Gateway Chronicle 2021

The Gateway Chronicle
Aboriginal Australians:
A Forgotten People
In prehistory, humanity flowered from Africa to
inhabit the whole globe. One of these branches
were the people who would later become the Aboriginal
Australians. It is estimated that this migration
came via Southeast Asia around 48,000 to
43,000 BC, with some estimates predicting as early
as 78,000 BC. This migration occurred during a
period of lowered sea levels, producing land bridges
across Malaysia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea
and into Australia which allowed them to reach the
distant continent. From there, most of the continent
was inhabited by about 33,000 BC. Aboriginal
society and culture grew slowly, with evidence of
complex social behaviours beginning to developcremation
developed around 38,000 BC, personal
ornamentation by around 28,000 BC and long-distance
trade by about 8000 BC (in comparison, it is
estimated that trade developed in Europe around
2000 BC). Due to such an early habitation and their
relative isolation, it is likely that Aboriginal Australian
culture has the longest running chronology of
any group on Earth.
spread groups often interacted with one another
heavily through marriage alliances, trade, religious
activity or perhaps even in conflict. Though traditionally
regarded as hunter gatherers, Aboriginal
Australians had a more complex system of gathering
food which was similar to nomadism rather
Formulating a precise picture of Aboriginal Australian
history pre-European colonisation is quite
difficult. Aboriginal Australians did not have a
written language and largely passed down their
history to future generations through oral history,
such as stories and songs. Much of this was lost due
to the violent nature of colonisation and though
archaeological evidence is still available, this does
not create as detailed a history as we would like.
From what we do know however, we can see a very
diverse and varied people over a large area, living in
vastly different climates. The entire continent was
utilised, with people having adapted to live from
extremely arid deserts in the interior of Australia
to dense rainforests in the North- a process that
took thousands of years. The population was most
dense in coastal and fertile riverine areas and more
sparsely populated in the interior desert, and it is
estimated that around 300,000 to 1,000,000 inhabited
the continent. Among these people, there were as
many as 500 different groups, which were somewhat
culturally blended but nevertheless had a strong
local orientation to their local territory. There were
more than 250 different languages, with most people
being bilingual or multilingual. These diversely
than fixed agriculture. Despite this, they did have a
strong attachment to the large areas in which they
gathered resources, with an especially strong emphasis
on maintaining boundaries in more resource
rich areas in which there were more people. They
spent much of the year in smaller groups due to
scarcity of food and water but at certain points over
the year there would be a greater availability of resources.
This would allow larger gatherings where
there was exchange of social and religious business
which linked neighbouring groups in a more shared
culture.
Aboriginal Australians had their own religion called
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