture


Art

Australia has a tradition of Aboriginal art which is thousands of years old, the best known forms being Australian rock art and
bark painting Bark painting is an Australian Aboriginal art form, involving painting on the interior of a strip of tree bark. While examples of painted bark shelters were found in the south-eastern states (then colonies) of Tasmania, Victoria, and New South W ...
. Evidence of Aboriginal art can be traced back at least 30,000 years, with examples of ancient rock art throughout the continent. Some of these are in national parks such as those of the
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
listed sites at
Uluru Uluru (; ), also known as Ayers Rock ( ) and officially gazetted as UluruAyers Rock, is a large sandstone monolith. It outcrop, crops out near the centre of Australia in the southern part of the Northern Territory, south-west of Alice Spri ...
and
Kakadu National Park Kakadu National Park is a protected area in the Northern Territory of Australia, southeast of Darwin. It is a World Heritage Site. Kakadu is also gazetted as a locality, covering the same area as the national park, with 313 people recorded l ...
in the
Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...
, but examples can also within protected parks in urban areas such as at
Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park is a national park on the northern side of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. The park is north of the Sydney central business district and generally comprises the land east of the Highway 1 (New South Wales ...
in Sydney. The
Sydney rock engravings Sydney rock engravings, or Sydney rock art, are a form of Australian Aboriginal rock art in the Sydney sandstone, sandstone around Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, that consist of carefully drawn images of people, animals, or symbols. Many tho ...
are between 5000 and 200 years old.
Murujuga The Burrup Peninsula, previously known as Dampier Island, is a former island of the Dampier Archipelago that is now connected to the mainland via a causeway. The peninsula and islands together are also known as Murujuga. The peninsula is locat ...
in Western Australia was heritage listed in 2007. In terms of age and abundance,
cave art In archaeology, cave paintings are a type of parietal art (which category also includes petroglyphs, or engravings), found on the wall or ceilings of caves. The term usually implies prehistoric art, prehistoric origin. These paintings were often c ...
in Australia is comparable to that of
Lascaux Lascaux ( , ; , "Lascaux Cave") is a network of caves near the village of Montignac, Dordogne, Montignac, in the Departments of France, department of Dordogne in southwestern France. Over 600 Parietal art, parietal cave painting, wall paintin ...
and
Altamira Altamira may refer to: People *Altamira (surname) Places *Cave of Altamira, a cave in Cantabria, Spain famous for its paintings and carving *Altamira, Pará, a city in the Brazilian state of Pará * Altamira, Huila, a town and municipality in C ...
(
Upper Paleolithic The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories ...
sites in Europe), and Aboriginal art is believed to be the oldest continuing tradition of art in the world. There are three major regional styles: the geometric style found in Central Australia, Tasmania, the Kimberley and Victoria, known for its concentric circles, arcs and dots; the simple figurative style found in
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 ...
; and the complex figurative style found in
Arnhem Land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territorial capital, Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compa ...
and
the Kimberley The Kimberley is the northernmost of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy Desert, Great Sandy and Tanami Desert, Tanami deserts in t ...
. These designs generally carry significance linked to the spirituality of the
Dreamtime The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology, Australian Aboriginal mythology. It was originally u ...
. Paintings were usually created in earthy colours, from paint made from
ochre Ochre ( ; , ), iron ochre, or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the colou ...
. Such ochres were also used to paint their bodies for ceremonial purposes. Several styles of Aboriginal art have developed in modern times, including the
watercolour Watercolor (American English) or watercolour ( Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting method"Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to the ...
paintings of the
Hermannsburg School The Hermannsburg School, also known as the Hermannsburg School of Modern Art is an art movement, or art style, which began at the Hermannsburg Mission in the 1930s. The best known artist of the style is Albert Namatjira. The movement is cha ...
and the acrylic
Papunya Tula Papunya Tula, registered as Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd, is an artist cooperative formed in 1972 in Papunya, Northern Territory, owned and operated by Aboriginal people from the Western Desert of Australia. The group is known for its innovativ ...
"dot art" movement. Some notable Aboriginal artists include
William Barak William Barak ( March 1823 – 15 August 1903), named Beruk by his parents, the "last chief of the Yarra Yarra tribe", was the last traditional ngurungaeta (elder) of the Wurundjeri-willam clan, the pre-colonial inhabitants of present-day Melbo ...
(–1903) and
Albert Namatjira Albert Namatjira (; born Elea Namatjira; 28 July 1902 – 8 August 1959) was an Arrernte painter from the MacDonnell Ranges in Central Australia, widely considered one of the most notable Australian artists. As a pioneer of contemporary Indige ...
(1902–1959). Since the 1970s, Indigenous artists have employed the use of acrylic paints – with styles such as that of the Western Desert Art Movement becoming globally renowned 20th-century art movements. The
National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...
exhibits a great many Indigenous art works, including those of the
Torres Strait Islands The Torres Strait Islands are an archipelago of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait, a waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They span an area of , but their tot ...
who are known for their traditional sculpture and headgear. Aboriginal art has influenced many non-Indigenous artists, such as
Margaret Preston Margaret Rose Preston (29 April 1875 – 28 May 1963) was an Australian painter, printmaker and writer on art who is regarded as one of Australia's leading modernists of the early 20th century. In her quest to foster an Australian "national ...
(1875–1963) and
Elizabeth Durack Elizabeth Durack Clancy CMG, OBE (6 July 1915 – 25 May 2000) was a Western Australian artist and writer. Early life Born in the Perth suburb of Claremont on 6 July 1915, she was a daughter of Kimberley pioneer, Michael Patrick Durack ...
(1915–2000).


Music, dance and ceremony

Music and dance have formed an integral part of the
social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives fro ...
,
cultural Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...
and ceremonial observances of people through the millennia of the individual and collective histories of Australian Indigenous peoples to the present day. Around 1950, the first research into Aboriginal music was undertaken by the anthropologist
A. P. Elkin Adolphus Peter Elkin (27 March 1891 – 9 July 1979) was an Australian anthropologist and Anglican clergyman. He was an influential anthropologist during the mid twentieth century and a proponent of the assimilation of Indigenous Australians. E ...
, who recorded Aboriginal music in
Arnhem Land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territorial capital, Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compa ...
. The various Aboriginal peoples developed unique musical instruments and styles. The
didgeridoo The didgeridoo (;()), also spelt didjeridu, among other variants, is a wind instrument, played with vibrating lips to produce a continuous Drone (music), drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. The didgerido ...
, which is widely thought to be a stereotypical instrument of Aboriginal people, was traditionally played by Aboriginal men of the eastern
Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia Queensland * Kimberley, Queensland, a coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas South Australia * County of Kimberley, a cadastral unit in South Australia Ta ...
region and
Arnhem Land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territorial capital, Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compa ...
(such as the Yolngu).
Bullroarer The bullroarer, ''rhombus'', or ''turndun'' is an ancient ritual musical instrument and a device historically used for communicating over great distances. It consists of a piece of wood attached to a string, which when swung in a large circle ...
s and
clapsticks Clapsticks, also spelt clap sticks and also known as , , clappers, musicstick or just stick, are a traditional Australian Aboriginal instrument. They serve to maintain rhythm in voice chants, often as part of an Aboriginal ceremony. They ar ...
were used across Australia.
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 relate to the
Dreamtime The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology, Australian Aboriginal mythology. It was originally u ...
in Aboriginal culture, overlapping with
oral lore Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication in which knowledge, art, ideas and culture are received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (1985), reporte ...
.
Corroboree A corroboree is a generic word for a meeting of Australian Aboriginal peoples. It may be a sacred ceremony, a festive celebration, or of a warlike character. A word coined by the first British settlers in the Sydney area from a word in the ...
is a generic word to explain different genres of performance, embracing songs, dances, rallies and meetings of various kinds. Indigenous musicians have been prominent in various contemporary styles of music, including creating a sub-genre of rock music as well as participating in
pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...
and other mainstream styles.
Hip hop music Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music Music genre, genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African Americans, African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide r ...
is helping preserve some Indigenous languages. The
Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts The Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts (ACPA) is a national Australian institution for the culturally sensitive training of Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people in the performing arts. Founded in 1997, it has been loca ...
in
Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...
teaches acting, music and dance, and the
Bangarra Dance Theatre Bangarra Dance Theatre is an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dance company focused on contemporary dance. It was founded by African American dancer and choreographer Carole Y. Johnson, Gumbaynggirr man Rob Bryant, and South African-bor ...
is an acclaimed contemporary dance company. For Torres Strait Islander people, singing and dancing is their "literature" – "the most important aspect of Torres Strait lifestyle. The Torres Strait Islanders preserve and present their oral history through songs and dances;... the dances act as illustrative material and, of course, the dancer himself is the storyteller" (Ephraim Bani, 1979).


