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102-485: The Eastern Maar people are a group of Aboriginal Australian peoples whose traditional lands are in the south-western part of state of Victoria, Australia . It is a name adopted by a number of Aboriginal Victorian groups who identify as Maar , including Eastern Gunditjmara , Tjap Wurrung , Peek Whurrong , Kirrae Whurrung , Kuurn Kopan Noot and/or Yarro waetch ( Tooram Tribe ) people. The word "Maar" means "the people". The Eastern Maar people are represented by

204-593: A Holocene hunter-gatherer sample ("Leang Panninge") from South Sulawesi , which shares high amounts of genetic drift with Aboriginal Australians and Papuans. This suggests that a population split from the common ancestor of Aboriginal Australians and Papuans. The sample also shows genetic affinity with East Asians and the Andamanese people of South Asia. The authors note that this hunter-gatherer sample can be modelled with ~50% Papuan-related ancestry and either with ~50% East Asian or Andamanese Onge ancestry, highlighting

306-526: A "strain" of Aboriginal blood you were forced to live on Reserves or Missions, work for rations, given minimal education, and needed governmental approval to marry, visit relatives or use electrical appliances. The Constitution of Australia , in its original form as of 1901, referred to Aboriginal people twice, but without definition. Section 51(xxvi) gave the Commonwealth parliament a power to legislate with respect to "the people of any race" throughout

408-642: A Review of the Administration of the Working Definition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (Canberra, 1981): An Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander is a person of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent who identifies as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and is accepted as such by the community in which he (she) lives. Justice Gerard Brennan in his 1992 leading judgment in Mabo v Queensland (No 2) stated that Aboriginality of

510-517: A broader "pan-Aboriginal self-identification". Aboriginal music has been positively utilised in public performances to non-participating audiences to further enhance public recognition in, and the development of, Aboriginal identity within modern Australia. Historian Rebe Taylor , who specialises in Australian Indigenous peoples and European settlement, has been critical of negative associations of Aboriginal identity, such as with

612-480: A constituent's Aboriginal identity, referring to him as a white Australian . In June 2019, government minister Ben Wyatt , who had admitted struggling with his own Aboriginal identity as a teenager, praised NAIDOC Week for its "strong celebration of Aboriginal identity and culture". In July 2019, an ABC News "Indigenous" piece reviewed Anita Heiss 's Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia , which reported how

714-487: A direct line of ancestry through a family name linking them to traditional Aboriginal society at the time of colonisation of Tasmania . Debate over the issue was also included in three Federal Court judgements, with varying interpretations. After 1999 ATSIC election, questions were raised about the Aboriginality of many of the 824 voters and some of those who were elected. Debate continued until November 2002, with

816-413: A family history or tradition of Aboriginal descent passed on orally, can provide evidence of Aboriginal descent. TAC complained that now more than a third of the 30 candidates standing in the election were "white", and called for a boycott . The term "black" has been used to refer to Aboriginal Australians since European settlement. While originally related to skin colour and often used pejoratively,

918-611: A gene flow from India to Australia: firstly, signs of South Asian components in Aboriginal Australian genomes, reported on the basis of genome-wide SNP data; and secondly, the existence of a Y chromosome (male) lineage, designated haplogroup C∗, with the most recent common ancestor about 5,000 years ago. The first type of evidence comes from a 2013 study by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology using large-scale genotyping data from

1020-694: A person as Indigenous. (Torres Strait Islanders are ethnically and culturally distinct, despite extensive cultural exchange with some of the Aboriginal groups, and the Torres Strait Islands are mostly part of Queensland but have a separate governmental status .) Some Aboriginal people object to being labelled Indigenous , as an artificial and denialist term, because some non-Aboriginal people have referred to themselves as indigenous because they were born in Australia. Australian Indigenous people have beliefs unique to each mob ( tribe ) and have

1122-577: A person depends on a tripartite test: Membership of the Indigenous people depends on biological descent from the Indigenous people and on mutual recognition of a particular person's membership by that person and by the elders or other persons enjoying traditional authority among those people. The Commonwealth Definition continued to be used administratively and legislatively, notably in the Mabo case, which in 1992 recognised native title in Australia for

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1224-427: A person to acknowledge both Indigenous and non-Indigenous origins – perhaps leading to the expectation that people of mixed Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal origin will identify as Aboriginal. Other reasons suggested after the 2021 census increase include a high fertility rate and a reduction of fear that used to accompany identification as Aboriginal, and an increasing pride in their identity. In urban Australia there

1326-598: A pool of Aboriginal Australians, New Guineans, island Southeast Asians, and Indians. It found that the New Guinea and Mamanwa (Philippines area) groups diverged from the Aboriginal about 36,000 years ago (there is supporting evidence that these populations are descended from migrants taking an early "southern route" out of Africa, before other groups in the area). Also the Indian and Australian populations mixed long before European contact, with this gene flow occurring during

