ABORIGINALS    

Facts  

• The  Aboriginal  Indigenous  

Australians  migrated  from  the  

African  continent  around  70,000  

years  ago,  and  arrived  in  Australia  

around  50,000  years  ago.  

• The  word  has  been  in  use  in  English  

since  at  least  the  17th  century,  to  

mean  "first  or  earliest  known,  

indigenous".  It  comes  from  Latin,  

Aborigines,  derived  from  ab  (from)  

and  origo  (origin,  beginning).    

• There  were  more  than  250  

languages  spoken  by  Indigenous  

Australians  prior  to  the  arrival  of  

Europeans.  Most  of  these  are  now  

either  extinct  or  moribund,  with  

only  about  fifteen  languages  still  

being  spoken  by  all  age  groups.  

• The  1996  census  reported  that  

almost  72  percent  of  Aboriginals  

practised  some  form  of  Christianity;  

16  percent  listed  no  religion.  There  

has  also  been  an  increase  in  the  

number  of  followers  of  Islam  among  

the  Indigenous  Australian  

community  

• The  didgeridoo,  which  is  widely  

thought  to  be  a  stereotypical  

instrument  of  Aboriginal  people,  

was  traditionally  played  by  people  

of  only  specific  regions  of  

aborigines,  and  then  only  by  men.  

 

 

 

Racism  and  Aborigines  

 

The  British  colonisation  of  Australia  began  

in  1788,  and  brought  many  diseases,  such  

as  measles,  smallpox  and  tuberculosis.  

These  diseases  led  to  the  death  of  many  

aborigines.    

         By  1806,  racism  from  colonizers  and  

soldiers  reached  a  very  high  point.  Not  only  

were  sacred  Aboriginal  places  violated  and  

ABORIGINALS    

desecrated,  the  Aboriginals  themselves  

became  hunted  like  kangaroos  for  pleasure  

and  fun,  like  trophy  prizes.  The  soldiers  

used  to  visit  Aboriginal  villages  offering  

gifts,  while  the  real  purpose  of  the  visit  was  

to  contaminate  the  village  water  supply  

with  arsenic.  Whole  communities  including  

children,  elderly,  women  and  men  were  

removed  by  arsenic  poisoning.  Rum,  

initially  imported  from  England,  was  freely  

offered  to  Villagers.  The  introduction  of  

rum  made  many  villagers  drunk  for  a  

whole  week  until  death  arrived  from  

alcoholic  comas.  The  English  soldiers  took  

advantage  of  this  stage  of  alcoholism  to  

create  wars  between  friendly  villages,  

leaving  them  to  kill  each  other.  It  was  a  

massacre.  

         Later,  the  Aborigines  were  recruited  to  

work  on  cattle  farms.  Payment  was  

ridiculous  low,  compared  to  a  white  mans  

wage.  To  justify  this  act,  the  farmers  made  

allegations  that  the  Aborigines  had  no    

feelings  with  horses  (which  was  true  due  to  

the  fact  that  they  were  nomads  and  used  to  

travel  by  foot).  Secondly,  the  Aboriginals  

spiritual  life  style  was  totally  connected  

with  the  environment.  In  reality,  the  

Aborigines  didn't  understand  why  they  had  

to  raise  horses  and  sheep  when  the  sea  and  

nature  provided  everything  necessary  for  

living.  They  were  considered  lazy  and  

insolent.  But,  they  worked  for  less  than  2  

pounds  per  week  as  payment,  while  the  

white  man  never  worked  for  less  than  9  

pounds.  Also,  because  of  their  dark  skin,  

the  Aborigines  were  able  to  work  for  long  

period  of  time  under  the  hot  sun,  while  the  

whites  used  to  get  sunburned  very  quickly.  

 

 

 

 

http://www.yesaustralia.com/Estilo-­‐

aborigenesing.htm  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_

Australians  

ABORIGINALS    

Aboriginals  and  their  rights  

After  all  these  years  of  horror  in  Aboriginal  

history,  the  Aboriginals  slowly  gained  more  

and  more  rights  in  Australian  society:    

 

• In  1962,  the  Aboriginals  were  given  

right  to  vote  in  Commonwealth  

election  

• In  1965  a  group  of  students  

organised  a  tour  of  western  and  

coastal  New  South  Wales  towns,  to  

raise  awareness  of  the  state  of  

Aboriginal  health  and  living  

conditions.  This  tour  also  aimed  to  

highlight  the  social  discrimination.  