Literature

There was no written form of the many languages spoken by Indigenous peoples before colonisation. A letter to Governor
Arthur Phillip Arthur Phillip (11 October 1738 – 31 August 1814) was a British Royal Navy officer who served as the first Governor of New South Wales, governor of the Colony of New South Wales. Phillip was educated at Royal Hospital School, Gree ...
written by
Bennelong Woollarawarre Bennelong ( 1764 – 3 January 1813) was a senior man of the Eora, an Aboriginal Australian people of the Port Jackson area, at the time of the first British settlement in Australia. Bennelong served as an interlocutor between ...
in 1796 is the first known work written in English by an Aboriginal person. Before that, Indigenous societies were
oral The word oral may refer to: Relating to the mouth * Relating to the mouth, the first portion of the alimentary canal that primarily receives food and liquid **Oral administration of medicines ** Oral examination (also known as an oral exam or ora ...
. Their cultural isolation for most of the last 65,000 years proved a perfect situation for the construction and preservation of some of the world's oldest stories. The historic
Yirrkala bark petitions The Yirrkala bark petitions, sent by the Yolngu people, an Aboriginal Australian people of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, to the Australian Parliament in 1963, were the first traditional documents prepared by Indigenous Australians that w ...
of 1963 are the first traditional Aboriginal documents recognised by the
Australian Parliament The Parliament of Australia (officially the Parliament of the Commonwealth and also known as the Federal Parliament) is the federal legislature of Australia. It consists of three elements: the Monarchy of Australia, monarch of Australia (repr ...
. In the 20th century,
David Unaipon David Ngunaitponi (28 September 1872 – 7 February 1967), known as David Unaipon, was an Aboriginal Australian preacher, inventor, and author. A Ngarrindjeri man, his contribution to Australian society helped to break many stereotypes of Abo ...
(1872–1967), known as the first Aboriginal author, is credited for providing the first accounts of Aboriginal mythology written by an Aboriginal person, in his ''Legendary Tales of the Aborigines'' (1924–1925).
Oodgeroo Noonuccal Oodgeroo Noonuccal ( ; born Kathleen Jean Mary Ruska, later Kath Walker (3 November 192016 September 1993) was an Aboriginal Australian political activist, artist and educator, who campaigned for Aboriginal rights. Noonuccal was best known for ...
(1920–1995) was a famous Aboriginal poet, writer and rights activist, credited with publishing the first book of verse by an Aboriginal author, ''We Are Going'' (1964). Sally Morgan's novel '' My Place'' (1987) was considered a breakthrough memoir in terms of bringing Indigenous stories to a wider audience. The talents of playwrights Jack Davis and Kevin Gilbert were recognised.
Poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...
by Indigenous poets, including traditional song-poetry – ranging from sacred to everyday – has been published since the late 20th century. Writers coming to prominence in the 21st century include
Alexis Wright Alexis Wright (born 25 November 1950) is an Aboriginal Australian writer. She is best known for winning the Miles Franklin Award for her 2006 novel '' Carpentaria''. She was the first writer to win the Stella Prize twice, in 2018 for her "colle ...
;
Kim Scott Kim Scott (born 18 February 1957) is an Australian novelist of Aboriginal Australian ancestry. He is a descendant of the Noongar people of Western Australia. Biography Scott was born in Perth, Western Australia, in 1957, and is the eldest o ...
(twice winner of the
Miles Franklin Award The Miles Franklin Literary Award is an annual literary prize awarded to "a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases". The award was set up according to the Will (law), will of Miles Franklin ...
);
Tara June Winch Tara June Winch (born 2 December 1983) is an Australian writer. She is the 2020 winner of the Miles Franklin Award for her book '' The Yield''. Biography Tara June Winch was born in Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia on 2 December 1983. He ...
;
Melissa Lucashenko Melissa Lucashenko is an Indigenous Australians, Indigenous Australian writer of adult literary fiction and literary non-fiction, who has also written young adult fiction, novels for teenagers. In 2013 at the Walkley Awards, she won the "Featu ...
; playwright and comedy writer
Nakkiah Lui Nakkiah Lui is an Australian actor, writer and comedian. She is a young leader in the Aboriginal Australian community. Career Lui is co-writer and star of ''Black Comedy'', a sketch comedy television program on the ABC. From 2012 to 2014 sh ...
; in poetry
Yvette Holt Yvette Henry Holt is an Australian literary executive, multi-award-winning contemporary Australian Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal poet, essayist, researcher and editor. She heralds from the Bidjara (Warrego River), Bidjara, Yiman people, Yima ...
; and in popular fiction
Anita Heiss Anita Marianne Heiss (born 1968) is an Aboriginal Australian author, poet, cultural activist and social commentator. She is an advocate for Indigenous Australian literature and literacy, through her writing for adults and children and her memb ...
. Leading activists
Marcia Langton Marcia Lynne Langton (born 31 October 1951) is an Aboriginal Australian writer and academic. she is the Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne. Langton is an acti ...
, who wrote ''
First Australians ''First Australians'' is a seven-part Australian historical Documentary film, documentary TV series produced by Blackfella Films over the course of six years, and first aired on SBS (Australian TV channel), SBS TV in October 2008. A book was pu ...
'' (2008) and
Noel Pearson Noel Pearson (born 25 June 1965) is an Australian lawyer and founder of the Cape York Partnership, an organisation promoting the economic and social development of Cape York. He is also the Founder of Good to Great Schools Australia an organi ...
(''Up From the Mission'', 2009) are active contemporary contributors to Australian literature. Journalist Stan Grant has written several non-fiction works on what it means to be Aboriginal in contemporary Australia, and
Bruce Pascoe Bruce Pascoe (born 1947) is an Australian writer of literary fiction, non-fiction, poetry, essays and children's literature. As well as his own name, Pascoe has written under the pen names Murray Gray and Leopold Glass. Pascoe identifies as Abor ...
has written both fiction and non-fiction works.
AustLit AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource (also known as AustLit: Australian Literature Gateway; and AustLit: The Resource for Australian Literature) is a national bio-bibliographical database of Australian literature. It is an internet-based, ...
's ''BlackWords'' project provides a comprehensive listing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Writers and Storytellers. The
Living Archive of Aboriginal Languages The Living Archive of Aboriginal Languages (LAAL) is a digital archive of literature in endangered languages of Australia, containing works in over forty Australian Aboriginal languages from the Northern Territory, Australia. The project to bu ...
contains stories written in traditional languages of the
Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...
.