1428-615: A profound spiritual connection. Over the millennia, Aboriginal people developed complex trade networks, inter-cultural relationships, law and religions. Contemporary Aboriginal beliefs are a complex mixture, varying by region and individual across the continent. They are shaped by traditional beliefs, the disruption of colonisation, religions brought to the continent by Europeans, and contemporary issues. Traditional cultural beliefs are passed down and shared through dancing , stories , songlines , and art that collectively weave an ontology of modern daily life and ancient creation known as

1530-456: A rate far exceeding that of the whole population and what would be expected from natural increase. This rise has been attributed to various factors, including increased preparedness to identify as Indigenous and by the propensity for children of mixed partnerships to identify as Indigenous. One possible confounding factor is that the census question allows a person to acknowledge both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origins but does not allow

1632-403: A rate far exceeding the growth of the whole Australian population. A legal historian estimated in 1991 that at least 67 classifications, descriptions or definitions to determine who is an Aboriginal person had been used by governments since white settlement in Australia . The term "Aborigine" was coined by white settlers in Australia in the 1830s from ab origine , a Latin phrase meaning "from

1734-642: A relaxation to rules regarding the identity of Aboriginal Tasmanians . Causing some backlash in the Aboriginal community, the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre (reconstructionists of the Palawa kani language) protested that the Premier of Tasmania 's proposals would mean that residents need only "'tick a box' if they wanted to claim Aboriginality" and that "the community would be 'swamped with white people '". In March 2019, Mark Latham announced

1836-495: A single group. Aboriginal identity has changed over time and place, with family lineage, self-identification, and community acceptance all of varying importance. In the 2021 census , Indigenous Australians comprised 3.8% of Australia's population. Most Aboriginal people today speak English and live in cities. Some may use Aboriginal phrases and words in Australian Aboriginal English (which also has

1938-411: A spirit creates the earth then tells the humans to treat the animals and the earth in a way which is respectful to land. In Northern Territory this is commonly said to be a huge snake or snakes that weaved its way through the earth and sky making the mountains and oceans. But in other places the spirits who created the world are known as wandjina rain and water spirits. Major ancestral spirits include

2040-470: A strong connection to the land. Contemporary Indigenous Australian beliefs are a complex mixture, varying by region and individual across the continent. They are shaped by traditional beliefs, the disruption of colonisation, religions brought to the continent by Europeans, and contemporary issues. Traditional cultural beliefs are passed down and shared by dancing , stories , songlines and art —especially Papunya Tula (dot painting)—collectively telling

2142-427: A tangible influence of Aboriginal languages in the phonology and grammatical structure ). Many but not all also speak the various traditional languages of their clans and peoples. Aboriginal people, along with Torres Strait Islander people, have a number of severe health and economic deprivations in comparison with the wider Australian community. DNA studies have confirmed that "Aboriginal Australians are one of

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2244-501: A woman attempting to tear down an Aboriginal flag, while both questioning the man's Aboriginality and using anti-Aboriginal racial slurs. Former Federal Government Senator Nova Peris remarked upon the contradiction, tweeting how the woman "in her rage, unable to think rationally blurt[ed] out her final angry remarks of ‘go & live in a humpy on the river’ yet seconds earlier... was adamant...they weren't Aboriginal." The numbers of Indigenous-identifying people have grown since 1986 at

2346-466: Is a high proportion of such mixed partnerships (incidentally, much higher than black/white partnerships in the United States ). By 2002, it appeared that there was likely to be a narrowing of the gap between the socioeconomic indicators of the two groups, particularly in urban areas, leading to government policy possibly moving away from Indigenous-specific services or benefits in these areas. In

2448-413: Is a person of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent who identifies as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and is accepted as such by the community in which he (she) lives". The 1981 Report added impetus to the definition, and it was soon adopted by all Government departments for determining eligibility to certain services and benefits. The definition was also adopted by the states , for example in

2550-773: Is an increase in allele sharing between the Denisovan and Aboriginal Australian genomes, compared to other Eurasians or Africans. Examining DNA from a finger bone excavated in Siberia , researchers concluded that the Denisovans migrated from Siberia to tropical parts of Asia and that they interbred with modern humans in Southeast Asia 44,000 years BP, before Australia separated from New Guinea approximately 11,700 years BP. They contributed DNA to Aboriginal Australians and to present-day New Guineans and an indigenous tribe in

2652-477: Is based on the Aboriginal peoples' geographical isolation, with little or no interaction with outside cultures before some contact with Makassan fishermen and Dutch explorers up to 500 years ago. The Rasmussen study also found evidence that Aboriginal peoples carry some genes associated with the Denisovans (a species of human related to but distinct from Neanderthals ) of Asia; the study suggests that there

