Experience Aboriginal Australia

History
Australias Aboriginal peoples are custodians to one of the worlds oldest
continuous cultures. Aboriginal society predates the Roman Empire and the
building of the Pyramids. Researchers remain divided on dates, but Australia
may well have been populated before Western Europe. Aboriginal occupation
for 50,000 years is generally accepted and some experts believe it began well
before that.
Pre-colonial Aboriginal peoples were distributed throughout Australia in up
to 300 Aboriginal nation-states, speaking about 250 languages and many
more dialects. Their religion and folklore were inextricably linked to the land.
They survived in climates ranging from cold temperate to hot tropical, coping
with arid conditions as well as thriving in parts of the country where it rains
tropically for weeks on end. They travelled widely to trade and exchange
commercial and ritual commodities. In Australias tropical north, they met
traders who arrived from the islands around Java.
Today, Australias indigenous culture has become a magnet for visitors. The
Aboriginal themes presented in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games opening
ceremony and the worldwide focus on conservation and ecotourism have
stimulated a demand for knowledge and greater insight into one of the
worlds oldest cultures. Conservation and ecotourism are of particular
relevance, as Aboriginal people have dwelt in Australias challenging natural
environment for many thousands of years. They lived in ways that sustained
their societies while conserving resources, protecting fragile soils and leaving
a light footprint on the environment. Aboriginal people seek to continue
these practices.

Traditional
ways of life
More than two-thirds of Australias Aboriginal people live in smaller towns or rural areas.
Some 27 per cent live in remote settlements or townships of fewer than 1,000 people.
Traditional ways of life blend with todays commercial realities. In Australias tropical far
north, for instance, a rich Aboriginal culture thrives in the savannas, a vast expanse of
dense grass and scattered trees covering regions such as Arnhem Land where visitors
need a permit from the Aboriginal owners to enter. In these parts, many Aboriginal
people work as tour guides, putting to use their in-depth knowledge of the regions
natural and cultural assets.
Aboriginal cultural festivals, where people gather for traditional activities as well as
modern diversions such as football and athletics, are held regularly in various parts
of Australia. The three-day Cape York Dance Festival takes place biennially in Laura in
the last weekend of June on years ending with an odd number. Participants compete
at dancing, didgeridoo playing, boomerang and spear throwing. Performers paint
their bodies and dance mainly in the traditional manner but not entirely. Modern
interpretations are permitted and Aboriginal elders judge the result.
In various parts of Australia, Aboriginal dance troupes both traditional and modern
thrill audiences with spellbinding routines and interpretations of creation stories.
Aboriginal art and dance can be sampled in Australias cities but growing numbers of
discerning visitors want to travel farther afield to gain deeper insights. These visitors
seek educational adventures; they want to meet the artists who create the paintings
they buy; they look for Aboriginal guides to interpret the significance of places they visit.
More tours have been designed to cater for their needs.

Dreamtime
landscapes
SPIRIT ANCESTORS
Spirit ancestors breathe life and energy into traditional Aboriginal dance, song and
design, playing a crucial role in indigenous culture throughout Australia.
According to Aboriginal belief, the spirit ancestors of the land and its people descended
from the sky, emerged from the earth or sprang from waterways. These ancestral
spirits possessed supernatural powers, enabling them during the Dreamtime of the
worlds creation to change into human, animal or other forms.
Many Aboriginal communities are willing to explain their heritage and show visitors
around their ancestral homelands. Knowledge gained in this way helps visitors to
understand and enjoy Aboriginal performance and artworks.
Spirit ancestors govern and determine Aboriginal ritual activity, imparting a specific
meaning to every step of a dance, every verse of a song and each pattern in a painting.
Ceremonial songs and dances commemorate legends of the Dreamtime creation era,
celebrating in music and movement the deeds and journeys of heroic spirit ancestors.
Participants in traditional dance ceremonies are painted with the emblems and totems
of their clans. Their performances follow established formulas designed to evoke the
spiritual power of the spirit ancestor.
One of the most powerful and pervasive spirit ancestors is the Rainbow Serpent, who
occurs in many Aboriginal beliefs under various names. The Rainbow Serpent travelled
the length and breadth of the land, creating landforms as it went. Often, the Rainbow
Serpent is associated with water. As well as being the source of life, water is a scarce
commodity in outback Australia. Its presence is not always apparent on the surface. For
many millennia, the ability of Aboriginal people to find water in arid conditions ensured
their survival. The Rainbow Serpent is said to dwell in deep, permanent waterholes,
many of which have a sacred significance for indigenous Australians.