Film and television

Australian cinema has a long history, and the ceremonies of Indigenous Australians were among the first subjects to be filmed in Australia – notably a film of Aboriginal dancers in Central Australia, shot by the anthropologist Baldwin Spencer and F.J. Gillen in 1900–1903. ''
Jedda ''Jedda'', released in the UK as ''Jedda the Uncivilised'', is a 1955 Australian film written, produced and directed by Charles Chauvel. His last film, it is notable for being the first to star two Aboriginal actors, Robert Tudawali and Ngarl ...
'' (1955) was the first Australian feature film to be shot in
colour film Color photography (also spelled as colour photography in Commonwealth English) is photography that uses media capable of capturing and reproducing colors. By contrast, black-and-white or gray-monochrome photography records only a single channe ...
, the first to star Aboriginal actors in lead roles (
Ngarla Kunoth Rosalie Lynette Kunoth-Monks (4 January 193726 January 2022), also known as Ngarla Kunoth, was an Australian film actress, Aboriginal activist and politician. Early life Rosalie Lynette Kunoth was born on 4 January 1937 in Utopia, Northern ...
and
Robert Tudawali Robert Tudawali (1929 – 26 July 1967), also known as Bobby or Bob Wilson, was an Australian actor and Indigenous activist. He is known for his leading role in the 1955 Australian film '' Jedda'', a role for which he was specifically chosen by ...
), and the first to be entered at the
Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...
. 1971's ''
Walkabout Walkabout is a term dating to the pastoral era in which large numbers of Aboriginal Australians were employed on cattle stations. During the tropical wet season, when there was little work on the stations, many would return to their traditional ...
'' was a British film set in Australia; it was a forerunner to many Australian films related to indigenous themes and introduced
David Gulpilil David Dhalatnghu Gulpilil (1 July 1953 – 29 November 2021) was an Australian actor and dancer. He was known for his roles in the films Walkabout (film), ''Walkabout'' (1971), Storm Boy (1976 film), ''Storm Boy'' (1976), ''The Last Wave'' (1 ...
to cinematic audiences. '' Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith'' (1976), directed by
Fred Schepisi Frederic Alan Schepisi ( ;Pauline Kael, Kael, Pauline (1984). ''Taking It All In''. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. p. 55. born 26 December 1939) is an Australian film director, producer, and screenwriter. His credits include ''The Cha ...
, was an award-winning historical drama from a book by
Thomas Keneally Thomas Michael Keneally, Officer of the Order of Australia, AO (born 7 October 1935) is an Australian novelist, playwright, essayist, and actor. He is best known for his historical fiction novel ''Schindler's Ark'', the story of Oskar Schindler' ...
, about the tragic story of an Aboriginal
bushranger Bushrangers were armed robbers and outlaws who resided in The bush#Australia, the Australian bush between the 1780s and the early 20th century. The original use of the term dates back to the early years of the British colonisation of Australia ...
.
Peter Weir Peter Lindsay Weir ( ; born 21 August 1944) is a retired Australian film director. He is known for directing films crossing various genres over forty years with films such as '' Picnic at Hanging Rock'' (1975), '' Gallipoli'' (1981), '' The Y ...
's 1977 mystery drama ''
The Last Wave ''The Last Wave'' (also released in the United States as ''Black Rain'') is a 1977 Australian mystery drama film directed by Peter Weir.''Variety'' film review; 16 November 1977, p. 21. It is about a white solicitor in Sydney whose seemingly no ...
'', also starring Gulpilil and featuring elements of Aboriginal beliefs and culture, won several
AACTA Awards The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards, known as the AACTA Awards, are presented annually by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA). The awards recognise excellence in the cinema of Australia, film and ...
. The canon of films related to Indigenous Australians increased from the 1990s, with Nick Parson's film ''
Dead Heart ''Dead Heart'' is a 1996 Australian film. It was written and directed by Nick Parsons, and starred Bryan Brown, Angie Milliken, Ernie Dingo, Aaron Pedersen and John Jarratt. As a play, the piece was staged by Belvoir St Theatre, directe ...
'' (1996) featuring
Ernie Dingo Ernest Ashley Dingo Member of the Order of Australia, AM (born 31 July 1956) is an Indigenous Australians, Indigenous Australian actor, television presenter and comedian, originating from the Yamatji people of the Murchison (Western Australia), ...
and
Bryan Brown Bryan Neathway Brown AM (born 23 June 1947) is an Australian actor. He has performed in over eighty film and television projects since the late 1970s, both in his native Australia and abroad. Notable films include '' Breaker Morant'' (1980), ...
;
Rolf de Heer Rolf de Heer (born 4 May 1951) is a Dutch Australian film director. De Heer was born in Heemskerk in the Netherlands but migrated to Sydney when he was eight years old.
's '' The Tracker'' (2002), starring
Gary Sweet Gary Sweet (born 22 May 1957) is an Australian film and television actor known for his roles in ''Alexandra's Project'' (as Steve), ''Police Rescue'' (as Sergeant "Mickey" McClintock), ''Cody (TV series), Cody'' (as Cody), ''Big Sky (Australian ...
and David Gulpilil; and
Phillip Noyce Phillip Roger Noyce (born 29 April 1950) is an Australian film and television director. Since 1977, he has directed over 19 feature films in various genres, including historical drama ('' Newsfront'', '' Rabbit-Proof Fence'', '' The Quiet Amer ...
's ''
Rabbit-Proof Fence The State Barrier Fence of Western Australia, formerly known as the Rabbit-Proof Fence, the State Vermin Fence, and the Emu Fence, is a pest-exclusion fence constructed between 1901 and 1907 to keep rabbits, and other agricultural pests from ...
'' (2002). The
soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...
of the 2006 film ''
Ten Canoes ''Ten Canoes'' is a 2006 Australian historical drama/docudrama film directed by Rolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr and starring Crusoe Kurddal. The film is set in Arnhem Land in northern Australia, before Western influence, and tells the story of ...
'' directed by
Rolf de Heer Rolf de Heer (born 4 May 1951) is a Dutch Australian film director. De Heer was born in Heemskerk in the Netherlands but migrated to Sydney when he was eight years old.
was filmed entirely in dialects of the
Yolŋu Matha The Yolngu or Yolŋu ( or ) are an aggregation of Aboriginal Australian people inhabiting north-eastern Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. ''Yolngu'' means "person" in the Yolŋu languages. The terms Murngin, Wulamba, Yalnumat ...
language group, with the main version featuring subtitles and English narration by David Gulpilil. The film won the
Un Certain Regard (; 'A Certain Glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films with unusua ...
Special Jury Prize at the
2006 Cannes Film Festival The 59th Cannes Film Festival was held from 17 to 28 May 2006. Chinese filmmaker Wong Kar-wai served as jury president for the main competition, the first Chinese to preside over the jury. English filmmaker Ken Loach won the Palme d'Or for th ...
. ''
The Straits ''The Straits'' is an Australian television drama series for ABC1 filmed in Cairns, the Torres Strait Islands and other Far North Queensland locations. The series is based on an idea by actor Aaron Fa'aoso and produced by Penny Chapman and Hel ...
'', a 2012 drama series for TV based on an idea by Torres Strait Islander actor
Aaron Fa'aoso Aaron Fa'aoso is an Australian actor, screenwriter and producer, known for his roles in ''East West 101'', ''The Straits'' (which he also wrote and produced) and ''Black Comedy (TV series), Black Comedy''. He established Lonestar Productions in ...
, was partly filmed in the Torres Strait Islands and starred Fa'aoso and
Jimi Bani Jimi Bani is an Indigenous Australian actor, known for his portrayal of land rights activist Eddie Mabo in the 2012 tele-movie '' Mabo'', several television series, and theatre performances. Early life and education A Torres Strait Islander ...
(from
Mabuiag Island Mabuiag, also known as "Mabuyag" and natively "Mabuyaagi", formerly "Jervis Island") is one of the Torres Strait Islands in Queensland, Australia. Mabuiag is also a town and Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Torres Strait Isl ...
), as well as
Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...
n actors. The documentary TV series ''
Blue Water Empire ''Blue Water Empire'' is a three-part Australian dramatised-documentary series aired on ABC TV in 2019, which gives an insight into the history of the Torres Strait Islands. The series features the history of the islands from the pre-colonial ...
'' (aired 2019), featuring Fa'aoso and Bani, tells the story of Torres Strait Islands from pre-colonial era up to contemporary times. Many Indigenous actors, directors, producers and others have been involved in the production of film and
TV series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming platf ...
in the 21st century:
Ivan Sen Ivan Sen (born 1972) is an Indigenous Australian filmmaker. He is a director, screenwriter and cinematographer, as well as an editor, composer, and sound designer. He is co-founder and director of Bunya Productions, and known for the 2013 film ...
,
Rachel Perkins Rachel Perkins (born 1970) is an Indigenous Australian film and television director, producer, and screenwriter. She founded and was co-director of the independent film production company Blackfella Films from 1992 until 2022. Perkins and the ...
(with her company
Blackfella Films Blackfella Films is an Australian documentary and narrative film production company headquartered in Sydney, founded in 1992 by Rachel Perkins. The company produces Australian short and feature-length content for film and television with a part ...
),
Aaron Pedersen Aaron Pedersen (born 24 November 1970) is an Aboriginal Australian television and film actor. He is known for many film and television roles, in particular as Detective Jay Swan in the film '' Mystery Road'' (2013), its sequel '' Goldstone'' (201 ...
,
Deborah Mailman Deborah Jane Mailman (born 14 July 1972) is an Australian television and film actress, and singer. Mailman is best known for her characters: Parliament of Australia, MP Alexandra "Alex" Irving on the Australian political drama series ''Total Co ...
,
Warwick Thornton Warwick Thornton is an Australian film director, screenwriter, and cinematographer. His debut feature film '' Samson and Delilah'' won the Caméra d'Or at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and the award for Best Film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awar ...
,
Leah Purcell Leah Maree Purcell (born 14 August 1970) is an Aboriginal Australian stage and film actress, playwright, film director, and novelist. She made her film debut in 1999, appearing in Paul Fenech's ''Somewhere in the Darkness'', which led to rol ...
,
Shari Sebbens Shari Sebbens is an Aboriginal Australian actress and stage director, known for her debut film role in '' The Sapphires'' (2012), as well as many stage and television performances. After a two-year stint as resident director of the Sydney Theat ...
, Sally Riley,
Luke Carroll Luke Carroll is an Australian stage, television, and film actor. He is known for his role in the television drama '' The Alice'' (2005), and as a host of the children's program '' Play School''. Early life and education Luke Carroll was born in ...
and
Miranda Tapsell Miranda Tapsell (born 11 December 1987) is a Larrakia Aboriginal Australian actress of both stage and screen, best known for her role as Cynthia in the Wayne Blair film '' The Sapphires'' and her 2015 performance as Martha Tennant in the Nine ...
, Wayne Blair, and
Trisha Morton-Thomas Patricia Morton-Thomas, usually credited as Trisha Morton-Thomas, is an Australian writer, producer, director, and actor. Her first role in a feature film was in ''Radiance'' (1998), the first feature film by director Rachel Perkins. Morton-Th ...
, among others, with many of them well-represented in award nominations and wins. The films '' Sweet Country'' (2017),
Top End Wedding ''Top End Wedding'' is a 2019 Australian romantic comedy film directed by Wayne Blair, starring Miranda Tapsell and Gwilym Lee. Tapsell also co-wrote the film and served as the executive producer. The film tells the story of Lauren, a lawyer pl ...
(2019) and TV series ''
Cleverman A cleverman is a traditional healer and keeper of culture in many Aboriginal cultures of Australia. The roles, terms for, and abilities of a cleverman vary between different Aboriginal nations. Some clevermen heal bodily injuries and illnesse ...
'' and '' Total Control'' (2019), all made by Aboriginal film-makers and featuring Aboriginal themes, were well-received and in some cases won awards. The third series of the
sketch comedy Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches" or, "skits", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. While the form developed and became popular in ...
TV series ''
Black Comedy Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...
'', co-written by
Nakkiah Lui Nakkiah Lui is an Australian actor, writer and comedian. She is a young leader in the Aboriginal Australian community. Career Lui is co-writer and star of ''Black Comedy'', a sketch comedy television program on the ABC. From 2012 to 2014 sh ...
,
Adam Briggs Adam Briggs (born 28 August 1986), known professionally by the mononym Briggs, is an Aboriginal Australian (Yorta Yorta) rapper, record label owner, comedy writer, actor, and author. Briggs became well known as a solo artist, signing with Golde ...
, Steven Oliver and others, and featuring many Indigenous actors, began to air in January 2020.


