Concetti Chiave
- Aborigines are believed to have migrated from Indonesia to Australia around 50,000 years ago, with the oldest skeleton dating back 38,000 years.
- Traditionally nomadic, Aborigines lacked a sense of land ownership, although they revisited certain locations for burial rites.
- The concept of 'Dreamtime' is central to Aboriginal culture, symbolizing the creation of the earth and connecting tribes through legends, songs, and dances.
- Aboriginal culture includes rock paintings that depict the Dreamtime period, despite the absence of a written language across the 600 tribes.
- European colonization disrupted traditional Aboriginal life, leading to a modern lifestyle for most, with a recent increase in cultural appreciation by white Australians.
Originally, Aborigines were nomads and didn’t have a sense of land ownership, although tribes returned to particular places to bury their dead. Some places, like Uluru, were sacred because they were associated with ‘Dreamtime’, the time when the earth was formed.
Aborigines legends, songs and dances tell of powerful spirits who created the land and people during the Dreamtime. There was no written Aboriginal language and most of the 600 tribes spoke different dialects. However, the tradition of the dreamtime united the people. Rock paintings showing this creation period can be found all over the country.
The arrival of Europeans gradually brought an end to the traditional Aboriginal way of life. Today, most Aborigines live in cities and towns and only a few continue the old nomadic way of life.
In recent years, white Australians have become more sensitive to the Aborigines’ situation and there is a growing appreciation of their culture.