Who is aboriginal?

ABORIGINAL OR TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER IDENTITY

Legally, an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander is a person:

·         of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent; and

·         who identifies as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander; and

·         is accepted as such by the community in which he (she) lives.

This is, in substance, the definition used in 1971 when Aboriginals were counted in the Australian census for the first time. The question of whether this is an adequate definition is discussed in more detail later.

Around 2½ % of Australians identify themselves as Aboriginals or Torres Strait Islanders. This translates to just over half a million of Australia’s total population of 22½ million.

More than half of Australia’s Aboriginals or Torres Strait Islanders live in the states of Queensland and New South Wales, while there are also large Aboriginal populations in Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

About 1 in 4 Aboriginals live a long distance from basic services.

THE GAP

‘The Gap’ is a general expression referring to the different quality of life enjoyed by whitefellaAustralians, and that of Aboriginals. This is measured in a number of ways – some common measures are as follows:

• Whitefella males live 11 ½ years longer than Aboriginals, and whitefella females live just under 10 years longer;
• Major causes of lower Aboriginal life expectancy include heart disease, injuries, and diabetes;
• For those jurisdictions with reasonable information about Indigenous deaths in 2006-2008, the highest Indigenous infant mortality rate was in the NT (13.6) and the lowest in SA (6.4). These rates are considerably higher than those for the total population in these jurisdictions, which range from the NT (7.8) to WA and SA (both 3.5).   http://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/health-facts/overviews/mortalityThe good news is,this rate is falling http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/aboriginal-infant-mortality-rate-falls-20100310-pyc0.html
• While Aboriginals only make up 2 ½% of the Australian population, they make up around 24% of our prison population;
• Aboriginals are less likely to stay at school to year 12, be employed, or even have decent housing.

ABORIGINAL DIVERSITY

It’s a mistake to think of Aboriginals as one big group of people, or even just a handful of tribes. The original peoples of Australia belong to three broad but separate groups:

1.      Tasmanian Aboriginals

2.      Torres Strait Islanders

3.      Mainland Aboriginals

In turn, these groups are made up of smaller groups.

Tasmanian Aboriginals

Tasmanian Aboriginals are believed to have been cut-off from mainland Australia about 30,000 years ago. Following whitefella settlement, many original Tasmanians succumbed to European diseases. Additionally, following early conflicts between settlers and Aboriginals, Martial Law was declared in 1828, marking the beginning of ‘the Black War’. For many years it was (incorrectly) assumed – and therefore ‘official’ – that the last full-blooded Tasmanian Aboriginals had died in captivity (horrible way to put it but probably appropriate). However, many-full blood and half-caste Aboriginals were safely beyond the pale of European Settlement and were ultimately integrated with the rest of the settlement as it grew. What is known about the culture and traditions of Tasmanian Aboriginals has been passed from generation to generation in oral tradition, or gleaned from official documents of the time and from other artefacts such as rock art.

Before contact, Tasmanian Aboriginals lived in permanent villages, some practising aquaculture. One of their stories tell of the Sky People who came from the Milky Way and created the Sun. The constellations helped mark changes in the seasons. Tasmanian Aboriginal musical styles are different from those of the mainland.

Torres Strait Islanders

The many Torres Strait Islands are part of the Australian state of Queensland, and located between the Australian mainland and Papua New Guinea. The very first inhabitants of these islands are believed to have arrived about 70,000 years ago, before the ocean separated Australia and New Guinea. Since that time the islands have been home to many different races and peoples including Macassans, Dutch, English, Portuguese and Melanesians.

Today there are two main language groups, and the peoples have a culture and history quite distinct from the peoples of Mainland Australia. Their spirituality is based on the stories of the Tagai and the creation of the constellations. Torres Strait Islanders also have a strong relationship to the sea and the land.

Mainland Aboriginals

Mainland Aboriginals arrived in Australia at least, and probably more than, 40,000 years ago. Different groups developed different ways of living, reflecting the diversity of Australia’s ecosystems. While we tend most commonly to think of Aboriginals as desert nomads there were, for example, Aboriginal people in south-western Victoria who practised aquaculture, and lived in permanent stone dwellings. The spirituality of mainland Aboriginals is based on the Dreaming, which is expressed in their relationship to the land or sea. The Rainbow Serpent is a common element in the stories of some different mainland peoples.