Theatre


Recreation and sport

Though lost to history, many traditional forms of recreation were played and while these varied from tribe to tribe, there were often similarities. Ball games were quite popular and played by tribes across Australia, as were games based on use of weapons. There is extensive documented evidence of traditional football games being played. Perhaps the most documented is a game popularly played by tribes in western
Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...
regions of the
Wimmera The Victorian government's Wimmera Southern Mallee subregion is part of the Grampians region in western Victoria. It includes most of what is considered the Wimmera, and part of the southern Mallee region. The subregion is based on the social ...
, Mallee and
Millewa The Millewa is a region of north western Victoria (Australia), Victoria in Australia. History The County of Millewa was proclaimed in the area in the nineteenth century. In the 1960s the then dryland farming areas of Nangiloc, Victoria, Nangiloc a ...
by the
Djab wurrung The Djab Wurrung, also spelt Djabwurrung, Tjapwurrung, Tjap Wurrung, or Djapwarrung, people are Aboriginal Australians whose country is the volcanic plains of central Victoria from the Mount William Range of Gariwerd in the west to the Pyren ...
,
Jardwadjali The Jardwadjali (Yartwatjali), also known as the Jaadwa, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Victoria, whose traditional lands occupy the lands in the upper Wimmera River watershed east to Gariwerd ( Grampians) and west to Lake ...
and Jarijari people. Known as
Marn Grook , or (also spelt ''Marn Gook'') is the popular collective name for traditional Indigenous Australian football games played at gatherings and celebrations by sometimes more than 100 players. From the Woiwurrung–Taungurung language, Woiwurun ...
, it was a type of kick and catch football game played with a ball made of
possum Possum may refer to: Animals * Didelphimorphia, or (o)possums, an order of marsupials native to the Americas ** Didelphis, a genus of marsupials within Didelphimorphia *** Common opossum, native to Central and South America *** Virginia opossum ...
hide. According to some accounts, it was played as far away as the
Yarra Valley The Yarra Valley is a region in Victoria, Australia, centred around the Yarra River. Known for its natural beauty, agricultural significance, and as one of Australia's prominent wine-producing areas, the valley stretches from the upper reache ...
by the
Wurundjeri The Wurundjeri people are an Aboriginal peoples, Aboriginal people of the Woiwurrung language, Woiwurrung language group, in the Kulin nation. They are the traditional owners of the Yarra River Valley, covering much of the present location of ...
people,
Gippsland Gippsland () is a rural region in the southeastern part of Victoria, Australia, mostly comprising the coastal plains south of the Victorian Alps (the southernmost section of the Great Dividing Range). It covers an elongated area of east of th ...
by the Gunai people, and the
Riverina The Riverina () is an agricultural list of regions in Australia, region of south-western New South Wales, Australia. The Riverina is distinguished from other Australian regions by the combination of flat plains, a climate with significant seaso ...
in south-western
New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
. Some historians claim that Marn Grook had a role in the formation of
Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...
, and many Aboriginal people, from children in remote communities to professional players at the highest level, the
Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...
, play the modern game. Well-known players include
Graham Farmer Graham Vivian "Polly" Farmer (10 March 1935 14 August 2019) was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Geelong Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and the East Perth Football Club and West Perth Football Club in th ...
,
Gavin Wanganeen Gavin Adrian Wanganeen (born 18 June 1973) is a former Australian rules footballer and, after retirement, artist. He played for the Essendon Football Club and Port Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL), and also for the ...
,
Adam Goodes Adam Roy Goodes (born 8 January 1980) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League (AFL). Goodes holds an elite place in VFL/AFL history as a dual Brownlow Medallist, d ...
and
Lance Franklin Lance Franklin (born 30 January 1987), also known as Buddy Franklin, is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played in the Australian Football League (AFL). He played for the Hawthorn Football Club from 2005 to 2013 and the Sydn ...
. Goodes was also the
Australian of the Year The Australian of the Year is a national award conferred on an Australian citizen by the National Australia Day Council, a not-for-profit Australian Government-owned social enterprise. Similar awards are also conferred at the state and territor ...
for 2014. A team of Aboriginal cricketers from the Western District of Victoria toured England in 1868, making it the first Australian sports team to travel overseas. Cricketer and
Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...
pioneer
Tom Wills Thomas Wentworth Wills (19 August 1835 – 2 May 1880) was an Australian sportsman who is credited with being Australia's first cricketer of significance and a founder of Australian rules football. Born in the British penal colony of Colo ...
coached the team in an Aboriginal language he learnt as a child, and Charles Lawrence accompanied them to England.
Johnny Mullagh Johnny Mullagh (born Unaarrimin; 13 August 1841 – 14 August 1891) was an Australian cricketer from Victoria who was the leading player on the famous 1868 Aboriginal cricket tour of England. He was a skilful all-rounder, being a right-arm b ...
, the team's star player, was regarded as one of the era's finest batsmen.
Evonne Goolagong Evonne Fay Goolagong Cawley (née Goolagong; born 31 July 1951) is an Australian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), and was one of the world's leadi ...
became the world number-one ranked female
tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
player, with 14 major tennis titles.
Ashleigh Barty Ashleigh Jacinta Barty (born 24 April 1996) is an Australian former professional tennis player and cricketer. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Assoc ...
, inspired by Goolagong, also reached number-one and won three major singles titles. Sprinter
Cathy Freeman Catherine Astrid Salome Freeman (born 16 February 1973) is an Australian former sprinter, who specialised in the 400 metres event. Her personal best of 48.63 seconds currently ranks her as the ninth-fastest woman of all time, set while fin ...
earned gold medals in the
Olympics The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...
, World Championships, and
Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...
.
Lionel Rose Lionel Edmund Rose MBE (21 June 1948 – 8 May 2011) was an Australian professional boxer who competed from 1964 to 1976. He held the undisputed WBA, WBC, and ''The Ring'' bantamweight titles from 1968 to 1969, becoming the first Indigeno ...
earned a world title in
boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...
.
Arthur Beetson Arthur Henry "Artie" Beetson Medal of the Order of Australia, OAM (21 January 1945 – 1 December 2011
,
Laurie Daley Laurie William Daley AM (born 20 October 1969), also known by the nicknames of "Lozza" and "Loz", is an Australian professional rugby league football coach and a former player who played as a and in the late 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s. ...
and
Gorden Tallis Gorden James Tallis (born 27 July 1973), also known by the nickname of "Raging Bull" for his on-field aggression, is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. He is currently a commentator and ...
captained Australia in
rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...
, while
Mark Ella Mark Gordon Ella, Order of Australia, AM (born 5 June 1959) is an indigenous Australian former rugby union footballer. Ella played at flyhalf, flyhalf/five-eighth and was capped by the Australia national rugby union team, Wallabies 25 times, capt ...
captained Australia in
rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...
.
Nathan Jawai Nathan Leon Jawai (born 10 October 1986) is an Australian former professional basketball player. Jawai first played for the Cairns Marlins in the Queensland Basketball League in 2004, before heading to Canberra the following year to attend the ...
and
Patty Mills Patrick Sammie Mills (born 11 August 1988) is an Australian ( Kokatha and Dauareb-Meriam) professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Mills was born and raised in Canberra, and is ...
have played in the
National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...
. Sporting teams include the Indigenous All-Stars,
Flying Boomerangs The Flying Boomerangs are the underage Indigenous Australian Australian rules football team for men (the underage women's team is known as the ''Woomeras'' and the senior team is the Indigenous All-Stars). From 2008 to 2017 the team toured ov ...
and
Indigenous Team of the Century The Indigenous Team of the Century was selected in 2005 to recognise the role of Indigenous Australians in Australian rules football. Graham Farmer was named as the team's captain, while Barry Cable was selected as the team's coach. Eight of t ...
in Australian rules football, and the Indigenous All Stars,
NSW Koori Knockout The NSW Koori Rugby League Knockout carnival is one of the biggest Indigenous gatherings in Australia. The winning team gains the right to host the next knockout. Organisers created the knockout to provide further access for Indigenous players t ...
and the
Murri Rugby League Team The Murri Rugby League Team is a representative side for Indigenous rugby league players that play in the annual Queensland Murri Rugby League Carnival. History Arthur Beetson Foundation Murri tour of Hawaii Queensland Murri's faced the USA ...
in rugby league.


Contemporary issues


Closing the Gap

To this day, the forced removal of children known as the
Stolen Generations The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Aboriginal Australians, Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian Gover ...
has had a huge impact on the psyche, health and well-being of Indigenous Australians; it has seriously impacted not only the children removed and their parents, but their descendants as well. Not only were many of the children abused
psychologically Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both conscious and unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feelings, and motives. Psychology is ...
, physically, or sexually – after being removed and while living in group homes or adoptive families, but were also deprived of their culture alongside their families. This has resulted in the disruption of
oral culture Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication in which knowledge, art, ideas and culture are received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (1985), reporte ...
, as parents were unable to communicate their knowledge to their children, and thus much has been lost. There are many issues facing Indigenous people in Australia today when compared with the non-Indigenous population, despite some improvements. Several of these are interrelated, and include health (including shorter
life expectancy Human life expectancy is a statistical measure of the estimate of the average remaining years of life at a given age. The most commonly used measure is ''life expectancy at birth'' (LEB, or in demographic notation ''e''0, where '' ...
and higher rates of
infant mortality Infant mortality is the death of an infant before the infant's first birthday. The occurrence of infant mortality in a population can be described by the infant mortality rate (IMR), which is the number of deaths of infants under one year of age ...
), lower levels of education and employment, inter-generational trauma, high imprisonment rates,
substance abuse Substance misuse, also known as drug misuse or, in older vernacular, substance abuse, is the use of a drug in amounts or by methods that are harmful to the individual or others. It is a form of substance-related disorder, differing definition ...
and lack of political representation. Some demographic facts are related to these issues, as cause and/or result: * In the
2016 Australian Census The 2016 Australian census was the 17th Census in Australia, national population census held in Australia. The census was officially conducted with effect on Tuesday, 9 August 2016. The total population of the Commonwealth of Australia was count ...
, over 33% of the Indigenous population lived in major cities, compared with about 75% of the non-Indigenous population, with a further 24% in "inner regional" areas (compared with 18%), 20% in "outer regional" (8%), while nearly 18% lived in "remote" or "very remote" areas (2%). * The Indigenous population of Australia is much younger than the non-Indigenous population, with an estimated
median age A population pyramid (age structure diagram) or "age-sex pyramid" is a graphical illustration of the distribution of a population (typically that of a country or region of the world) by age groups and sex; it typically takes the shape of a pyramid ...
of 21 years (37 years for non-Indigenous), due to higher rates of birth and death. For this reason, age standardisation is often used when comparing Indigenous and non-Indigenous statistics. The federal government's
Closing the Gap The Closing the Gap framework is a strategy by the Commonwealth and state and territory governments of Australia that aims to reduce disparity between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous Australians on key health, ...
strategy, created in 2008 and coordinated by the
National Indigenous Australians Agency The National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) is an Australian Public Service agency of the Australian Government. It is responsible for whole-of-government coordination of policy development, program design, and service delivery for Abori ...
since July 2019, aims to address multiple areas to improve the lives of Indigenous peoples. Draft targets for 2019 were created by the
Council of Australian Governments The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) was the primary intergovernmental forum in Australia from 1992 to 2020. Comprising the federal government, the governments of the six states and two mainland territories and the Australian Local G ...
(COAG) in December 2018. These were in the following areas: * families, children and youth * health * education * economic development * housing * justice (including youth justice) * land and water, "where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' land, water and cultural rights are realised" * cross-system priorities, which "addresses racism, discrimination and social inclusion, healing and trauma, and the promotion of culture and language for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples"