2754-480: Is no evidence for South Asian gene flow to Australia .... Despite Sahul being a single connected landmass until [8,000 years ago], different groups across Australia are nearly equally related to Papuans, and vice versa, and the two appear to have separated genetically already [about 30,000 years ago]." Aboriginal Australians possess inherited abilities to adapt to a wide range of environmental temperatures in various ways. A study in 1958 comparing cold adaptation in

2856-453: Is only in the last two hundred years that they have been defined and started to self-identify as a single group, socio-politically. While some preferred the term Aborigine to Aboriginal in the past, as the latter was seen to have more directly discriminatory legal origins, use of the term Aborigine has declined in recent decades, as many consider the term an offensive and racist hangover from Australia's colonial era. The definition of

2958-650: Is still in use today. Various factors affect Aboriginal people's self-identification as Aboriginal, including a growing pride in culture, solidarity in a shared history of dispossession (including the Stolen Generations ), and, among those are fair-skinned, an increased willingness to acknowledge their ancestors, once considered shameful. Aboriginal identity can be politically controversial in contemporary discourse, among both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. Successive censuses have shown those identifying as Indigenous (Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander) at

3060-502: Is that the desert people are able to have a higher body temperature without accelerating the activity of the whole of the body, which can be especially detrimental in childhood diseases. This helps protect people to survive the side-effects of infection. Aboriginal people have lived for tens of thousands of years on the continent of Australia , through its various changes in landmass. The area within Australia 's borders today includes

3162-506: Is thus deemed to be an Aboriginal Australian, they cannot be regarded as an alien in Australia, even if they hold foreign citizenship. The two men concerned, Daniel Love and Brendan Thomas, could not thus be deported as aliens under the provisions of the Migration Act 1958 , after both had earlier been convicted of criminal offences and served time in prison until 2018. Having determined that both men (Love and Thoms) fulfilled

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3264-598: The Racial Discrimination Act 1975 in two newspaper articles. Bolt claimed that certain prominent Aboriginal people with fair skin were claiming to be Aboriginal for perceived advantages. The articles questioned whether these people were "Aboriginal enough". The presiding judge Justice Bromberg found that the articles contained "erroneous facts, distortions of the truth and inflammatory and provocative language". In 2014, an ARC Indigenous research fellow, Warraimaay historian Dr Victoria Grieves Williams of

3366-423: The 2021 Australian census , 812,000 people identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander, representing 3.2% of the population. This was an increase from 2.8% in 2016 (i.e. about 25%increase ), and 2.5% in 2011. Of these: However, the net undercount of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people was 17.4%, and the estimated Indigenous population is around 952,000 to 1,000,000, or just under 4 per cent of

3468-560: The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT), which referred the question to the Federal Court. The AAT found that It is probable that there are in the wider Tasmanian community persons who have a degree of Aboriginal descent although there are no public records which support their claim. 2. Self identification and community recognition of applicants as Aborigines, particularly where there is evidence of

3570-519: The Australian welfare system. On 11 February 2020 the High Court of Australia , in a judgement affecting two court cases ( Love v Commonwealth of Australia; Thoms v Commonwealth of Australia : [2020] HCA 3), first used the tripartite test used by Justice Brennan in Mabo v Queensland (No 2) (1992) to determine Aboriginality of the two plaintiffs. The court then determined that if a person

3672-530: The CC BY 4.0 license. Australian Aboriginal identity The term "Aboriginal" was coined by white settlers in Australia in the 1830s, after they began to adopt the term "Australian" to define themselves. No real attempt to define the term legally was made until the 1980s, despite use of the term twice in the 1901 Constitution of Australia , before these were removed following the 1967 referendum . Various legal and administrative definitions have been used over

3774-490: The CSIRO stressed the importance of taking a demand-driven approach to services in desert settlements, and concluded that "if top-down solutions continue to be imposed without appreciating the fundamental drivers of settlement in desert regions, then those solutions will continue to be partial, and ineffective in the long term." [REDACTED]  This article incorporates text by Anders Bergström et al. available under

3876-782: The Cabinet of the Australian Government offered a three-part definition, based on descent, self-identification, and community acceptance. (For the purposes of the Australian Census , the last factor is excluded as impractical.) A definition was proposed by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs in the Report on a Review of the Administration of the Working Definition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (Canberra, 1981): "An Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander

3978-624: The Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation ( EMAC ), a Registered Native Title Body Corporate (RNTBC). In July 2011 the Eastern Maar and Gunditjmara peoples were recognised as the native title holders for an area in south-west Victoria between the Shaw and Eumeralla Rivers , and from Yambuk in the south, to beyond Lake Linlithgow in the north. EMAC is negotiating a Recognition and Settlement Agreement with

