Australian History in Credo: Aboriginal Australia

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Until recently, Aboriginal art would not have received much of a mention in European society. However, this culture is thought to date back at least 50,000 years and has a wealth of ideas and artistic heritage.

From Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology
The earliest humans to settle Australia arrived at least 45,000 years ago. At the time of British colonization in 1788 there were two hundred or more Aboriginal language communities within the continent.

Member of any of the 500 groups of indigenous inhabitants of the continent of Australia, who migrated to this region from South Asia about 40,000 years ago. Traditionally hunters and gatherers, they are found throughout the continent and their languages probably belong to more than one linguistic family.

From Key Concepts in Postcolonial Literature
Some of the postcolonial writers whose work has gained critical acclaim include indigenous writers such as Canadian First Nations and Australian Aboriginal writers. Growing out of the oral tradition, many of the works of Australian Aboriginal writers which we might discover are life stories, some co-authored, some semi-fictionalised.

Aboriginal languages spoken on the continent of Australia. The Australian languages do not appear to be related to any other linguistic family. When Europeans first began to explore and settle in Australia, about three hundred languages were spoken by the hunter-gatherer peoples (possibly 300,000 people in total) who inhabited the continent.

‘Indigenous’ can have a number of different meanings, even within anthropology.

Member of the Polynesian people of New Zealand. They number 435,000, about 15% of the total population, and around 89% live in the North Island. Maori civilization had particular strengths in warfare, cultivation, navigation, and wood- and stonework.

From Historical Dictionary of Australia
Torres Strait Islanders are the smaller group of Australian indigenous people, the larger group by far being Aborigines.

From The Macquarie Dictionary
Australian author, born at Tumbulgum, Murwillumbah, New South Wales; co-founder of the Aboriginal Australian Fellowship in 1956; author of Welou, My Brother (1984). Bandler was made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in 2009.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia Aboriginal elder and Australian Liberal senator 1971-83. Bonner was the first Aborigine to be elected to Australia's federal parliament.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Australian athlete. At the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 she represented Australia and her Aboriginal heritage by lighting the Olympic flame in the opening ceremony, and went on to win gold in the 400 metres. Earlier in her career, she won gold medals at the 1997 and 1999 World Championships, and at the 1990, 1994, and 2002 Commonwealth Games.

From Historical Dictionary of Australia
Pioneering Aboriginal landscape painter and the first Indigenous Australian to be featured on a postage stamp.

From Chambers Biographical Dictionary
Born in Mossman, Queensland, the daughter of an Irish father and Aboriginal mother, she trained at the University of New South Wales, the first Aboriginal to graduate in law there, and was called to the Bar in 1976.

From Historical Dictionary of Australia
Aboriginal leader, writer, evangelist, and inventor, Unaipon (an anglicized version of his Ngarrindjeri name, Ngunaitponi) was the first indigenous writer to publish in English. From the early 1920s, he studied Aboriginal mythology and compiled his versions of legends, strongly influenced by the classics and by his research into Egyptology at the South Australian Museum. He is commemorated on the Australian $50 bill.