Health

Social and cultural determinants such as
discrimination Discrimination is the process of making unfair or prejudicial distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong, such as race, gender, age, class, religion, or sex ...
, lack of education or employment (and therefore
income Income is the consumption and saving opportunity gained by an entity within a specified timeframe, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. Income is difficult to define conceptually and the definition may be different across fields. F ...
), and cultural disconnection can impact both physical and mental health, and contemporary disadvantage is related to colonisation and its ongoing impact. Successive censuses have shown, that (after adjusting for demographic structures) Indigenous Australians experience greater rates of
renal disease Kidney disease, or renal disease, technically referred to as nephropathy, is damage to or disease of a kidney. Nephritis is an inflammatory kidney disease and has several types according to the location of the inflammation. Inflammation can b ...
, several
communicable diseases infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable disea ...
(such as
tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
and
hepatitis C virus The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a small (55–65 nm in size), enveloped, positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus of the family ''Flaviviridae''. The hepatitis C virus is the cause of hepatitis C and some cancers such as liver cancer ( hepatoc ...
),
type 2 diabetes Type 2 diabetes (T2D), formerly known as adult-onset diabetes, is a form of diabetes mellitus that is characterized by high blood sugar, insulin resistance, and relative lack of insulin. Common symptoms include increased thirst, frequent ...
,
respiratory disease Respiratory diseases, or lung diseases, are pathological conditions affecting the organs and tissues that make gas exchange difficult in air-breathing animals. They include conditions of the respiratory tract including the trachea, bronchi, ...
, poor
mental health Mental health is often mistakenly equated with the absence of mental illness. However, mental health refers to a person's overall emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It influences how individuals think, feel, and behave, and how t ...
and other illnesses than the general population.


Life expectancy

The life expectancy of Indigenous Australians is difficult to quantify accurately. Indigenous deaths are poorly identified, and the official figures for the size of the population at risk include large adjustment factors. Two estimates of Indigenous life expectancy in 2008 differed by as much as five years. The ABS introduced a new method in 2009, but problems remained. A 2013 study, referring to the national Indigenous reform policy, Closing the Gap, looked at the difficulties in interpreting the extent of the gap because of differing methods of estimating life expectancy between 2007 and 2012. The 2019 report by the Close the Gap campaign reported that the gap in life expectancy was "widening rather than closing". Life expectancy for Aboriginals and Torres Strait islanders was 71.6 for men and 75.6 for women as of 2016–17. Infant mortality (ages 0–4) was twice as high as for non-Indigenous children in 2014–6.


Mental health

Mental health Mental health is often mistakenly equated with the absence of mental illness. However, mental health refers to a person's overall emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It influences how individuals think, feel, and behave, and how t ...
,
suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...
and
self-harm Self-harm refers to intentional behaviors that cause harm to oneself. This is most commonly regarded as direct injury of one's own skin tissues, usually without suicidal intention. Other terms such as cutting, self-abuse, self-injury, and s ...
remain major concerns, with the suicide rate being double that of the non-Indigenous population in 2015, and young people experiencing rising rates of mental health difficulties. There are high incidences of
anxiety Anxiety is an emotion characterised by an unpleasant state of inner wikt:turmoil, turmoil and includes feelings of dread over Anticipation, anticipated events. Anxiety is different from fear in that fear is defined as the emotional response ...
, depression,
PTSD Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder that develops from experiencing a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, warfare and its associated traumas, natural disaster, traffic collision, ...
and suicide amongst the
Stolen Generations The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Aboriginal Australians, Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian Gover ...
, with this resulting in unstable parenting and family situations.


Substance abuse

Many Indigenous communities suffer from a range of health, social and legal problems associated with
substance abuse Substance misuse, also known as drug misuse or, in older vernacular, substance abuse, is the use of a drug in amounts or by methods that are harmful to the individual or others. It is a form of substance-related disorder, differing definition ...
of both legal and illegal drugs, including but not limited to
alcohol abuse Alcohol abuse encompasses a spectrum of alcohol-related substance abuse. This spectrum can range from being mild, moderate, or severe. This can look like consumption of more than 2 drinks per day on average for men, or more than 1 drink per ...
,
petrol sniffing Gasoline (North American English) or petrol ( Commonwealth English) is a petrochemical product characterized as a transparent, yellowish, and flammable liquid normally used as a fuel for spark-ignited internal combustion engines. When formul ...
, the use of illegal drugs such as
methamphetamine Methamphetamine (contracted from ) is a potent central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is mainly used as a recreational drug use, recreational or Performance-enhancing substance, performance-enhancing drug and less commonly as a secon ...
,
cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae that is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating from the continent of Asia. However, the number of species is disputed, with as many as three species be ...
, and
smoking tobacco Tobacco smoking is the practice of burning tobacco and ingesting the resulting smoke. The smoke may be inhaled, as is done with cigarettes, or released from the mouth, as is generally done with pipes and cigars. The practice is believed to hav ...
. Tobacco use has been estimated to be the "greatest contributor (23%) to the gap in the disease burden between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians", with Indigenous people 2.5 times more likely to smoke daily than non-Indigenous Australians. Indigenous Australians were 1.6 times as likely to abstain completely from alcohol than non-Indigenous people in 2012–3.
Foetal alcohol syndrome Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) are a group of conditions that can occur in a person who is exposed to alcohol during gestation. FASD affects 1 in 20 Americans, but is highly misdiagnosed and underdiagnosed. The several forms of the ...
has been a problem, but the rate of pregnant women drinking had halved between 2008 and 2015 (from 20% to 10%).
Petrol sniffing Gasoline (North American English) or petrol ( Commonwealth English) is a petrochemical product characterized as a transparent, yellowish, and flammable liquid normally used as a fuel for spark-ignited internal combustion engines. When formul ...
has been a problem among some remote communities. A 2018
longitudinal study A longitudinal study (or longitudinal survey, or panel study) is a research design that involves repeated observations of the same variables (e.g., people) over long periods of time (i.e., uses longitudinal data). It is often a type of observationa ...
by the
University of Queensland The University of Queensland is a Public university, public research university located primarily in Brisbane, the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland. Founded in 1909 by the Queensland parliament, UQ is one of the six sandstone ...
(UQ), commissioned by the
National Indigenous Australians Agency The National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) is an Australian Public Service agency of the Australian Government. It is responsible for whole-of-government coordination of policy development, program design, and service delivery for Abori ...
, reported that the number of people sniffing petrol in the 25 communities studied had declined by 95.2%, from 453 to just 22, related to the distribution of a new, low aromatic petrol,
Opal Opal is a hydrated amorphous form of silicon dioxide, silica (SiO2·''n''H2O); its water content may range from 3% to 21% by weight, but is usually between 6% and 10%. Due to the amorphous (chemical) physical structure, it is classified as a ...
, in NT in 2005. The 2018 UQ study also reported that alcohol and cannabis were the drugs causing most concern. Ice was reported present in 8 of the 25 communities, but nearly all only occasional use.


Education

There is a significant gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in educational attainment. This presents significant issues for employment. , Indigenous students or adults, when compared with non-Indigenous peers: * Have a lower school attendance rate, with these rates at 82% and 93% respectively (in remote areas, as low as 63%) * Have lower literacy and numeracy, although rates had improved significantly on some
NAPLAN The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is a series of tests focused on basic skills that are administered to Australian students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. These standardised tests assess students' reading, writing, ...
(standardised school testing) measures * Reach
Year 12 Year 12 is an educational year group in schools in many countries including England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. It is sometimes the twelfth or thirteenth year of compulsory education, or alternatively a year of post-comp ...
at a lower rate, with improvement from 59% to 74% between 2006 and 2016, with the gap at 24% in 2016 * Are underrepresented in
higher education Tertiary education (higher education, or post-secondary education) is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank defines tertiary education as including universities, colleges, and vocational schools ...
and have lower completion rates Closing the Gap has focused on improving education for Indigenous people, with some success. Attainment of Year 12 or equivalent for ages 20–24 has increased from 47.4% in 2006 to 65.3% in 2016. This has led to more Indigenous people undertaking higher or
vocational education Vocational education is education that prepares people for a skilled craft. Vocational education can also be seen as that type of education given to an individual to prepare that individual to be gainfully employed or self employed with req ...
courses. According to the ''Closing the Gap'' report, Indigenous students in higher education award courses more than doubled in number over the decade from 2006 (9,329) to 2017 (19,237). However, most of the Closing the Gap targets for education are not on track. In general, the gaps have improved (such as in NAPLAN results) or not devolved (school attendance rate remaining stable for several years) have not met targets. Remoteness seems to be a factor; students in isolated or remote communities do not perform or attend as well as students in urban areas. The ''Closing the Gap Report 2019'' reported that of the seven targets, only two – early childhood education and Year 12 attainment – had been met. Only Year 9 numeracy was on track in all states and territories, with variations among them. The
Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts The Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts (ACPA) is a national Australian institution for the culturally sensitive training of Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people in the performing arts. Founded in 1997, it has been loca ...
was established as a training centre by the state and federal governments in 1997.


Employment

Compared to the national average, Indigenous people experience high unemployment and poverty rates. As of the ''2018 Closing the Gap Report'', the Indigenous employment rate had decreased from 48% to 46.6% between 2006 and 2016, while the non-Indigenous employment rate remained steady at around 72% (a 25.4% gap). The employment rate for Indigenous women, however, increased from 39% to 44.8% in the same period. The Racial Discrimination Act was introduced in 1975, and the Anti-Discrimination Act, in 1977. Legal action alone cannot prevent all forms of racism, however, these Acts were put into law to place checks on the system. A 2016 ABS report on labour force characteristics show low employment rates. An analysis of the figures suggested significant barriers to Indigenous people gaining employment, possibly including job location, employer discrimination, and lack of education and others. A big factor is education. Those with a degree had an employment probability of 85% (for males) and 74% (for females) for gaining employment, decreasing along with qualifications, so that those who have completed Year 9 and below have a 43% (male) and 32% (female) probability of gaining employment. Other factors, unlike education, are not covered by government policy, such as discrimination and unfair treatment. Employed Indigenous Australians were more likely to experience discrimination than those who are unemployed, and it has been found that the second most common source of unfair treatment (after members of the public) is at work or applying for work. There was also a significant lack of consultation with Indigenous peoples on the methods they think best to tackle issues like unemployment.