4080-572: The Federal Parliament to legislate specifically for this racial group.) Since that time, there have been a number of proposals to amend the constitution to specifically mention Indigenous Australians. Between 1981 and 1986, a rise of 42% of people identifying as Aboriginal occurred across Australian census areas (see also separate section below). The rise roughly amount to "68,000 new claims of Aboriginal identity". In 1988, as part of bicentennial celebrations, Prime Minister Bob Hawke

4182-590: The Initial Upper Paleolithic . They are most closely related to other Oceanians , such as Melanesians . The Aboriginal Australians also show affinity to other Australasian populations, such as Negritos , as well as to East Asian peoples . Phylogenetic data suggests that an early initial eastern lineage (ENA) trifurcated somewhere in South Asia , and gave rise to Australasians (Oceanians), Ancient Ancestral South Indian (AASI), Andamanese and

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4284-712: The Kimberley region in what is now Western Australia about 60,000 years ago. They migrated across the continent within 6,000 years. A 2018 study using archaeobotany dated evidence of continuous human habitation at Karnatukul (Serpent's Glen) in the Carnarvon Range in the Little Sandy Desert in WA from around 50,000 years ago. Genetic studies have revealed that Aboriginal Australians largely descended from an Eastern Eurasian population wave during

4386-637: The Makassar people of modern-day Indonesia. Aboriginal Australians have a wide variety of cultural practices and beliefs that some scientists believe make up the oldest continuous cultures in the world, although this is disputed. At the time of European colonisation of Australia, the Aboriginal people consisted of complex cultural societies with more than 250 languages and varying degrees of technology and settlements. Languages (or dialects) and language-associated groups of people are connected with stretches of territory known as "Country", with which they have

4488-652: The New South Wales Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 . This definition has become known as the "Commonwealth Definition". The change to Section 51(xxvi) following the 1967 Referendum enabled the Commonwealth parliament to enact laws specifically with respect to Aboriginal peoples as a "race". In the Tasmanian Dam Case of 1983, the High Court of Australia was asked to determine whether Commonwealth legislation, whose application could relate to Aboriginal people—parts of

4590-683: The Northern Territory to study their genetic makeup (which is not representative of all Aboriginal peoples in Australia). The study concluded that the Warlpiri are descended from ancient Asians whose DNA is still somewhat present in Southeastern Asian groups, although greatly diminished. The Warlpiri DNA lacks certain information found in modern Asian genomes, and carries information not found in other genomes. This reinforces

4692-502: The One Nation party's plans to introduce reforms to "tighten the eligibility rules for Aboriginal identity" in Australia, which would "require DNA evidence of at least 25 per cent Indigenous - the equivalent of one fully Aboriginal grandparent." In May 2019, The Guardian revealed how Liberal Party candidate Jacinta Price , daughter of Aboriginal activist Bess Price , had received criticism for incorrectly calling into question

4794-459: The Pleistocene epoch and lived over large sections of the Australian continental shelf when the sea levels were lower. At that time, Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea were part of the same landmass, known as Sahul . As sea levels rose, the people on the Australian mainland and nearby islands became increasingly isolated, some on Tasmania and some of the smaller offshore islands when

4896-627: The Rainbow Serpent , Baiame , Dirawong and Bunjil . Similarly, the Arrernte people of central Australia believed that humanity originated from great superhuman ancestors who brought the sun, wind and rain as a result of breaking through the surface of the Earth when waking from their slumber. Taken as a whole, Aboriginal Australians, along with Torres Strait Islander people, have a number of health and economic deprivations in comparison with

4998-641: The Victorian Government for the area of Stawell south-west of Horsham and Ararat roads. The boundary of the agreement is under negotiation. Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands . Humans first migrated to Australia at least 65,000 years ago, and over time formed as many as 500 language-based groups . In

5100-778: The 1970s and 1980s, when Aboriginal people moved to tiny remote settlements on traditional land, brought health benefits, but funding them proved expensive, training and employment opportunities were not provided in many cases, and support from governments dwindled in the 2000s, particularly in the era of the Howard government . Indigenous communities in remote Australia are often small, isolated towns with basic facilities, on traditionally owned land . These communities have between 20 and 300 inhabitants and are often closed to outsiders for cultural reasons. The long-term viability and resilience of Aboriginal communities in desert areas has been discussed by scholars and policy-makers. A 2007 report by

5202-677: The 19th century. Scholars believe that most Aboriginal Australians originated from Southeast Asia. If this is the case, Aboriginal Australians were among the first in the world to have completed sea voyages. A 2017 paper in Nature evaluated artefacts in Kakadu . Its authors concluded "Human occupation began around 65,000 years ago." A 2021 study by researchers at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage has mapped

