First men of Australia
aboriginal" comes from the Latin "ab origine " which means "those who have been here since the beginning". Genetic research has shown that the ancestors of the Aborigines would have come from the first populations to have left Africa, at least 100,000 years ago, i.e. during the ice age when Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania formed a single continent. They certainly passed on foot through South-East Asia and reached the Austral Lands after a short sea crossing: a long immigration considered today as the first sea voyage of man. The first occupants of Australia, they then dispersed over the continent and created complex societies, without writing, based on the oral transmission of knowledge and rites. According to archaeologists, they already inhabited the area around Kakadu 60,000 years ago. Before colonization, Aboriginal Australia had a colossal variety of different societies and mythologies: there were no less than 500 different languages, which translates into 500 different mythologies and 500 different types of societies. Some peoples were exterminated very quickly after the arrival of the settlers and little information remains about their societies. Far from being a homogeneous culture, there is however a common core to all these societies, united by a similar system of beliefs and social practices. In particular, the Aborigines share a similar cosmology that is called "dream time".
An extraordinary people
The first Australians found a virgin continent where animals were the only inhabitants. In order to tame this new and fascinating environment, the Aborigines started to want to represent the richness of the fauna and flora. The climate and the environment being unfavorable to agriculture, the Aborigines never settled down and seem to have voluntarily maintained rather low population densities in order not to exhaust their environment. Nomadic hunter-gatherers, their movements varied according to the regions and the food and water resources. They also controlled the environment through fires. Burns did not cause devastating fires, did not destroy trees and the new vegetation attracted animals. Agile and ingenious, the Aborigines knew how to locate and identify what was edible: roots, berries, fruits, plants... They only took what they needed for food or medicinal purposes. They sometimes settled in rock shelters and built cultural sites 40,000 years before Stonehenge was built in Great Britain. Aboriginal art is, to this day, recognized as the oldest art on the planet: the oldest piece of cave art is a life-size kangaroo, painted in a very realistic style more than 17,000 years ago in the Kimberley region (northwestern Australia). By way of comparison, polished stone was invented in Europe 10,000 years ago during the development of agriculture. The Aborigines were already making them more than 35,000 years ago!
It is difficult to generalize as the systems vary so much, but they are commonly organized in clans or tribes, often of between 20 and 40 people. The clans are grouped into a "people", who speak the same language. Today, the term nation is also used, and comes from Canada (the First Nations). Within tribes and between tribes, the links are complex: a skilfully organized system makes it possible to establish rules of society, but also to avoid the problems of consanguinity. We thus speak of "blood" or "skin" families ( skin names), names that the Aborigines give themselves and which make it possible to determine the place of each individual in the network of social relations of the community. Among the aborigines of the Warlpiri language, in the central-western part of the Northern Territory, there are for example eight skin names: uppurula, apaganti, angala, apaltjari, apananga, ampitjinpa, ungurrayi and akamarra. One skin name can only be married with another skin name: the rules are strict and predetermined. If they do not think they belong to a common society, each group knows its neighbors and maintains exchange relations with them.
Also note that the indigenous people of the Torres Strait in the northeast of the continent are considered a separate ethnic group, because of their different history. This is why you will commonly hear the term Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, referring to the two indigenous groups of Australia.
Ancestral myths and millennial beliefs
The Aborigines have roamed the island-continent for millennia, surviving in extreme conditions because of their deep knowledge of the environment and their spiritual connection to the land. They used the oral tradition of the songlines to orient themselves. Drawing on the unique landscape and constellations, these sacred routes run for hundreds, if not thousands, of kilometers and bear witness to the Aboriginal heritage. Thus, Uluru, in the heart of Australia, is the emblem of the sacred sites of this immense territory and the Rainbow Serpent, a recurring creative figure, is also found in the various stories present throughout the territory. Thesonglines have made it possible to connect the different aboriginal nations sharing the same original story, that of the Dreamtime. A true Bible, the Dreamtime guided the first inhabitants of Australia both geographically and spiritually. The transmission of knowledge is thus based on oral tradition and the structure of power is determined by the capacity of individuals to reveal these songs and stories. In general, the elders, that is to say, the oldest men, are those who know the myths, secrets and rites best, but no individual can hold all the knowledge on his own: it is always exercised by several people. Beyond ancestral myths, societies are organized around rituals and ceremonies: true laws in the social sense, they prescribe the behaviors to adopt in order to establish and maintain the connection with nature. It is through initiation, a long learning process left by the ancestors, that each individual progresses in the understanding of mythology: the levels of initiation are symbolized on the body by motifs linked to places, paintings on the ground, ceremonial objects, flowers, feathers..
