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Aboriginal Identity and Culture

Who is Aboriginal?

Torres Strait Islander dancers

The Federal Government defines an Aboriginal or Torres Strait person as someone who:

• is of Aboriginal or Torres Strait islander descent
• identifies himself or herself as an Aboriginal person or Torres Strait Islander and
• is accepted as such by the indigenous community in which he or she lives.

Although the culture and lifestyle of Aboriginal groups have much in common, Aboriginal society is not a single entity. Aboriginal and Islander people identify themselves primarily by their place of origin.

The 1991 census counted 265,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia, but this is likely to be well under the true figure.

What is ‘indigenous’?

Indigenous means the first peoples, and includes both Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders.

Aboriginal groups claim that indigenous people have two different forms of rights:

• The rights of all citizens to health, housing, education, job opportunities, power, and water
• Recognition of their status as indigenous peoples and their special rights relating to land, laws, customs and self determination.

Tracey Moffat's film Night Cries. Moffatt has work hanging in Tate Modern, and New York's Museum of Modern Art

Isabell Coe lighting the Sacred Fire for Peace and Justice on the docks of Deptford — at the place where Lieutenent Cook and the Endeavor embarked from on their voyage to Australia in the late 1760s.

A United Nations Working Group is drafting a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It is hoped that this will be ready by the end of the current UN Decade of Indigenous Peoples in [2004].

Culture

Aboriginal culture is an all encompassing spiritual path and way of living, based on complex relationships between people, spirit ancestors, animals and the land. Aboriginal people gain their prime identity from the area of land where they originated - their ‘country’.

During creation, spirit beings travelled over the land creating the natural environment and remaining as rocks, rivers and waterholes when their work was done. Traditionally, Aboriginal people learn from childhood the history and spiritual significance of each feature of their country’s landscape. The land nurtures them, and in return they have sacred responsibilities to protect it.

This is why Aboriginal groups can be so violently opposed to mining and other invasive activities on sacred and special sites on their traditional lands. But they also recognise that land is a communal resource. If their right to control use and access is recognised, they are usually ready to negotiate shared access or use agreements.

The other fundamental relationship is with the extended family and with clan and ‘skin’ groups established by religious law and custom. Everyone has a place and a relationship with all other members of the immediate and extended group. This involves defined rights and obligations which must be observed.

Emphasis is on the welfare of the community rather than the individual

Further reading and links:

• see the arts section of links in the information pages of this website
• there are also more clippings covering these issues in the press clippings section of the news pages
  
  
  
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read about:

• Native Title
• Aboriginal History and Heritage
• Australia's Human Rights record
• Reconciliation, Social Justice, the Constitution and a Treaty
• The Stolen Generations

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