Indigenous Australians

The indigenous peoples of Australia are broadly divided into two or three groups. The largest group is the Australian Aborigines who traditionally occupied most of the Australian mainland and some offshore islands. The second group is the Torres Strait Islanders who traditionally occupied the islands of Torres Strait and part of Cape York Peninsula. Sometimes, a third group is used, separating the Tasmanian Aborigines from the mainland Aborigines. All of the indigenous peoples have dark skin, although how dark depends on where they are from.

The Australian Aborigines are further divided into about 300 separate language groups, sometimes called "nations". A map of the tribal distribution before the arrival of white settlers can be found here [1]. In Australia, indigenous people as a broad group are usually called "Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders" by the government.

The Indigenous Australians lived in Australia as far as 50 000 years ago. Genetic evidence suggests that multiple waves of people migrated into Australia over tens of thousands of years before European colonization. [2] Even between these "waves" the Aborigines weren't completely isolated, there was migration back and forth over the islands, allowing small levels of exchange with Melanesia. With few exceptions, complete isolation of an ethnic group is a fallacy. [3]

Culture

Indigenous culture has a strong focus on a form of spirituality known as the Dreaming.

Contemporary issues

Contemporary issues include health, crime, education, child saftey and other matters of social discourse.

Stolen Generation

The term stolen-generation is a term used by liberals to place blame of the current social issues of indeginous peoples on church groups and missionary workers that worked with nomadic tribes people during early pioneer times. No children were ever "stolen", however many indigenous families often placed their children in the care of missionaries, as often the families were ill-resourced to provide for so many children.