Centre for Aboriginal Studies

Running head: ABORIGINAL STUDIES
ABORIGINAL
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

ABORIGINAL STUDIES1
Introduction
Aboriginals are Australia’s first people living in the continent for more than 50 000 years.
They are classified into two groups such as an aboriginal inhabited Australia during British
colonisation in 1788 and Torres Strait Islander, and the group descended from the Torres Strait
Island, which is a part of Queensland, Australia (Ballantyne 2014). The term itself is highly
controversial as the descendants are considered to have descended from non-inhabitants of
Australia. Present statistical data have shown that there are a total of 40,000 aborigines that
constitutes about 2% of total Australia’s population. The Aborigines have shared genetic history
over the years but for the last two years, these groups have started to self-identify them as one
group. The main aim of this paper is to conduct individual research on the Aboriginals. It is
structured to discuss the aboriginal’s languages spoken, land custodian, historical significance,
services and populations.
Traditional custodian
Aboriginal people reside in the region of Sydney (Figure 1, appendix). These aboriginals’
populations are Gadigal people. The territory of these extends from the south part of Sydney
harbour to south head known as Petersham (Dudgeon and Walker 2015). It is believed that
people have migrated to the northern parts of Australia from Asia using boats. A recent study
proved that early inhabitants of Sydney came from Africa 70,000 years ago. Sydney
acknowledged Aboriginal as the traditional custodian of the land of Australia (Figure 2,
appendix). The Australian government as a sign of respect towards traditional custodians
organises events, functions, official meetings and festivals of the community in the Welcome
country ceremony (Macoun, 2016). The government also encourages other community groups

ABORIGINAL STUDIES2
and event organiser to take part in the Welcome country event and acknowledge the Aboriginals
(26th January, National mourning Day) (Figure 7, appendix).
Language
Most of the languages spoken by Aboriginal 50,000 years ago are extinct. Currently, the
government is encouraging them to hold their pride and maintain their languages. The linguistic
trend among Australia uses Aboriginal English that is classified as creole called as Kriol. There
are few parts of Australia; Aboriginal speaks Pama-Nyungan language (Kowal, Greenwood and
McWhirter 2015). Majority of Aboriginals speaks creoles other than English (Figure 5,
appendix). According to the survey done in the year 2006, it was found that about 5769 people
speak Yumplatok and 3869 people speak Kriol (Clarke 2014).
Site of significance
Aboriginal sacred sites are important for the fabrication of culture and heritage. It is
considered to be the fundamental part of the beliefs and practices performed by the inhabitants
emanating the cultural regulations and traditions of Australia. Scared sites give spiritual and
cultural values towards the kinfolk's connection of the land. The most important scared place for
all Aboriginals is the Uluru “The Rock”. Uluru is considered to be highly sacred; hence the
Australian government has banned climbing “The Rock” (Figure 3, appendix). The bulky
sandstone monolith organised different native rites for more than 10,000 years (Tarbetsky, Collie
and Martin 2016). The Aboriginal have an idea that this sacred place can be dangerous and can
have an important role in the safety of an individual. It is a big concern for them that industrial
development, new projects and development can cause serious harm to their sacred sites.

ABORIGINAL STUDIES3
Aboriginals also consider trees sacred. Hence, they believe that tree cutting and ground digging
can cause disturbance towards the spirit of their ancestors.
Aboriginal beliefs are together referred to as “The Dreaming”. They have faith that their
individuality is derived from the soul used to reside in the inhabited land. The tribe themselves
have their totem that is an animal that is innate to the tribe region (Gee et al. 2014). Aboriginals
have faith in that Dreaming is diverse and it depends on tribe, gender, totem and location.
Event of historical significance
Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander culture and history help students in understanding
the cultural differences and develop respect towards diversity. It would further help in removing
the gap within the non-indigenous and indigenous populations. Aboriginals are considered as an
event of historical significance as it demonstrates cultural diversity (Dudgeon and Walker 2015).
Recent discoveries have shown that Aboriginal is the oldest civilization that can be sketched
back 75000 years ago, although it became genetically distinctive group 50000 group ago. The
Australian government is working hard to preserve Aboriginal due to its historical importance.
They distinguish the place of Aboriginals as they are considered as the first custodians of the
land and thereby uphold the responsiveness of the culture and history of the people.
Indigenous people
Indigenous people include those people living in Australia and the neighbouring parts of
the British colonisation. Indigenous people are categorised into two groups such as Torres Strait
Islander and Aboriginals. The indigenous people speak the unique language and they preserve
their culture and tradition. The indigenous people have dark coloured skin, are outstanding