Dreamtime
landscapes
DREAMING TRAILS
Aboriginal culture and spiritual belief are bound intimately with the land. Dreaming
trails crisscross Australia, connecting important waterholes, food sources and
landmarks. Aboriginal lore records the significance of trees, rocks, rivers, weather
patterns and other natural phenomena, teaching humans how to survive, find water
and live in harmony with nature.
Throughout Australia, traditional indigenous communities welcome visitors to their
ancestral homelands and demonstrate aspects of their culture. Homelands are linked
by dreaming trails, paths said to have been followed by spirit ancestors during the
Dreamtime of the worlds creation. Aboriginal people believe the landscape was flat and
barren before the ancestors made epic journeys across it, creating mountains, animals,
rivers all geographical features and every living thing on their way. Knowledge of the
dreaming trails is passed from one generation to the next as oral history.
Traditional Aboriginal law, religion and social relationships centre on the association
formed with a specific stretch of country by a spirit ancestor in the Dreamtime.
Descendant peoples are held to be responsible for caring for that same region, or
homeland, maintaining its environmental and spiritual wellbeing.
Certain landmarks, where significant Dreamtime events or journeys happened, are
invested with ceremonial or magical qualities. Sacred sites provide a focus for their
custodians most important knowledge. In turn, the custodians care for the sacred sites
by performing rituals to celebrate the heroic journeys of the spirit ancestors.
Sometimes, dreaming trails parallel or overlap Aboriginal trading routes. Indigenous
Australians travelled these routes in pre-colonial times to barter types of stone and shell
with ritual significance, along with commodities like ochre and hardwood. Exchange
ceremonies, accompanied by song and dance, were held at major interchange points on
the trade networks.

Art of
ancestors
ABORIGINAL PAINTING
Some of the worlds finest prehistoric artworks adorn the weathered landscapes
of Australia. At sites throughout the country, rock paintings and etchings testify to
indigenous artistic traditions dating back at least 30,000 years and probably far longer.
In Australias tropical north, a wide-ranging body of ancient art decorates sandstone
gorges near the tiny township of Laura. Here, in rugged Cape York Peninsula, depictions on
rock-shelter sites range from spirit figures of men and women to eels, fish, wide-winged
brolga birds, crocodiles, kangaroos, snakes and stencilled hands. One wall, the Magnificent
Gallery, stretches more than 40 metres and is adorned with hundreds of Quinkan figures
Quinkans being the Aboriginal spirits associated with this region.
Arnhem Land, encompassing Kakadu National Park, is a priceless wellspring of indigenous
art. Rock art of the escarpment and plateau records changes from the early Holocene
Period. One style, called X-ray, depicts bones and internal organs inside animal bodies.
Similarly, ancient dot paintings exist near Uluru (Ayers Rock) in Australias Red Centre.
Aboriginal artworks can be viewed in art galleries throughout Australia, or on site. The
mysterious Bradshaw paintings in Western Australias wild Kimberley region continue
to amaze scholars. In 1891, explorer Joseph Bradshaw, first European to describe them,
likened the figures to those in Egyptian temples.
Much Aboriginal rock art is preserved in national parks. Examples readily accessible on day
trips from major Australian cities include Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park near Sydney,
Namadgi National Park near Canberra and Grampians National Park west of Melbourne.
South Australias Olary region contains perhaps the oldest indigenous rock art in Australia.
In Queensland, Carnarvon National Park (about 400 kilometres west of Brisbane) offers
a breathtaking display of early indigenous paintings, while in Tasmania, Mount Cameron
West is considered one of the worlds foremost sites of hunter/gatherer art.

Art of
ancestors
ARTEFACTS AND CRAFTS
As well as rock painting and etching, Australias Aboriginal people have a long
tradition of making and decorating artefacts. These range from musical instruments
to weapons and (at Arnhem Land in Australias far north), wooden sculptures of
ancestral beings, birds, fish and animals.
At various places throughout Australia Alice Springs in the Northern Territory,
for instance visitors can spend a day or longer with traditional Aboriginal people,
learning the use of plants, bark painting, weaving, playing the didgeridoo and using
the woomera (a type of spear-hurling stick).
Ancient artefacts may be viewed in museums throughout Australia. Modern versions
can be bought in shops and galleries. To ensure that the economic benefit derived
from the sale of artworks flows back to indigenous artists and their communities,
Australian Aboriginal people have developed a label of authenticity to help identify
authentic Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander art, cultural products and services. The
label uses the Aboriginal colours of black, red and yellow and a boomerang symbol.
The boomerang and the didgeridoo are two objects closely associated with Australias
indigenous peoples. The boomerang, a curved wooden throwing stick, comes in a
wide range of shapes and sizes. Not all boomerangs were designed to come back
accuracy was more important. They were used for hunting and as weapons.
Ceremonial shields were produced in some parts of Australia, along with clubs (nulla
nullas), spears and woomeras.
The didgeridoo, a deep-toned woodwind instrument at the heart of much Aboriginal
music, was originally made by using suitable eucalypt branches usually those
hollowed out by termites. The tubes were decorated with ritual designs and fitted
with a mouthpiece made from native honeybee wax.