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5304-419: The Commonwealth, except for people of "the aboriginal race". The purpose of this provision was to give the Commonwealth power to regulate non-white immigrant workers, who would follow work opportunities interstate. The only other reference, Section 127 , provided that "aboriginal natives shall not be counted" in reckoning the size of the population of the Commonwealth or any part of it. The purpose of Section 127

5406-496: The Dreaming . Studies of Aboriginal groups' genetic makeup are ongoing, but evidence suggests that they have genetic inheritance from ancient Asian but not more modern peoples. They share some similarities with Papuans , but have been isolated from Southeast Asia for a very long time. They have a broadly shared, complex genetic history, but only in the last 200 years were they defined by others as, and started to self-identify as,

5508-620: The East/Southeast Asian lineage, including ancestors of the Native Americans . Papuans may have received approximately 2% of their geneflow from an earlier group (xOOA) as well, next to additional archaic admixture in the Sahul region. Aboriginal people are genetically most similar to the indigenous populations of Papua New Guinea , and more distantly related to groups from East Indonesia. They are more distinct from

5610-881: The Holocene ( c. 4,200 years ago). The researchers had two theories for this: either some Indians had contact with people in Indonesia who eventually transferred those Indian genes to Aboriginal Australians, or a group of Indians migrated from India to Australia and intermingled with the locals directly. However, a 2016 study in Current Biology by Anders Bergström et al. excluded the Y chromosome as providing evidence for recent gene flow from India into Australia. The study authors sequenced 13 Aboriginal Australian Y chromosomes using recent advances in gene sequencing technology. They investigated their divergence times from Y chromosomes in other continents, including comparing

5712-859: The Northern, Southern and Central cultural areas. The Northern and Southern areas, having richer natural marine and woodland resources, were more densely populated than the Central area. There are various other names from Australian Aboriginal languages commonly used to identify groups based on geography , known as demonyms , including: Other group names are based on the language group or specific dialect spoken . These also coincide with geographical regions of varying sizes. A few examples are: However, these lists are neither exhaustive nor definitive, and there are overlaps. Different approaches have been taken by non-Aboriginal scholars in trying to understand and define Aboriginal culture and societies, some focusing on

5814-771: The Philippines known as Mamanwa . This study confirms Aboriginal Australians as one of the oldest living populations in the world. They are possibly the oldest outside Africa, and they may have the oldest continuous culture on the planet. A 2016 study at the University of Cambridge suggests that it was about 50,000 years ago that these peoples reached Sahul (the supercontinent consisting of present-day Australia and its islands and New Guinea ). The sea levels rose and isolated Australia about 10,000 years ago, but Aboriginal Australians and Papuans diverged from each other genetically earlier, about 37,000 years BP, possibly because

5916-669: The University of Sydney argued that further "understanding of the true nature of Aboriginal identity gives us an opportunity to begin to make decisions on who has the right to claim Aboriginality." Writing in The Sydney Morning Herald in 2016, Ben Wyatt called on all Australian citizens to recognize the "ancient identity and story of Aboriginal Australians", and that it was "this identity, this story, which still remains to be embraced, captured and adopted by all Australians". Later that year, Will Hodgman announced

6018-530: The World Heritage Properties Conservation Act 1983 (Cth) as well as related legislation—was supported by Section 51(xxvi) in its new form. The case concerned an application of legislation that would preserve the cultural heritage of Aboriginal Tasmanians . It was held that Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, together or separately, and any part of either, could be regarded as a "race" for this purpose. As to

6120-444: The ancient people expanded and differentiated into distinct groups, each with its own language and culture. More than 400 distinct Australian Aboriginal peoples have been identified, distinguished by names designating their ancestral languages, dialects, or distinctive speech patterns. According to noted anthropologist , archaeologist and sociologist Harry Lourandos , historically, these groups lived in three main cultural areas,

6222-499: The biological criterion to an individual's self-identification, it has been criticised as continuing to accept the biological criterion as primary. It has been found difficult to apply, both in each of its parts and as to the relations among the parts; biological "descent" has been a fall-back criterion. A new definition was proposed in the Constitutional Section of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs ' Report on

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6324-411: The book was helping to counter the "racist myth of a singular Aboriginal identity". Similarly, ABC Innovation 's Little Yarns podcast aims to "celebrate the diversity of Indigenous cultures and languages", dispelling misconceptions regarding a "homogeneous Aboriginal identity". In late 2019, author Bruce Pascoe 's Aboriginal identity was questioned by Bolt and a few Aboriginal people associated with

6426-470: The criteria for identifying a person as a member of such a "race", the definition by Justice Deane has become accepted as current law. Deane said: ...By "Australian Aboriginal" I mean, in accordance with what I understand to be the conventional meaning of that term, a person of Aboriginal descent, albeit mixed, who identifies himself as such and who is recognised by the Aboriginal community as an Aboriginal. While Deane's three-part definition reaches beyond

