Indigenous Groups- The Aboriginals

In this blog post, I will be talking about the Aboriginal people found in Australia.

There are over 400 Aboriginal tribes found in Australia and they have a flag which is different from the Australian national flag. The black colour in the Aboriginal flag represents the people, the red stands for the land and the yellow circle represents the sun, which gives life.

Aboriginal flag

Festivals & Ceremonies

Aboriginal Dance Festival

Nowadays, many celebrations last for several days and involve the whole community. People would build shelters for shade, paint their bodies and make necklaces and headdresses while discussing stories. The Aboriginal people would perform songs and dances concerning their land and home to visitors or tourist.

Traditions

Families would arrange most marriages and some children were even promised in marriage before they were even born. Girls usually get married in their early teenage years while in some Aboriginal groups, their husbands may be many years older.

In certain Aboriginal communities, a woman called her mother’s sisters “mother” and they called her “daughter”. In this way, everyone had several “parents”. Also in some groups, certain people are not suppose to have contact with each other. For example, adult brothers and sisters have to face different directions when they talk to each other.

Clothes

In hot dry regions and in summer, Aboriginal people wore no clothing or only short fringes, made of fiber, string, feathers or the tails of small animals, over their private parts. In cooler places and in winter, the people would wear cloaks made from possum or kangaroo skin. Men and women wore necklaces and pendants made of shells, teeth or bones and on special occasions, some Aboriginal groups would make headdresses out of emu feathers or other materials.

Survival

Insects, such as ants, grubs, caterpillars and moths, were an important source of food for many of the Aboriginal people. Aboriginal people living along the coast ate long white worms cut from mangrove tress, while in the remote parts of Australia, some groups still eat insects.

To obtain food, Aboriginal men hunted large animals like kangaroos and emus; they also catch sea cows, turtles and seals in the sea. Women caught smaller animals like lizards, snakes, and possums. The aboriginal people would dig up roots and gather fruit, seeds and eggs for food.

The aboriginal people use fire to keep them warm, keep insects away, to cook and dry food, harden and sharpen tools. They would make fire by the traditional method of rubbing together pieces of wood or hard rocks to produce heat and sparks.

Tools

Whatever tools the Aboriginal people use, they made it by themselves. They make tools such as knives, spears, axes, and shields. Aboriginal people also make containers, which includes water bags, baskets and large bowls.

They use spears for hunting and fishing. Some spears were simple poles without spearheads whereas others had detachable heads. Harpoons, which are spears with ropes attached) were used for killing sea animals. Fishing spears had two or three sharp points and the Aboriginal people also used spears to hunt kangaroos, emus and other animals.

Boomerangs

In the past, Aboriginal men hunted with many different kinds of throwing sticks. For example the boomerang, this is a crooked wooden stick that is curved on one side and flat on the other. When thrown, many boomerangs would return to the thrower. The Aboriginal hunters would use boomerangs to stun and kill animals and to fight enemies.

Art

Painting

Aboriginal people painted designs on rocks, barks, sacred objects and the ground. They also painted their bodies. Traditional designs made up of lines, dots, circles and swirls that represented different things to different groups. Each art painting often told stories.

Bark Art

In southern Australia, people used charcoal to make patterns on bark shelters. Some also scratched designs into bark that had been blackened by fire. Other bark paintings were used to cover graves.

Music & Dance

The main instrument of Aboriginal music is the human voice but people use other musical instruments as mentioned below.

• Clap stick (two sticks rhythmically clapped together) - example boomerangs
  
• Rasp- saw-toothed stick that produces musical sounds when rubbed across another stick
  
• Drum- made from a long hollow piece of wood with snakeskin stretched across one end
  
• Didjeridu:

Man playing the Didjeridu

A trumpet or horn which was originally played in northwestern parts of Australia. It is 40 to 60 inches long made from a piece of bamboo or tree trunk hollowed out by termites or fire. The didjeridu player blows into the mouth piece, vibrating the lips and tapping the instrument rhythmically with one hand.

Young Aboriginal children performing a dance

Aboriginal songs describe and tell the locations of land formations and water sources. In the past, the Aboriginal people danced to tell stories and as part of rituals. Dancers often imitate the movement of animals such as kangaroos and emus. Dances might also tell about ancient legends or about more recent events such as World War II.

To end off, I have found a video showing us the gist of the Aboriginal culture. The background music of the video is made by Didjeridu.