Aborigines : the first inhabitants of australia
328 mots
2 pages
ABORIGINESThere are about 40 - 50 000 years, Aborigines have inhabited the continent of Australia. So these are the first inhabitants of this continent. Archaeologists are not sure where these people are coming. There are several theories about their origin, but none is confirmed. Before the colonization of Australia, there was more than 750 000 Aborigines who occupied the territory, but now there still only 400,000 persons representing 2% of the entire population. In the past, Aborigines lived as nomads in small huts they built themselves. They were hunters and gatherers. Women most often picked fruits and hunted small game, whereas men hunted animals that are larger as the kangaroo or emu. After the colonization of Australia, most Aborigines were driven out their homes. They began to live in big cities. But since the return of some of their "homelands" many of them returned to live on the lands of their ancestors. These "homelands" represent for them the country where they find their identity. Most often they are in northern Australia. The life expectancy of Aborigines is very small: on average they only live twenty years which is below the average life expectancy of the rest of the Australian population. This nation is divided into 250 tribes and therefore knows various languages and dialects. Each person mastered several languages and dialects that are needed to communicate with other tribes. They gather on the territory they live in honoring the spirits of their ancestors. So that the clan is perpetually, each member is required to participate in these rituals by which they are always protected by their ancestors. Aborigines believe that every human or animal being leaves a mark on the Earth when he died. This is represented by a totem. It symbolizes the ancestor of a family or clan who died. By the contact between the totems clan is the spirit of the ancestor is guaranteed. They invented the boomerang, which is basically a hunting