6528-524: The criteria of identification as Aboriginal, the Justices held "that it is not open to the Parliament to treat an Aboriginal Australian as an "alien" because the constitutional term does not extend to a person who could not possibly answer the description of "alien" according to the ordinary understanding of the word. Aboriginal Australians have a special cultural, historical and spiritual connection with

6630-519: The deep split between Leang Panninge and Aboriginal/Papuans. Mallick et al. 2016 and Mark Lipson et al. 2017 study found the bifurcation of Eastern Eurasians and Western Eurasians dates to least 45,000 years ago, with indigenous Australians nested inside the Eastern Eurasian clade. Two genetic studies by Larena et al. 2021 found that Philippines Negrito people split from the common ancestor of Aboriginal Australians and Papuans before

6732-497: The desert-dwelling Pitjantjatjara people compared with a group of European people showed that the cooling adaptation of the Aboriginal group differed from that of the white people, and that they were able to sleep more soundly through a cold desert night. A 2014 Cambridge University study found that a beneficial mutation in two genes which regulate thyroxine , a hormone involved in regulating body metabolism , helps to regulate body temperature in response to fever. The effect of this

6834-442: The development of Aboriginal social organisation", she says. Aboriginal identity contains interconnecting parts, some or all of which may constitute an individual's self-identification: Observing particular aspects of Aboriginal culture and spiritual beliefs help to maintain continuity and cohesiveness within a community. Ceremonies can play a large role in passing down Dreaming lore, customs connection to country , and laws of

6936-405: The era of colonial and post-colonial government, access to basic human rights depended upon your race. If you were a "full-blooded Aboriginal native ... [or] any person apparently having an admixture of Aboriginal blood", a half-caste being the "offspring of an Aboriginal mother and other than Aboriginal father" (but not of an Aboriginal father and other than Aboriginal mother), a " quadroon ", or had

7038-687: The first time. However, debate about the definition became heated, particularly in Tasmania , over whether the emphasis should be on identification by self and/or community or by descent. The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre (TAC) emphasised evidence of descent, and started refusing services to people who had previously been identified as Aboriginal. A report commissioned by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) found that people seeking to identify as Aboriginal should satisfy all three criteria, and should provide documentary evidence to show

7140-518: The group. Recognition of Aboriginal land rights in Australia has played a decisive role in the development of Aboriginal identity, as "lands rights has demanded that both Aborigines and white develop and articulate definitions of a unique Aboriginal identity." Academic Gordon Briscoe has also proposed that, among many other factors, Indigenous health has historically shaped this identity, particularly in relation to British settlement of Australia. Anthropologist Ian Keen suggested in 2006 that

7242-452: The groups he had written about as his ancestors ( Yuin , Bunurong and Aboriginal Tasmanian ). Pascoe was also supported by members of these groups as well as prominent Aboriginal identities. The controversy led to fair-skinned Aboriginal people across the country being questioned about their Aboriginality. In December 2019, a video of a fair-skinned Aboriginal man being confronted by two neighbours in his home went viral . The video showed

7344-714: The haplogroup C chromosomes. They found a divergence time of about 54,100 years between the Sahul C chromosome and its closest relative C5, as well as about 54,300 years between haplogroups K*/M and their closest haplogroups R and Q. The deep divergence time of 50,000-plus years with the South Asian chromosome and "the fact that the Aboriginal Australian Cs share a more recent common ancestor with Papuan Cs" excludes any recent genetic contact. The 2016 study's authors concluded that, although this does not disprove

7446-401: The idea of ancient Aboriginal isolation. Genetic data extracted in 2011 by Morten Rasmussen et al., who took a DNA sample from an early-20th-century lock of an Aboriginal person's hair, found that the Aboriginal ancestors probably migrated through South Asia and Maritime Southeast Asia , into Australia, where they stayed. As a result, outside of Africa, the Aboriginal peoples have occupied

7548-653: The increased suicide rate, many researchers have suggested that the inclusion of more cultural aspects into suicide prevention programs would help to combat mental health issues within the community. Past studies have found that many indigenous leaders and community members, do in fact, want more culturally-aware health care programs. Similarly, culturally-relative programs targeting indigenous youth have actively challenged suicide ideation among younger indigenous populations, with many social and emotional wellbeing programs using cultural information to provide coping mechanisms and improving mental health. The outstation movement of

7650-511: The indigenous populations of Borneo and Malaysia , sharing drift with them than compared to the groups from Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. This indicates that populations in Australia were isolated for a long time from the rest of Southeast Asia. They remained untouched by migrations and population expansions into that area, which can be explained by the Wallace line . In a 2001 study, blood samples were collected from some Warlpiri people in

