Do you know something about Aboriginal people in Australia? Or how much information do you have about their history? They were indigenous to the Australian continent before British colonization. They were living in Victoria in that time. Some archaeologists believe that they first came to Australian continent 45.000 years ago. The Aborigines are also called Aboriginal Australians. They believed that they have always lived in Australian continent.
Captain James Cook invaded the East part of the Australia for Great Britain in 1788 and he called it New South Wales. So, the first colonialism of England started in that time. With the arrival of the England peoples, some diseases emerged like rubella, chicken pox and influenza there. Therefore, the population of Aboriginals decreased. When the English settled in Australia in 18th century, there were more than 300.000 Aboriginal people but most of them were killed by the English. There are some claims about the genocides in Australia. The most known is Tasmania genocide among these. It is also said that the children were taken from their families by violence. If we mention their culture according to their history, there are also interesting informations about them. Aboriginal culture is based on respect for the land and for their elders. Although they hadn’t a written language, they could understand each other thanks to the songs. Music and dance were very important in their lives and they composed many songs for nearly every situation such as the song of hunt or season. Their artworks included some mythological subjects. They were living in the shelters that were made with barks. Today, a few of them lives like their ancestors and many of them have migrated for the cities.
Today, the majority of them live in Australia’s Eastern States and they generally have dark-skinned, broad-nosed and blue-eyed. People who have light-skinned often face challenges their Aboriginal identity because of this stereotyping. Now, 3% of Australia’s population is identified as Aboriginal. They are approximately 670.000 and if the rate of the growth remains stable, Aboriginal people can be as many as 721.000 by 2021. Still today, The England has a devastating social and physical impact on Aboriginal peoples. They face some racist attitudes and there are periodic incidents of violence towards them. Hence, The Aboriginal young guys generally are put in prisons due to some crimes. Their generally poor living conditions mean that Aboriginal people have a far higher infant mortality rate and suicide and a lower life expectancy than the rest of the population. Their flag was designed by artist Harold Thomas in 1971.