• In  1967  allowed  the  Commonwealth  

to  make  laws  with  respect  to  

Aboriginal  people,  and  for  

Aboriginals  to  be  included  when  the  

country  does  a  count  to  determine  

electoral  representation.  The  

refenderum  passed  with  90.77%  

support  from  the  voters.    

• In  1971,  Neville  Bonner  joined  the  

Australian  Senate  as  a  Senator  for  

Queensland  for  the  Liberal  Party,  

becoming  the  first  Indigenous  

Australian  in  the  Federal  

Parliament.    One  year  later,  the  

Aboriginal  Tent  Embassy  was  

established  on  the  steps  of  

Parliament  House  in  Canberra.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ABORIGINALS    

Aboriginals  and  Globalisation  

 

Since  the  late  1980s,  the  word  

“globalisation”  has  been  widely  

used,  both  quantitatively  and  

qualitatively.  Most  people  would  

probably  suggest  that  

globalisation  is  first  and  foremost  

the  spread  of  capitalism  in  the  

wake  of  the  collapse  of  

communism,  the  emergence  of  a  

single  worldwide  market  and  so  on.  Others  

might  think  of  globalisation  as  a  break  

down  of  national  frontiers,  as  a  result  of  the  

extraordinary  development  of  

transportation  and  computer  technologies.    

• Since  the  1980s,  Australian  

economy  has  improved  a  lot.    

• However,  the  globalisation  has  

increased  the  unemployment  of  the  

unskilled  and  uneducated.    

• This  has  lead  to  a  huge  difference  

between  rich  and  poor.    

• The  unemployment  and  social  

differences  means  that  many  

Aboriginals  are  unemployed  and  

poor.  Therefore  many  Aboriginals  

are  dependant  to  the  public  sector.    

• However,  the  globalisation  has  

opened  a  new  possibility  to  sell  and  

export  their  tribal  art  –  this  

possibility  is  marginal  though.      

• Because  of  globalisation,  migrants  

came  to  Australia  in  large  numbers,  

especially  from  Asia,  and  therefore  a  

multi-­‐cultural  politic  took  form,  

which  lead  to  a  possible  platform  for  

ABORIGINALS    

both  Aboriginal  land  rights  and  

Aboriginal  self-­‐determination.  

• All  this  seems  good  for  the  

Aboriginals,  but  then  things  started  

to  change  drastically.  Pauline  

Hanson’s  extreme  right-­‐wing  ideas  

started  to  form  a  sort  of  new  racist  

nationalism,  as  foreign  people  were  

increasingly  blamed  for  Australia’s  

rising  unemployment  (note:  The  

Aboriginals  are  called  “foreigners”  –  

even  though  they  arrived  in  

Australia  first)    

• Though,  people  are  opening  their  

eyes  to  the  recognition  of  its  “first  

nation”  peoples.  White  Australians  

are  so  determined  to  delete  any  

differences  between  black  and  

white  that  the  Aboriginals’  

millennia-­‐old  culture  is  used  to  

anchor  the  Australian  identity.    

 

 

 

 

 

ABORIGINALS    

Other  aspects  of  globalisation:    

 

• The  Aboriginal  cultures  have  not  

remained  isolated  –  the  Aboriginals  

had,  as  mentioned,  a  very  rich  

religious  and  musical  culture,  which  

now  has  been  “copied”  and  sold  as  

souvenirs.    

• The  spread  of  the  English  language  

is  making  it  hard  for  the  Aboriginals  

to  maintain  their  own  native  

language.  They  have  to  speak  

English  to  communicate  with  their  

bosses  or  costumers.    

• The  Aboriginals’  traditional  

hierarchy  is  undermined  by  good-­‐

owners,  and  therefore  the  authority  

of  elders  is  disappearing  slowly.  

• Some  even  see  globalisation  as  

cultural  imperialism.  They  are  

warning  that  a  drastic  reduction  of  

cultural  diversity  is  taking  place.      

 

 

The  rich  culture  of  the  indigenous  

Australians  is  now  replaced  by  

cultural  assimilation.  Some  white  

Australians  identify  themselves  with  

the  Aboriginals’  culture.  The  

Aboriginals  have  to  sell  out  of  and  

mass-­‐produce  their  culture  to  

survive  in  a  more  and  more  money-­‐

orientated  world.    

 

HTTP://LISA.REVUES.ORG/1991