Heritage

NATIVE AUSTRALIANS: THE ABORIGINES
Twelve thousand years before any signs of human life in Europe, the Australian native people were already busy hunting and gathering and fishing, and doing all the things people did before there were such things as malls or Sam’s Clubs.	We call these native Australians ‘aborigines’, which means ‘the first people’. They’ve been running around the Australian countryside for more than 40,000 years.	To understand how long this is, figure that there have been about nine generations of Americans since this country was founded in 1776. The Aborigines have been around almost twenty generations.
WHERE DID THEY COME FROM?
Obviously, the Aborigines had to come from somewhere. But where? The simple answer is that scientists have no idea, since nobody was taking notes at the time.	But, probably the Aborigines took boats from islands like Java and Borneo.	This must have happened during the last Ice Age, when a lot of ocean water froze into huge ice shelves up north, making the oceans of the earth more shallow, and easier to sail across.
WHY DIDN’T THEY GO BACK?
When the earth warmed up again ,and the ice shelves melted, the oceans rose. That made the Aborigine’s trip back to Java or Borneo a major pain in the neck.	Besides, they kind of liked it where they were: Australia had a lot of open space, plenty of fruit to eat, and lots of animals which were easy to hunt.	So, they decided to stay put. If any of them got homesick, it was just too bad, because after a while, there was no way they could get off the island.
WHAT SORT OF PEOPLE WERE THEY?
Like the Native Americans, the Native Australians were very much in touch with the land around them. They lived in tribes, and each tribe had an area in which they survived, and they knew exactly what plants grew there, what animals lived there, and what they could eat without getting sick or poisoned. They also knew how to find water in the desert, which doesn’t hurt when you’re extremely thirsty. (Among the methods they used was digging up hibernating frogs and squeezing them dry).	That kind of knowledge came from experience... and since they had no written language, this knowledge was passed along from mother to daughter, from father to son, from tribe to tribe, by stories, songs, and dances. Since they had not yet discovered the joys of agriculture, they spent a lot of time looking for things to eat and drink. Daily life was probably pretty tough. They had to move around constantly, following the animals they ate, and they owned very few ‘things’.	Each ‘thing’ they owned had to have several purposes. For example the coolamon was a wooden dish which could be used to dig holes, carry water, collect food, or give the baby a nap. Like the American Indians (but unlike modern Americans), they believed that the land itself could not be owned by a person, or a group of people, or a Sam’s Club, but they figured that the earth belonged to everyone that lived on it. What a concept!
WHAT WERE THEIR TOOLS AND WEAPONS?
Many years ago, men and women had different responsibilities in their everyday lives. The men carried the weapons, like spears, clubs, boomerangs, and shields.	The women carried the children, the dishes, and the baskets. Although they did not use or make metal products, the Aborigines knew how to chip stone and sharpen animal bone, and everyone got along pretty well.	They figured out how to make nets and fishing lines out of hair, how to grind seeds with flat rocks, and… when nothing else would do… how to carry water in human skulls.
WHAT WERE THE CHILDREN LIKE?
Aborigine kids were educated both in things that made up the real world, and things that were made up the imaginations of their parents. To survive, they needed to understand how to find food and water, and to be a full, productive member of their society, they need to learn the traditions and beliefs of their tribe. This included rules, songs, dances, and stories that explained the world and why it worked the way that it did.	Girls learned how to behave like women, and boys learned how to behave like men. There was little chance for Aborigine children to choose what they wanted to do with their lives: they pretty much had to do what their parents did. One thing that played a big role in what a kid learned was the idea of a ‘totem’. A totem was a certain kind of plant, or animal, that each person considered his spiritual equal.	If your totem was a kangaroo, for example, you couldn’t hurt kangaroos for your whole life. Your best friend might have a different totem, like a certain kind of tree, and they had to treat that kind of tree just like you treated a kangaroo: with respect and honor. Native Americans had a similar belief… I’m sure you’ve heard of ‘totem poles’. Another thing that was very, very important to Aborigines, both kids and grownups, was the idea of ‘Dreamtime’.
WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH ‘DREAMTIME’?
‘Dreamtime’ was a subject that came up often in the conversations of Aborigine tribes. Basically, it referred to a time in the past, very long ago, when the world was controlled by spirits, not by people.	For Aborigines, Dreamtime was as real as the world in which they lived.	They believed that characters such as the Rainbow Snake and Fertility Mother were real, and that they had lived in the past, and made the world the way it is today. If this seems strange to you, remember that around us.
WHAT WAS THEIR ART AND MUSIC LIKE?
Like many people who have no written language, Aborigines passed on information through painting and song.	The designs they made on rocks and mountainsides are well known throughout the world. They painted their bodies for religious ceremonies, and made music on instruments that sound unusual to our ears.	The didgeridoo is one such instrument. It’s a hollow wind instrument made from a eucalyptus tree branch, and has a distinctive and mysterious sound.
WHAT ARE THE ABORIGINES LIKE TODAY?
Although they only make up about 1% of the Australian population, Aborigines have a prominent voice in today’s Australia. The Aborigines are very proud of their history, and try to maintain a strong connection with the traditions and customs of their ancestors as possible.	At the same time, they recognize the reality of living in the modern world, and have made certain that the modern world regards them as equals. One of the ways in which the Aborigines have done this is by adopting a single flag under which all tribes are united.	The Aboriginal flag is divided horizontally into two equal halves of black (top) and red (bottom), with a yellow circle in the middle. The black symbolizes Aboriginal people, the yellow represents the sun, and the red depicts the earth.
LINKS: http://australia.virtualaustralia.com.au/history.htm (History, Time Continuum, "On This Day" Calendar) http://werner.ira.uka.de/~westphal/australia/explore/ (Explorers of Australia) http://www.aboriginalart.com.au/gallery/ (Aboriginal Art and Culture Center) http://users.orac.net.au/~mhumphry/aborigin.html (Aboriginal Culture and History) http://www.ietravel.com/destasiaustculhis.html (History of Australia)