7752-572: The islands of Tasmania , K'gari (previously Fraser Island) , Hinchinbrook Island , the Tiwi Islands , Kangaroo Island and Groote Eylandt . Indigenous people of the Torres Strait Islands, however, are not Aboriginal. In the 2021 census , people who self-identified on the census form as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin totalled 812,728 out of a total of 25,422,788 Australians, equating to 3.2% of Australia's population and an increase of 163,557 people, or 25.2%, since

7854-455: The land was inundated at the start of the Holocene , the inter-glacial period that started about 11,700 years ago. Scholars of this ancient history believe that it would have been difficult for Aboriginal people to have originated purely from mainland Asia. Not enough people would have migrated to Australia and surrounding islands to fulfill the beginning of the size of the population seen in

7956-406: The last 10,000 years it may have occurred—newer analytical techniques have the potential to address such questions. Bergstrom's 2018 doctoral thesis looking at the population of Sahul suggests that other than relatively recent admixture, the populations of the region appear to have been genetically independent from the rest of the world since their divergence about 50,000 years ago. He writes "There

8058-524: The latter two diverged from each other, but after their common ancestor diverged from the ancestor of East Asian peoples . The dingo reached Australia about 4,000 years ago. Near that time, there were changes in language (with the Pama-Nyungan language family spreading over most of the mainland), and in stone tool technology. Smaller tools were used. Human contact has thus been inferred, and genetic data of two kinds have been proposed to support

8160-496: The likely migration routes of the peoples as they moved across the Australian continent to its southern reaches and what is now Tasmania , then part of the mainland. The modelling is based on data from archaeologists , anthropologists , ecologists , geneticists , climatologists , geomorphologists , and hydrologists . It is intended to compare this data with the oral histories of Aboriginal peoples, including Dreaming stories, Australian rock art , and linguistic features of

8262-423: The many Aboriginal languages which reveal how the peoples developed separately. The routes, dubbed "superhighways" by the authors, are similar to current highways and stock routes in Australia. Lynette Russell of Monash University believes that the new model is a starting point for collaboration with Aboriginal people to help reveal their history. The new models suggest that the first people may have landed in

8364-403: The micro-level (tribe, clan, etc.), and others on shared languages and cultural practices spread over large regions defined by ecological factors. Anthropologists have encountered many difficulties in trying to define what constitutes an Aboriginal people/community/group/tribe, let alone naming them. Knowledge of pre-colonial Aboriginal cultures and societal groupings is still largely dependent on

8466-411: The observers' interpretations, which were filtered through colonial ways of viewing societies. Some Aboriginal peoples identify as one of several saltwater, freshwater, rainforest or desert peoples . The term Aboriginal Australians includes many distinct peoples who have developed across Australia for over 50,000 years. These peoples have a broadly shared, though complex, genetic history, but it

8568-638: The oldest living populations in the world, certainly the oldest outside of Africa." Their ancestors left the African continent 75,000 years ago. They may have the oldest continuous culture on earth. In Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory , oral histories comprising complex narratives have been passed down by Yolngu people through hundreds of generations. The Aboriginal rock art , dated by modern techniques, shows that their culture has continued from ancient times. The ancestors of present-day Aboriginal Australian people migrated from Southeast Asia by sea during

8670-480: The original 250–400 Aboriginal languages (more than 250 languages and about 800 dialectal varieties on the continent) are endangered or extinct, although some efforts are being made at language revival for some. As of 2016, only 13 traditional Indigenous languages were still being acquired by children, and about another 100 spoken by older generations only. Dispersing across the Australian continent over time,

8772-420: The other studies had utilised complete Y chromosome sequencing, which has the highest precision. For example, use of a ten Y STRs method has been shown to massively underestimate divergence times. Gene flow across the island-dotted 150-kilometre-wide (93 mi) Torres Strait, is both geographically plausible and demonstrated by the data, although at this point it could not be determined from this study when within

8874-424: The past, Aboriginal people lived over large sections of the continental shelf . They were isolated on many of the smaller offshore islands and Tasmania when the land was inundated at the start of the Holocene inter-glacial period , about 11,700 years ago. Despite this, Aboriginal people maintained extensive networks within the continent and certain groups maintained relationships with Torres Strait Islanders and

8976-440: The presence of any Holocene gene flow or non-genetic influences from South Asia at that time, and the appearance of the dingo does provide strong evidence for external contacts, the evidence overall is consistent with a complete lack of gene flow, and points to indigenous origins for the technological and linguistic changes. They attributed the disparity between their results and previous findings to improvements in technology; none of

9078-414: The previous census in 2016. Reasons for the increase were broadly as follows: Most Aboriginal people speak English, with Aboriginal phrases and words being added to create Australian Aboriginal English (which also has a tangible influence of Aboriginal languages in the phonology and grammatical structure ). Some Aboriginal people, especially those living in remote areas, are multi-lingual. Many of