Crime

Indigenous Australians are over-represented in Australia's criminal justice system. , Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners represented 28% of the total adult prisoner population, while accounting for 3.3% of the general population. In May 2018, Indigenous women made up 34% of all women imprisoned in Australia. A 2017–2018 report into youth justice undertaken by the
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) is Australia's national agency for information and statistics on Australia's health and welfare. Statistics and data developed by the AIHW are used extensively to inform discussion and policy ...
reported that about half (a total of 2,339) of the young people aged 10–17 under supervision in 2016–17 were Indigenous, although of that age group, Indigenous youth represent 5% of the general population. It concludes from the data that there is a clear issue occurring not only within Australia's
criminal justice system Criminal justice is the delivery of justice to those who have been accused of committing crimes. The criminal justice system is a series of government agencies and institutions. Goals include the rehabilitation of offenders, preventing other ...
, but within communities as a whole. Explanations given for this over-representation include the economic position of Indigenous Australians, the knock-on effects of the
stolen generations The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Aboriginal Australians, Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian Gover ...
and disconnection from land, the effects of their health and housing situations, their ability to access an economic base such as land and employment, their education, and the use of alcohol and other drugs. Indigenous Australians are also over-represented as victims of crime, in particular,
assault In the terminology of law, an assault is the act of causing physical harm or consent, unwanted physical contact to another person, or, in some legal definitions, the threat or attempt to do so. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may ...
. Indigenous women are highly over-represented in this figure, accounting for a higher proportion of assault victims than the non-Indigenous category. In 2007, the
Northern Territory Government The Northern Territory Government is the executive branch of the Northern Territory. The Government of Northern Territory was formed in 1978 with the granting of self-government to the Territory. The Northern Territory is a territory of the Co ...
commissioned a Board of Inquiry into the Protection of Aboriginal Children from Sexual Abuse, which produced a report known as the ''
Little Children are Sacred ''Little Children are Sacred'', or ''Ampe Akelyernemane Meke Mekarle'' (derived from Arandic languages), is the report of a Board of Inquiry into the Protection of Aboriginal Children from Sexual Abuse, chaired by Rex Wild and Patricia Anderso ...
'' report. This suggested, based largely on
anecdotal evidence Anecdotal evidence (or anecdata) is evidence based on descriptions and reports of individual, personal experiences, or observations, collected in a non- systematic manner. The term ''anecdotal'' encompasses a variety of forms of evidence. This ...
, that children in remote Aboriginal communities in NT were suffering from widespread
sexual abuse Sexual abuse or sex abuse is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using physical force, or by taking advantage of another. It often consists of a persistent pattern of sexual assaults. The offender is re ...
. The
Australian Human Rights Commission The Australian Human Rights Commission is the national human rights institution of the Commonwealth of Australia, established in 1986 as the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) and renamed in 2008. It is a statutory body fu ...
's ''Social Justice Report 2008'' said that the 2005–2006 ABS statistics did not appear to support the "allegations of endemic child abuse... that was the rationale for the
NTER The Northern Territory National Emergency Response, also known as "The Intervention" or the Northern Territory Intervention, and sometimes the abbreviation "NTER" (for Northern Territory Emergency Response) was a package of measures enforced by ...
" ("The Intervention" by the
Howard government The Howard government refers to the Government of Australia, federal executive government of Australia led by Prime Minister John Howard between 11 March 1996 and 3 December 2007. It was made up of members of the Liberal Party of Australia, Li ...
) that followed.


Family violence

The rate of family violence in Indigenous Australian communities, especially in the Northern Territory, has been high for many years, and under-reported. It has been estimated to be around 34 times greater than the national rate, and, in the worst areas, up to 80 times. There is no single cause for this high rate, but several probable causes or aggravating factors have been suggested by various researchers and stakeholders, including: dispossession of land and subsequent displacement of communities; childhood abuse experienced by the
Stolen Generations The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Aboriginal Australians, Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian Gover ...
, along with
intergenerational trauma Intergenerationality is interaction between members of different generations.Klimczuk, Andrzej, ''Intergenerationality, Intergenerational Justice, Intergenerational Policies'', n:S. Thompson (ed.), ''Encyclopedia of Diversity and Social Justice'', ...
; economic
disadvantage In policy debate, a disadvantage (here abbreviated as DA) is an argument that a team brings up against a policy action that is being considered. A disadvantage is also used in the Lincoln-Douglas debate format. Structure A disadvantage usually ...
; violent family environments; poor health; inadequate housing;
racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...
; loss of Aboriginal identity; and many others. An AIHW survey covering eight years to 2019, published in December 2021, revealed that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people accounted for 28 per cent of all hospitalisations due to family violence, despite only making up 3.3% of the total population. Various reasons were suggested by experts, including Aboriginal men's control of decision-making, and limited independence for women owing to economic factors; barriers in access to services; racism by some police and other services; and lack of enough Aboriginal-run organisations providing culturally safe services. As the federal government, upon being urged by experts to create the means to halt the violence in 2021, announced an extra "to boost frontline services in the Northern Territory... and to work towards our
Closing the Gap The Closing the Gap framework is a strategy by the Commonwealth and state and territory governments of Australia that aims to reduce disparity between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous Australians on key health, ...
commitments", in addition to other funding already committed to the states and NT under the National Partnership on Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence Responses.


Efforts towards recognition and reparations

In 2021, Australia's government, led by Prime Minister
Scott Morrison Scott John Morrison (born 13 May 1968) is an Australian former politician who served as the 30th prime minister of Australia from 2018 to 2022. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia, leader of the Liberal Party and was ...
, announced the creation of a reparations fund for members of the Stolen Generations—Indigenous Australians who were forcibly removed from their homes as children. This policy of forced assimilation, which continued into the 1970s, has had lasting impacts on Indigenous communities. The reparations fund includes one-off payments of 75,000 Australian dollars to victims, as part of a broader initiative to address the serious disadvantages faced by Australia's Indigenous population. In addition, there's an emerging solidarity between Black and Indigenous communities for finding land justice and reparations. Initiatives like the Indigenous-led Land Back movement and various Black community organizations are working towards reclaiming land and advocating for financial restitution for civil and human rights violations. These movements utilize cooperative structures to advance land justice, emphasizing the importance of communal wealth and regenerative systems that are not extractive of people or the planet.


Political issues


Timeline

Since the 20th century there have been a number of individuals and organisations who have instigated significant events in the struggle for political representation, land rights and other political issues affecting the lives of Indigenous Australians: * 1937:
Yorta Yorta The Yorta Yorta, also known as Jotijota, are an Aboriginal Australian people who have traditionally inhabited the area surrounding the junction of the Goulburn and Murray Rivers in present-day north-eastern Victoria and southern New South Wale ...
man
William Cooper William Cooper may refer to: Business *William Cooper (accountant) (1826–1871), founder of Cooper Brothers * William Cooper (businessman) (1761–1840), Canadian businessman * William Cooper (co-operator) (1822–1868), English co-operator * Wil ...
collects 1800 signatures to petition
King George VI George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of In ...
for representation of the original occupants of Australia in federal Parliament. * 26 January (
Australia Day Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Observed annually on 26 January, it marks the 1788 landing of the First Fleet and raising of the Flag of Great Britain, Union Flag of Great Britain by Arthur Phillip at Sydney Cove, a ...
) 1938: The
Aborigines Progressive Association The Aborigines Progressive Association (APA) was an Aboriginal Australian rights organisation in New South Wales that was founded and run by William Ferguson (Australian Aboriginal leader), William Ferguson and Jack Patten from 1937 to 1944, an ...
holds a
Day of Mourning A national day of mourning is a day, or one of several days, marked by mourning and memorial activities observed among the majority of a country's populace. They are designated by the national government. Such days include those marking the deat ...
, to protest 150 years of callous treatment and the seizure of land.