The eventful history of a despised people
With the arrival of the European settlers, the way of life of the Aborigines was upset. The conquest was justified by the doctrine of Terra nullius, according to which the Australian territory belonged to no one: since the Aborigines did not practice agriculture, the settlers considered that they had no apparent control over their territory. The settlers implemented discriminatory policies, such as the practice of stolen generations, until the 1970s, and continued to perceive the Aborigines as prehistoric men who had to be assimilated into a "more civilized" society. Most Australians were educated in the illusion of a peaceful colonization, since the appropriation of the territory by the settlers was done without any war of conquest or negotiation treaty (contrary to what was done almost everywhere else in the world). But even though it is obscured, the history of colonial Australia has left indelible and traumatic traces in the minds of the Aborigines, victims of violent massacres. Chased from their lands, the surviving Aborigines were then deported to reserves at the beginning of the 20th century, then, at the end of the Second World War, killing Aborigines was considered a crime, but violence and rape were commonplace. From free men to an exploited and despised people, the Aborigines are then subjected to a policy of self-determination: subjected to the Western model, they are thus incited to work, possess and get richer and are distanced from their intimate knowledge of nature and their ways of life.
The Aboriginal Question in the 21st Century
Crushed by the policies of white Australia, the Aborigines are now coming out of their silence. By setting the record straight, the Australian government is gradually building a more peaceful relationship with the Aboriginal community. Since the late 1960s, constitutional and legislative advances have made it possible to integrate Aborigines into the national population, before giving Aboriginal communities a little more autonomy. It wasn't until the 1967 referendum that Aborigines became full citizens. Several land-rights laws, notably the famous Mabo ruling of 1992, also sought to restore Aboriginal sovereignty over their lands. But Australia's economic model, based on mining development, covets land located on Aboriginal territories: granting them rights that are too important is therefore proving complicated for economic development... and the complexity of the situation doesn't stop there. To reclaim their land, Australian legislation on land rights requires Aboriginal peoples to prove the existence of a society that had laws governing land ownership: difficult for a culture that did not have the word "property" in its vocabulary! In the Aboriginal communities of the Outback, Australia offers the face of an often marginalized population: the poorest population in the country, the Aborigines have a life expectancy more than ten years lower than the national average. The suicide rate is reported to be 4 to 7 times higher than in the rest of the Australian population. The majority of suicides are recorded in the under-30 age group (alcohol, loss of cultural identity and drugs being the main factors), and Aborigines also make up an abnormally high proportion of the prison population.
Despite these persistent realities, the richness of their value systems is still very much present in lifestyles: within Aboriginal villages, people tend to express themselves more in one or more languages, participate in cultural ceremonies and identify themselves as belonging to a clan. Around a hundred aboriginal languages are still spoken in the country, including creoles. Of these, just over twenty have more than 1,000 speakers. Most of these languages, some of which show no signs of weakening, are found in the Northern Territory, which can be considered the bastion of Aboriginal culture. Here, almost 60% of the Territory's 75,000 Aborigines speak an Aboriginal language at home.
From a national perspective, a rising generation has now succeeded in winning over the middle and ruling classes, and some programs are broadcast in indigenous languages, including children's programs. Public opinion has also evolved considerably in recent years, and a form of respect has taken hold in Australian society, albeit a contested one. More and more Aboriginal names are now used, and you're likely to hear names like Naarm (Melbourne), Meeanjin (Brisbane) or Mparntwe (Alice Springs) during your travels. There are also a growing number of art centers where artists and painters present their famous canvases with the colorful dots of the Dreamtime. TheAustralian Museum in Sydney, Kakadu, Australia's largest national park, Kings Canyon (Northern Territory), the Maruku Arts or Cultural Centre in Uluru, the gorges of Nitmiluk National Park or the Janbal Gallery, north of Port Douglas (Queensland) are all places that honor Aboriginal culture. You can explore ancient rock sites, take part in art exhibitions and learn about a world as rich as it is fascinating. Since 2009, to help improve the Aboriginal situation, the Australian government has published an annual report entitled Closing the gap , which aims to reduce inequalities in education, health and employment.
For many years, there has been a debate on the recognition of Aborigines in the Constitution as the first people. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (appointed in 2022) and his government had proposed the inclusion in the Australian Constitution of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament, which would have enabled Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to be heard by the legislative system on parliamentary processes that directly affect them. Australian voters were asked to vote on this constitutional amendment in a referendum held on October 14, 2023. The result was unequivocal, with a total of around 60% of votes cast against the proposal, and at state level the "no" vote systematically won, even though it was also a condition for the amendment to be adopted that at least 4 out of 6 states vote in favor. It's a slap in the face for the powers that be who had put forward the proposed amendment, and it also reduces hopes of reconciliation between the different cultures in Australia.