9180-403: The recency of one's Aboriginal ancestors does not determine one's identification as Aboriginal. Many intangible aspects of culture are transmitted through families and kinship systems . Often, having living Aboriginal relations is the main determinant of cultural connectedness. "Family, kinship, relatedness and connectedness are the basis of Aboriginal world-views and the philosophy that underpins

9282-487: The remaining land bridge was impassable. This isolation makes the Aboriginal people the world's oldest culture. The study also found evidence of an unknown hominin group, distantly related to Denisovans, with whom the Aboriginal and Papuan ancestors must have interbred, leaving a trace of about 4% in most Aboriginal Australians' genome. There is, however, increased genetic diversity among Aboriginal Australians based on geographical distribution. Carlhoff et al. 2021 analysed

9384-406: The same territory continuously longer than any other human populations. These findings suggest that modern Aboriginal Australians are the direct descendants of the eastern wave, who left Africa up to 75,000 years ago. This finding is compatible with earlier archaeological finds of human remains near Lake Mungo that date to approximately 40,000 years ago. The idea of the "oldest continuous culture"

9486-399: The scale of varieties of Australian Aboriginal languages "plays an important role in questions of Aboriginal identity". There are subsets to Aboriginal identity in Australia. Regional versions relating to a specific Aboriginal sub-culture or sub-ethnic group include a large number of groupings , based on language, culture, traditional lands, demonym or other features, but there is also

9588-589: The story of creation known as The Dreamtime . Additionally, traditional healers were also custodians of important Dreaming stories as well as their medical roles (for example the Ngangkari in the Western desert ). Some core structures and themes are shared across the continent with details and additional elements varying between language and cultural groups. For example, in The Dreamtime of most regions,

9690-409: The term Aboriginal has changed over time and place, with the importance of family lineage, self-identification and community acceptance all being of varying importance. The term Indigenous Australians refers to Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and the term is conventionally only used when both groups are included in the topic being addressed, or by self-identification by

9792-853: The term is used today to indicate Aboriginal heritage or culture in general and refers to any people of such heritage regardless of their level of skin pigmentation. In the 1970s, many Aboriginal activists, such as Gary Foley , proudly embraced the term "black", and writer Kevin Gilbert 's book from the time was entitled Living Black . The book included interviews with several members of the Aboriginal community, including Robert Jabanungga , reflecting on contemporary Aboriginal culture. Use of this term varies depending on context and its use needs care as it may be deemed inappropriate. Evidence from biographies has shown that, unlike white people, Aboriginal people do not define themselves in terms of race, but rather culture; Aboriginal historian Victoria Grieves says that

9894-526: The territory of Australia, which is central to their traditional laws and customs and which is recognised by the common law. The existence of that connection is inconsistent with holding that an Aboriginal Australian is an alien within the meaning of s 51(xix) of the Constitution ". In a 2011 case, Eatock v Bolt , the Federal Court of Australia found that columnist Andrew Bolt had breached

9996-607: The very beginning". Until the 1980s, the sole legal and administrative criterion for inclusion in this category was race, classified according to visible physical characteristics or known ancestors. This was similar to the legal doctrine of partus sequitur ventrum in the American South which had been present from 1662 onward during the colonial era and mandated that a child's status was determined by that of their mothers: if born to Aboriginal mothers, children were considered Aboriginal, regardless of their paternity. In

10098-517: The wider Australian community. Due to the aforementioned disadvantage, Aboriginal Australian communities experience a higher rate of suicide, as compared to non-indigenous communities. These issues stem from a variety of different causes unique to indigenous communities, such as historical trauma, socioeconomic disadvantage, and decreased access to education and health care. Also, this problem largely affects indigenous youth, as many indigenous youth may feel disconnected from their culture. To combat

10200-507: The years. A leading judgment by Justice Brennan in the 1992 Mabo v Queensland (No 2) case (which relates to Indigenous of the Torres Strait exclusively) stated that an Indigenous identity of a person depends on a three-part test: biological descent from the Indigenous people; recognition of the person's membership by that person; and recognition by the elders or other persons enjoying traditional authority among those people. This

10302-539: Was presented with a statement of Aboriginal political objectives by Galarrwuy Yunupingu and Wenten Rubuntja , in what became known as The Barunga Statement . Among many requests, the Statement called for the Australian government to facilitate "respect for and promotion of our Aboriginal identity, including the cultural, linguistic, religious and historical aspects, and including the right to be educated in our own languages and in our own culture and history". In 1978,

10404-616: Was to prevent the inclusion of Aboriginal people in Section 24 determinations of the distribution of House of Representatives seats amongst the states and territories . After these references were removed by the 1967 referendum , the Australian Constitution had no references to Aboriginal people. (These amendments altered Section 51(xxvi) , and Section 127 , having the immediate effect of including Aboriginal people in determinations of population, and also empowering

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