Political representation

Under Section 41 of the
Australian Constitution The Constitution of Australia (also known as the Commonwealth Constitution) is the fundamental law that governs the political structure of Australia. It is a written constitution, which establishes the country as a Federation of Australia, ...
, Aboriginal Australians always had the legal right to vote in Australian Commonwealth elections if their State granted them that right. This meant that all Aboriginal peoples outside Queensland and Western Australia had a legal right to vote. The right of Indigenous ex-servicemen to vote was affirmed in 1949 and all Indigenous Australians gained the unqualified right to vote in Federal elections in 1962. Unlike other Australians, however, voting was not made compulsory for Indigenous people, and it was not until the repeal of
Section 127 of the Constitution of Australia Section 127 of the Constitution of Australia was the final section within Chapter VII (dealing with miscellaneous matters) of the Australian Constitution, and excluded Indigenous Australians from population counts for constitutional purposes. It ...
following the
1967 referendum Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 6 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and Army of ...
that Indigenous Australians were counted in the population for the purposes of distribution of electoral seats. , six Indigenous Australians have been elected to the
Australian Senate The Senate is the upper house of the Bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the Australian House of Representatives, House of Representatives. The powers, role and composition of the Senate are set out in Chap ...
:
Neville Bonner Neville Thomas Bonner AO (28 March 19225 February 1999) was an Australian politician, and the first Aboriginal Australian to become a member of the Parliament of Australia. He was appointed by the Queensland Parliament to fill a casual vacancy ...
(Liberal, 1971–1983),
Aden Ridgeway Aden Derek Ridgeway (born 18 September 1962) is an Australian former politician. He was a member of the Australian Senate for New South Wales from 1999 to 2005, representing the Australian Democrats. During his term he was the only Aboriginal m ...
(Democrat, 1999–2005),
Nova Peris Nova Maree Peris (born 25 February 1971) is an Aboriginal Australian athlete and former politician. As part of the Australian women's field hockey ( Hockeyroos) team at the 1996 Olympic Games, she was the first Aboriginal Australian to win a ...
(Labor, 2013–2016),
Jacqui Lambie Jacquiline Louise Lambie (born 26 February 1971) is an Australian politician who is the leader and founder of the Jacqui Lambie Network (JLN). She is a Australian Senate, Senator for Tasmania since 2019, and was previously a Senator from 2014 to ...
(2014–2017, 2019–''incumbent''),
Pat Dodson Patrick Lionel Djargun Dodson (born 29 January 1948) is an Australian Indigenous rights activist and former politician. He is often referred to as the "father of reconciliation" owing to his commitment to reconciliation in Australia. He was a ...
(Labor, 2016–''incumbent''), and former
Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...
MLA
Malarndirri McCarthy Malarndirri Barbara Anne McCarthy (born 1970) is an Indigenous Australian politician and former journalist who has been a Senator for the Northern Territory since 2016. She is the Minister for Indigenous Australians in the Albanese Government s ...
(Labor, 2016–''incumbent''). Following the
2010 Australian Federal Election The 2010 Australian federal election was held on Saturday, 21 August 2010 to elect members of the 43rd Parliament of Australia. The incumbent centre-left Australian Labor Party led by Prime Minister Julia Gillard won a second term against the ...
,
Ken Wyatt Kenneth George Wyatt (born 4 August 1952) is an Australian former politician. He was a member of the House of Representatives (Australia), House of Representatives from 2010 to 2022, representing the Division of Hasluck for the Liberal Party of ...
of the
Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...
won the Western Australian seat of Hasluck, becoming the first Indigenous person elected to the
Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Australian Senate, Senate. Its composition and powers are set out in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. ...
. His nephew, Ben Wyatt, was concurrently serving as Shadow Treasurer in the
Western Australian Parliament The Parliament of Western Australia is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Western Australia, which constitutes the legislative branch of the state's political system. The parliament consists of the King (represented by the gov ...
and in 2011 considered a challenge for the Labor Party leadership in that state.
Linda Burney Linda Jean Burney (born 25 April 1957) is an Australian Labor Party (ALP) politician who was the member of Parliament (MP) for the division of Barton from 2016 to 2025. She was the minister for Indigenous Australians from 2022 to July 2024. S ...
became the second Indigenous person, and the first woman, to serve in the federal House of Representatives. In March 2013,
Adam Giles Adam Graham Giles (né Romer; born 10 April 1973) is an Australian former politician and former Chief Minister of the Northern Territory (2013–2016) as well as the former leader of the Country Liberal Party (CLP) in the unicameral Northern T ...
of the
Country Liberal Party The Country Liberal Party of the Northern Territory (CLP), commonly known as the Country Liberals, is a centre-right and conservative political party in Australia's Northern Territory. In territory politics, it operates in a two-party system wi ...
(CLP) became
Chief Minister of the Northern Territory The chief minister of the Northern Territory is the head of government of the Northern Territory. The office is the equivalent of a state premier. When the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly was created in 1974, the head of government w ...
– the first Indigenous Australian to become head of government in a state or territory of Australia.
Hyacinth Tungutalum Hyacinth Gabriel Tungutalum (14 August 1946 – 7 April 2009) was an Australian politician and the first Indigenous Australian to be elected to the Northern Territory parliament. A traditional owner on the Tiwi Islands, north of Darwin, Tun ...
, also of the CLP, was the first Indigenous person elected to any Australian (state ''or'' territory) parliament. A Tiwi people, Tiwi man from Bathurst Island (Northern Territory), Bathurst Island, he was elected to the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly in October 1974 as the member for Electoral division of Tiwi, Tiwi. A number of Indigenous people represent electorates at state and territory level, and
South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...
has had an Aboriginal Governor, Sir
Douglas Nicholls Sir Douglas Ralph Nicholls (9 December 1906 – 4 June 1988) was a prominent Aboriginal Australian from the Yorta Yorta people. He was a professional athlete, Churches of Christ pastor and church planter, ceremonial officer and a pioneerin ...
. The first Indigenous Australian to serve as a minister in any government was Ernie Bridge, who entered the Western Australian Parliament in 1980. Carol Martin (politician), Carol Martin was the first Aboriginal woman elected to a State parliament in Australia (the Western Australian Legislative Assembly) in 2001, and the first woman minister was Marion Scrymgour, who was appointed to the Northern Territory ministry in 2002 (she became Deputy Chief Minister in 2008). Representation in the Northern Territory has been relatively high, reflecting the high proportion of Aboriginal voters. The 2012 Territory election saw large swings to the conservative CLP in remote Territory electorates, and a total of five Aboriginal CLP candidates won election to the Assembly, along with one Labor candidate, in a chamber of 25 members. Among those elected for the CLP were high-profile activists
Bess Price Bess Nungarrayi Price (born 22 October 1960) is an Aboriginal Australian activist and politician. She was a Country Liberal Party member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly from 2012 to 2016, representing the electorate of Stuart, a ...
and Alison Anderson. Forty people identifying as being of Indigenous Australian ancestry have been members of the ten Australian legislatures. Of these, 22 have been in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly. The
Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...
has an exceptionally high Indigenous proportion (about one third) of its population.
Adam Giles Adam Graham Giles (né Romer; born 10 April 1973) is an Australian former politician and former Chief Minister of the Northern Territory (2013–2016) as well as the former leader of the Country Liberal Party (CLP) in the unicameral Northern T ...
, who was
Chief Minister of the Northern Territory The chief minister of the Northern Territory is the head of government of the Northern Territory. The office is the equivalent of a state premier. When the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly was created in 1974, the head of government w ...
from 2013 to 2016, was the first Indigenous head of government in Australia. In 1974, 1974 Northern Territory general election, the year of its creation, the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly was also the first Australian parliament to have an Indigenous member elected to it. The 2022 Australian federal election, 2022 election featured the largest number of Indigenous candidates in Australian history, with four running for the Coalition, eleven for Labor, and seventeen for the Greens. The Greens Victorian senate ticket were all Aboriginal. , Indigenous Australians members of the senate represent 10.5% of the 76 Senate seats, and 1.9% in the House. The total representation is at 4.8%, far above the national population of 3.3%.


Federal government initiatives

The
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) (1990–2005) was the Australian Government body through which Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders were formally involved in the processes of government affecting thei ...
(ATSIC) was set up as a representative body in 1990 under the Bob Hawke, Hawke government. In 2004, the
Howard government The Howard government refers to the Government of Australia, federal executive government of Australia led by Prime Minister John Howard between 11 March 1996 and 3 December 2007. It was made up of members of the Liberal Party of Australia, Li ...
disbanded ATSIC and replaced it and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Services (ATSIS) Regional and State Offices with an appointed network of Indigenous Coordination Centres (ICC) that administer Shared Responsibility Agreements and Regional Partnership Agreements with Aboriginal communities at a local level. ICCs operate as whole-of-government centres, housing staff from a number of departments to deliver services to Indigenous Australians. Major political parties in Australia have tried to increase Indigenous representation within their parties. One suggestion for achieving this is to introduce Reserved political positions, seat quotas, as in the Maori electorates in New Zealand. In October 2007, just before the calling of a 2007 Australian general election, federal election, the then Prime Minister,
John Howard John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. His eleven-year tenure as prime min ...
, revisited the idea of bringing a referendum to seek recognition of Indigenous Australians in the Constitution (his government having previously sought to include recognition of Indigenous peoples in the Preamble to the Constitution in the 1999 Australian republic referendum). His announcement was seen by some as a surprising adoption of the importance of the symbolic aspects of the reconciliation process, and reaction was mixed. The
Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...
initially supported the idea; however
Kevin Rudd Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957) is an Australian diplomat and former politician who served as the 26th prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010 and June to September 2013. He held office as the Leaders of the Australian Labo ...
withdrew this support just before the election, earning a rebuke from activist
Noel Pearson Noel Pearson (born 25 June 1965) is an Australian lawyer and founder of the Cape York Partnership, an organisation promoting the economic and social development of Cape York. He is also the Founder of Good to Great Schools Australia an organi ...
. The Gillard government (2010–2013), with bi-partisan support, convened an Expert Panel on Recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in the Constitution, Expert Panel to consider changes to the Australian Constitution that would see recognition for Indigenous Australians, who delivered their report, which included five recommendations for changes to the Constitution as well as recommendations for the referendum process, in January 2012. The Government promised to hold a referendum on the constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians on or before the federal election due for 2013. The plan was abandoned in September 2012, with Minister
Jenny Macklin Jennifer Louise Macklin (born 29 December 1953) is an Australian former politician. She was elected to federal parliament at the 1996 federal election and served as the deputy leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 2001 to 2006, und ...
citing insufficient community awareness for the decision. In December 2015, the 16-member Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Referendum Council was jointly appointed by the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten. After six months of consultation, the First Nations National Constitutional Convention met over four days from 23 to 26 May 2017, and ratified the ''
Uluru Statement from the Heart The ''Uluru Statement from the Heart'' is a 2017 petition to the people of Australia, written and endorsed by the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders selected as delegates to the First Nations National Constitutional Conv ...
'' by a standing ovation from the gathering of 250 Indigenous leaders. The ''Statement'' calls for a "First Nations Voice" in the Australian Constitution and a "Makarrata Commission" (''Makarrata'' is a Yolngu language, Yolngu word "describing a process of conflict resolution, peacemaking and justice").


2019: Indigenous voice to government

In May 2019, Prime Minister
Scott Morrison Scott John Morrison (born 13 May 1968) is an Australian former politician who served as the 30th prime minister of Australia from 2018 to 2022. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia, leader of the Liberal Party and was ...
created the position of Minister for Indigenous Australians, a
Cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filin ...
portfolio in the Second Morrison Ministry, with Ken Wyatt as the inaugural officebearer. On 30 October 2019, Wyatt announced the commencement of a "co-design process" aimed at providing an Indigenous voice to Parliament. The Senior Advisory Group is co-chaired by Professor Tom Calma , Chancellor of the University of Canberra, and Professor Dr
Marcia Langton Marcia Lynne Langton (born 31 October 1951) is an Aboriginal Australian writer and academic. she is the Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne. Langton is an acti ...
, Associate Provost at the University of Melbourne, and comprises a total of 20 leaders and experts from across the country.. The first meeting of the group was held in Canberra on 13 November 2019.


