Aboriginals Before European Contact
This period extended up until the 1950s when there were still members of tribes in the deserts of central Australia that had not seen white people.
The Aboriginal Creation Myth
Like most cultures, Aboriginal culture has a creation myth which explains the origins of the universe and humankind. Christianity, in the book of Genesis, has the story of Adam and Eve. Likewise, many Aboriginal tribes to explain creation use the idea of life originating from the activities of a Rainbow Serpent. In Aboriginal mythology, called 'the Dreaming', the earth has always existed. It is the people and the animals that have been created by the Rainbow Serpent.
Modern theories on where the Aborigines Originated
The exact origins of the Aborigines is a mystery. It is estimated that the Aborigines came to Australia through what is now the Indonesian archipelago 50 000 years ago. They are distinct and separate from the rest of the races of the world. The Aborigines, like the other races, are Homo Sapiens. Human evolution did not take place in Australia, it was settled after human evolution into the Homo Sapiens - 'modern man'.
Was There More than One Migration of Aborigines to Australia?
There are three theories on this question:
1. Developed in the Nineteenth century to explain visible differences between Tasmanian and Australian Aborigines. It said there were two different migrations. Today it is rejected because the differences can be explained through physical and cultural evolution.
2. Trihybrid theory (three waves of migration), which originated in the 1930s. Descendants of the first migration settled in the rainforests of North East Queensland and Tasmania. The second lived in South Australia. The third lived in the North. The first migration occurred 20 000 to 30 000 years ago. The last was completed 10 000 years ago. The theory is rejected because the sample was too small, and because aboriginal people evolved within their own environment. Factors such as body size can change quickly if local conditions are suitable.
3. Another theory has arisen to explain differences in the skulls found in various parts of Australia. Some historians think that skulls more than 6000 years old can be divided into two groups - one similar to modern Aborigines and an 'archaic' type heavier in appearance. They suggest that the 'archaic' type arrived first from Indonesia; and that another group came from China. The small size of the sample also does not help this theory. The explanation is also undermined by evidence suggesting that the more modern looking people have been here longer than the 'archaic'.
The Frontier - Contact with Europeans
The white settlers dispossessed the Aborigines of their land despite resistance from them. The frontier period usually refers to the period in which there was armed conflict between white settlers and Aborigines. For most of Australia, the frontier period lasted from 1788 to the end of the nineteenth century. However in parts of Western Australia and the Northern Territory frontier like conditions prevailed until the 1950s.
Terra Nullius
The law offered little protection for Aborigines on the frontier. Many white settlers justified clearing the land of Aborigines by the idea of Terra Nullius. This was the notion that the land was unoccupied due to the Aborgines not owning the land because they did not farm it, but pursued a hunter-gather lifestyle.
The Reserve System
After their defeat on the frontier, the Aborigines were rounded up and sent to camps where they remained virtual prisoners, even though the government pretended that it was engaged in educating and uplifting the Aborigines. The reserves began in the late nineteenth century. As late as the 1980s many Aborigines were still living in these camps and being treated like children by the some state governments.
The Struggle for Recognition and the Legal Return of their Land - The Fight for 'Land Rights'
During the late 1960s some Aboriginal groups in the Northern Territory initiated legal cases to win back the land that had recently been taken from them. The Australian Government recognised the validity of their claims and passed the Land Rights Act in 1976, which helped Aborigines in their struggle to have much of their land returned. In 1992 the idea that the white settlers were entitled to occupy the continent because it was unoccupied, called Terra Nullius, was removed from the legal system in the Mabo High Court judgement. Prior Aboriginal title to the land was now acknowledged.