Aboriginal
culture today
CULTURAL EXPERIENCES
Throughout Australia, Aboriginal people are able to share their insights into an
ancient land.
In cities and in the outback, visitors can spend a day or longer with Aboriginal people
who explain their ways of life and show visitors their ancestral homelands, providing
many cherished memories in the process. Some of the most memorable encounters
with traditional Aboriginal people do not take the form of organised performances
they require only that the visitor takes time to listen and learn. Visitors can learn the
use of plants, bark painting, weaving, playing the didgeridoo and using the woomera
(a type of spear-hurling stick). Other activities include fishing, hiking, swimming and
taking photographs.
Many rural Aboriginal communities also work as rangers and guides in national parks.
At Uluru (Ayers Rock) in Australias Red Centre, Aboriginal guides help visitors to
experience Australia from an Aboriginal standpoint. Tours impart an understanding
of Ulurus meaning and history and visitors learn about Aboriginal knowledge and
lifestyle. Guides speak their traditional language, with English translation provided
by an experienced interpreter. They tell creation stories thousands of generations old
and demonstrate bush survival skills taught to them by their grandparents.
Aboriginal Cultural Centres are now located around Australia in both cities and
regional areas. These centres explain Indigenous culture, arts and customs to visitors,
helping them to appreciate the tours which they go on to take. Visitors with limited
time value the overview of Aboriginal arts that Cultural Centres can provide. Many
centres allow visitors to experience, in one venue, traditional dance performances,
Dreamtime stories, on-site art and craft production and demonstrations, and an
opportunity to buy authentic Aboriginal products.

Aboriginal
culture today
BUSH TUCKER
Traditional Aboriginal food, now called bush tucker, sustained Australias original
inhabitants for millennia. Tours that focus on this food and its preparation are widely
available. Meanwhile, bush tucker has gone mainstream as Australian chefs have
discovered and experimented with its unusual and delicate flavours. This repository
of new tastes like a painter finding a new palette of colours in the words of one
food writer can be sampled at specialist restaurants throughout Australia.
Ingredients include bush tomatoes, Illawarra plums, quandongs (like a peach with a
touch of rhubarb), lilli pillies, muntari berries, wattle seeds (sometimes used in icecream), Kakadu plums (less sweet than the regular varieties) and bunya bunya nuts
(wonderful in satay sauces).
An especially vivid way to try bush tucker is at an Aboriginal cultural festival, where
people gather for traditional activities and sporting contests. A corroboree dance
ceremony may also be held.Yet some of the most memorable encounters with
traditional Aboriginal people do not take the form of organised performances. They
can be as spontaneous as a camp-fire yarn under the stars,requiring only that the
visitor take time to listen and learn.

Aboriginal
culture today
MODERN ABORIGINAL ART
The artistic heritage of Australias indigenous people attracts tourists keen to add
extra depth to their explorations. Aboriginal painting, in particular, draws many visitors
to major art galleries including some people with no interest in viewing anything
else. In larger Australian cities, civic art galleries run specialist Aboriginal art sections,
with permanent displays as well as periodic visiting exhibitions.
Specialist galleries dedicated to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art can be found in
outback towns like Broken Hill and Alice Springs and in the art precincts of major cities.
Sydneys trendy Paddington district, Bourke and Spring streets in Melbourne, and the
Brisbane Art Circuit (New Farm, Newstead and Fortitude Valley) are good places to
start. Adelaide, Perth and Hobart also have galleries dedicated to Aboriginal art.
Galleries run cooperatively by Aboriginal people exist in Darwin, Alice Springs and
Cairns, as well as in remoter places like Kakadu National Park. Tour operators report
a growing interest in art tours to outback communities, where visitors can meet
artists and buy artworks direct from their producers. Clients on these tours tend to
be educated, with a specific interest in Aboriginal culture and people. A typical oneday art tour might visit an Aboriginal community, meet tribal artists and learn of the
mythology associated with the art.
Modern Aboriginal artworks, often in acrylic on canvas, may use traditional styles such
as the dot technique. This evolved from the ground art that sometimes accompanies
ceremonial dance and song. The subject matter may be a Dreamtime journey,
depicting the wanderings of spirit ancestors.
As well as graphic art, Aboriginal dance troupes thrill audiences with electrifying
routines based on indigenous stories and creation themes. Performances blend the
latest theatrical technology with superb dance skills and stories passed on orally for
thousands of years.

www.australia.com/Aboriginal

Tourism Australia
Level 18
Darling Park Tower Two
201 Sussex Street Sydney NSW 2000
Telephone: +61 2 9360 1111
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