Native title, sovereignty and treaties

About 22% of land in Northern Australia (
Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia Queensland * Kimberley, Queensland, a coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas South Australia * County of Kimberley, a cadastral unit in South Australia Ta ...
, Top End and Cape York Peninsula, Cape York) is now Aboriginal-owned. In the last decade, nearly 200 native title claims covering 1.3 million km2 of land – approximately 18% of the Australian continent – have been approved. In 1992, in ''Mabo v Queensland (No. 2), Mabo v Queensland'', the High Court of Australia recognised native title in Australia for the first time. The majority in the High Court rejected the doctrine of ''terra nullius'', in favour of the concept of native title. In 2013, an Indigenous group describing itself as the Murrawarri Republic declared independence from Australia, claiming territory straddling the border between the states of New South Wales and Queensland. Australia's Attorney General's Department indicated it did not consider the declaration to have any meaning in law. In 2014, another Indigenous group describing itself as the Sovereign Yidindji Government declared independence from Australia. Unlike in other parts of the former British Empire, like the Treaty of Waitangi in New Zealand, no treaty has ever been concluded between Indigenous Australians and an Australian government. However, although there is still no move toward a treaty at federal level, it is contended that the Noongar Settlement (South West Native Title Settlement) in
Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...
in 2016 constitutes a treaty, and at the state and territory levels there are currently (early 2018) other negotiations and preparatory legislation. In
South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...
, however, following the 2018 South Australian state election, 2018 state election negotiations have been "paused". In June 2018, the Parliament of Victoria passed a bill to advance the process of establishing a treaty with Aboriginal Victorians. The Victorian First Peoples' Assembly was elected in November 2019 and sat for the first time on 10 December 2019.


Prominent Indigenous Australians

After the arrival of European settlers in New South Wales, some Indigenous Australians became translators and go-betweens; the best-known was
Bennelong Woollarawarre Bennelong ( 1764 – 3 January 1813) was a senior man of the Eora, an Aboriginal Australian people of the Port Jackson area, at the time of the first British settlement in Australia. Bennelong served as an interlocutor between ...
, who eventually adopted European dress and customs and travelled to England where he was reportedly presented to
King George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...
. Others, such as Pemulwuy, Yagan, and Windradyne, became famous for armed resistance to the European settlers. During the twentieth century, as social attitudes shifted and interest in Indigenous culture increased, there were more opportunities for Indigenous Australians to gain recognition.
Albert Namatjira Albert Namatjira (; born Elea Namatjira; 28 July 1902 – 8 August 1959) was an Arrernte painter from the MacDonnell Ranges in Central Australia, widely considered one of the most notable Australian artists. As a pioneer of contemporary Indige ...
became a painter, and actors such as
David Gulpilil David Dhalatnghu Gulpilil (1 July 1953 – 29 November 2021) was an Australian actor and dancer. He was known for his roles in the films Walkabout (film), ''Walkabout'' (1971), Storm Boy (1976 film), ''Storm Boy'' (1976), ''The Last Wave'' (1 ...
,
Ernie Dingo Ernest Ashley Dingo Member of the Order of Australia, AM (born 31 July 1956) is an Indigenous Australians, Indigenous Australian actor, television presenter and comedian, originating from the Yamatji people of the Murchison (Western Australia), ...
, and
Deborah Mailman Deborah Jane Mailman (born 14 July 1972) is an Australian television and film actress, and singer. Mailman is best known for her characters: Parliament of Australia, MP Alexandra "Alex" Irving on the Australian political drama series ''Total Co ...
became well known. Bands such as Yothu Yindi, and singers Christine Anu, Jessica Mauboy and Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, have combined Indigenous musical styles and instruments with pop/rock, gaining appreciation amongst non-Indigenous audiences. Polymath
David Unaipon David Ngunaitponi (28 September 1872 – 7 February 1967), known as David Unaipon, was an Aboriginal Australian preacher, inventor, and author. A Ngarrindjeri man, his contribution to Australian society helped to break many stereotypes of Abo ...
is commemorated on the Banknotes of the Australian dollar, Australian $50 note. While relatively few List of Indigenous Australian politicians, Indigenous Australians have been elected to political office (
Neville Bonner Neville Thomas Bonner AO (28 March 19225 February 1999) was an Australian politician, and the first Aboriginal Australian to become a member of the Parliament of Australia. He was appointed by the Queensland Parliament to fill a casual vacancy ...
,
Aden Ridgeway Aden Derek Ridgeway (born 18 September 1962) is an Australian former politician. He was a member of the Australian Senate for New South Wales from 1999 to 2005, representing the Australian Democrats. During his term he was the only Aboriginal m ...
,
Ken Wyatt Kenneth George Wyatt (born 4 August 1952) is an Australian former politician. He was a member of the House of Representatives (Australia), House of Representatives from 2010 to 2022, representing the Division of Hasluck for the Liberal Party of ...
,
Nova Peris Nova Maree Peris (born 25 February 1971) is an Aboriginal Australian athlete and former politician. As part of the Australian women's field hockey ( Hockeyroos) team at the 1996 Olympic Games, she was the first Aboriginal Australian to win a ...
,
Jacqui Lambie Jacquiline Louise Lambie (born 26 February 1971) is an Australian politician who is the leader and founder of the Jacqui Lambie Network (JLN). She is a Australian Senate, Senator for Tasmania since 2019, and was previously a Senator from 2014 to ...
and
Linda Burney Linda Jean Burney (born 25 April 1957) is an Australian Labor Party (ALP) politician who was the member of Parliament (MP) for the division of Barton from 2016 to 2025. She was the minister for Indigenous Australians from 2022 to July 2024. S ...
remain the only Indigenous Australians to have been elected to the Australian Federal Parliament), Aboriginal rights campaigner Sir
Douglas Nicholls Sir Douglas Ralph Nicholls (9 December 1906 – 4 June 1988) was a prominent Aboriginal Australian from the Yorta Yorta people. He was a professional athlete, Churches of Christ pastor and church planter, ceremonial officer and a pioneerin ...
was appointed Governor of the State of
South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...
in 1976, and many others have become famous through political activism – for instance, Charles N. Perkins, Charles Perkins' involvement in the Freedom Ride of 1965 and subsequent work; or Torres Strait Islander
Eddie Mabo Edward Koiki Mabo ( ; Sambo) (29 June 1936 – 21 January 1992) was an Indigenous Australian man from the Torres Strait Islands known for his role in campaigning for Indigenous land rights in Australia, in particular the landmark decision of t ...
's part in the landmark native title decision that bears his name. The voices of Cape York activists
Noel Pearson Noel Pearson (born 25 June 1965) is an Australian lawyer and founder of the Cape York Partnership, an organisation promoting the economic and social development of Cape York. He is also the Founder of Good to Great Schools Australia an organi ...
and Jean Aileen Little, Jean Little, and academics
Marcia Langton Marcia Lynne Langton (born 31 October 1951) is an Aboriginal Australian writer and academic. she is the Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne. Langton is an acti ...
and Mick Dodson, today loom large in national debates. Some Indigenous people who initially became famous in other spheres – for instance, poet
Oodgeroo Noonuccal Oodgeroo Noonuccal ( ; born Kathleen Jean Mary Ruska, later Kath Walker (3 November 192016 September 1993) was an Aboriginal Australian political activist, artist and educator, who campaigned for Aboriginal rights. Noonuccal was best known for ...
– have used their celebrity to draw attention to Indigenous issues. In health services, Kelvin Kong became the first Indigenous surgeon in 2006 and is an advocate of Indigenous health issues.


See also

* Aboriginal deaths in custody * Aboriginal sites of New South Wales * Animal Management in Rural and Remote Indigenous Communities * Australian Aboriginal sacred sites * Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet * Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies * Australian outback literature of the 20th century * Australo-Melanesian * Customary law in Australia * * Indigenous Protected Area * IndigenousX, media platform * List of Indigenous Australian firsts * List of Indigenous Australian historical figures * List of laws concerning Indigenous Australians * NAIDOC Week * Repatriation and reburial of human remains * Slavery in Australia * Welcome to Country


Notes


Citations


Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
PDF of original version
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Text may have been copied from this source, which is available under
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
licence. (Se
here
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The laws: *

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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
licence. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *. Dhakiyarr is named "Tuckiar" in the proceedings and is referred to in the main judgment as "a completely uncivilised aboriginal native". The decision was unanimous and strongly criticised the conduct of the trial. Division 4AA. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Some individuals are close to the Oceanic cluster, composed of MEL and PAP individuals but most occupy a wide range on PC2 between Europeans and East Asians, generally falling in an area occupied by Central and South Asian populations." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * A report for the National Indigenous Australians Agency, Health and Wellbeing Branch. * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
''Recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in the Constitution: Report of the Expert Panel''
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 47 min. ** * * * * * * * * * * * * *. Dhakiyarr is named "Tuckiar" in the proceedings and is referred to in the main judgment as "a completely uncivilised aboriginal native". The decision was unanimous and strongly criticised the conduct of the trial. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

Web sources * Includes concise summary of referendum, plus detailed section on Legislative Background, starting with the 1891 National Australasian Convention. Tabs to other pages include: ** ** * * * * * * NOTE: Updates to 798,400 people, or 3.3% of the population, includes reasons for 19% increase in the population estimate on 30 June 2011. * * * * * * * Books * * Journal articles * * * * * Reports * * *


External links

* * * * * * * * {{Authority control Articles containing video clips Indigenous peoples of Australia, Members of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization uk:Австралійські аборигени