Page 2 - Indiginous Australians

Mary Alp
Australian community in which he or she lives.
1
When Indigenous people
themselves define their Aboriginality, they speak more directly to the importance
of being connected to country, to community and culture. It’s also not about skin
colour - as one cultural leader puts it – ‘Aboriginality & spirituality & Connection
isn’t about the colour of your skin, it’s the practice of what you’ve been taught,
it’s tradition that’s gone through generations’ 2
We might add here that in 2016 Indigenous people made up just 3.3% of the total
population – that is 800,000 of 24 million people, & that I/3 live in major cities -
New South Wales (NSW) has the highest Indigenous population while the
Northern Territory has the highest proportion of Indigenous people. Today there
are 250 distinct language groups in Australia. Of the total population 1⁄2 are under
3
Reason for course– Historical interpretations - virtual Indigenous Australians exclusion to inclusion.
It is only recently that we have had such an uptake of Indigenous Australian voices telling their story. What most of us learnt at school was a history that was the province of mainly white historians. Much of this traditional history was conservative in outlook largely a story about the white pioneering spirit tackling the hardships of colonialization/ settlement and how they eventually succeeded in overcoming the many difficulties to build our nation. There was little about Aboriginal Australians. Professor of history, Ann Curthoys addresses this issue & cites influential people such as Gordon Greenwood & Peter Coleman as prime
1 ‘Australian Law Reform Commission, Legal Definitions of Aboriginality’, Quoted in Australians Together, ‘Who Are Indigenous Australians’ p.2. Feb 2019.
2 Jamie, Peek Whuurong, Gunditjama and Gunnai Cultural Leader,Vic, Quoted in Australian Together, ‘Who Are Indigenous Australians,’p.3. Feb 2019
3 ‘Australian Bureau of Statistics, Estimates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians’, June 2011, Quoted in Australians Together ‘Who Are Indigenous Australians’, pp.4-5. WWW.Abs.gov.au ‘2019 Aboriginal population’; National Geographic, Jan.1019, ‘Aboriginal Australians’. P.1.
2|Page
the age of 25.
(myth 12– all Indigenous people have black skin - debunked). (myth 11 – Aboriginal people live in the outback - debunked).( Handout - MAPS – current traditional land).