Aboriginal Australian Society: History, Culture, and Change

Introduction to Aboriginal Society

As every human society has ways of governing itself, Australian governance began thousands of years ago following the settlement of the Aboriginal people on the continent. Unlike other European settlers, Aboriginal people had very different ways of organizing and governing themselves. Despite the variety of Aboriginal cultures found throughout Australia, most share similar features. Some of the common characteristics of Aboriginal societies revolve around family organization, trade, travel, home, art, and education. The Aboriginal people have occupied Australia for approximately 40,000 years, though very little is known about their experience across much of that time. Nevertheless, Aboriginal people have undergone major changes in their culture, identity, and society since 1788 due to a range of factors.

Aboriginal people, identity, culture, and society has been characterized by two distinct aspects: one showing great continuity across space and time, and the other displaying significant change through time and considerable diversity across space (Horton, 2009). Both characteristics are not only true but have also been the subject of caricatures of Aboriginal society by white observers. Moreover, both characteristics have had a significant impact on the politics of Aboriginal Australia. Aboriginal people have been in Australia for over 50,000 years, making Australia the home of the world's first peoples ("Aborigines," n.d.). The word aborigine is used to mean the first or earliest known group of people in a given region.

Because Aboriginal people were still living through hunting and gathering and using stone tools around 200 years ago, they were often compared to the Paleolithic people of Europe. Aboriginal people were seen as fossils that had remained unchanged for thousands of years, while Paleolithic Europeans had eventually developed pottery, agriculture, metals, and wheels on their path to civilization. Consequently, the seemingly simple lifestyle of the Aborigines contributed to two other misconceptions: that these people were culturally uniform and that they had minimal attachment to the land.

History and Culture of the Aboriginal People

In terms of social organization, Aborigines lived daily in family groups, gathered during ceremonies, and banded together as hordes ("Traditional Life," n.d.). Unlike European settlers, Aboriginal families lived together in large groups and shared food and other resources. Within this family structure, people shared tasks such as caring for children, hunting, making tools, and building shelters. Shelters were built around campsites, and people typically slept outdoors near small fires. Throughout the year, Aboriginal people moved to locations where they could find what they needed — especially food — since they did not live in one fixed place. As resources in a given location became scarce, the group would move on.

Every Aboriginal culture moved within a specific area of land that served as its homeland, and each group maintained a strong connection to that country. As a result of this bond with the land, each group knew its territory's geographical features, plants, watercourses, and animals very well. Although Aboriginal societies generally remained within their own lands, they sometimes traveled greater distances, enabling contact with other groups. Through these encounters, Aborigines formed links with different cultures and exchanged news across the country.

Another defining characteristic of Aboriginal people and cultures is their practice of many forms of art. They painted weapons, rocks, and their own bodies, and made tools, in addition to engraving pictures, symbols, and patterns into wood and rock ("Aboriginal Society," n.d.). Beyond a rich tradition of stories, dance, song, and poetry, Aborigines also created sculptures from wax, wood, and rock ("Introduction to Aboriginal Art," n.d.). Learning these art forms was an important part of reaching adulthood, as the arts were closely connected to the law. The arts therefore formed part of the formal education of older children, because mastering them meant taking on new responsibilities. Younger children, by contrast, were taught basic practical skills such as gathering food, in keeping with their lesser degree of responsibility.

There are three main aspects of Aboriginal social structure: physical or geographical, religious and totemic, and social structuring. The physical or geographical dimension consisted of a tribe or language group of approximately 500 people, subdivided into bands of around 20 individuals each. The bands joined together regularly for hunting and food gathering, with each band — known as a horde — comprising several families. From a religious perspective, Aboriginal Australian society was broadly divided into two moieties, which could be based on Ancestral Beings from the Creation Period. The kinship system enabled social structuring by allowing every individual to be named in relation to every other member of the group. When an outsider was accepted into Aboriginal society, they were named in relation to existing members, integrating them into the established social order.

Broome (1994) states that Aborigines were historically a coastal people who were extremely effective hunters and gatherers. While the devastating impact of British colonization has been well documented, the extent to which traditional Aboriginal life survives intact is difficult to determine. The effects of white colonization differed significantly from group to group. White colonization contributed to numerous major changes in Aboriginal identity, culture, and society.

One of the most significant changes in Aboriginal society and culture was the dispossession of the traditional lands of Aboriginal individuals and language groups ("Aspects of Traditional Aboriginal Australia," n.d.). Prior to and at the time of 1788, Aboriginal people were the sole occupants of Australia. However, white colonization from 1788 onward brought an end to that sole occupation. Aboriginal people who had settled the continent for around 30,000 years found their land forcibly taken from them.

Since white settlers made minimal effort to justify their actions, they sometimes used violent means to seize Aboriginal land. When they did offer justifications, white settlers claimed that Australia was an empty continent, that Aborigines did not own land, and that white culture was superior and needed to be extended to uncivilized peoples ("Aboriginal Traditional Society," 2012).

As white settlers began to dominate Australian society, Aboriginal life was quickly branded as primitive. Features of Aboriginal society were described as hostile or quaint, and Aboriginal people were dismissed as nothing more than people of boomerangs and spears. While traditional Aboriginal society had endured since ancient times, the effect of white invasion and settlement brought change on an unexpected scale. The traditional Aboriginal social structure broke down rapidly, especially in coastal districts. This breakdown gave rise to new and different lifestyles for Aboriginal people, largely shaped by the considerable cultural and linguistic diversity introduced through white invasion and settlement.

As white settlers moved into Australia, conflicts between settlers and Aboriginal people increased. These conflicts and the growing settler population contributed to the emergence of diseases and alcohol use among Aboriginal communities. As a result, the Aboriginal population declined significantly during the first hundred years of settlement. Growing awareness of the mistreatment of Aboriginal people, the decline in their population, and the need for more effective regulation of labor in pastoral sectors all drove calls for policy change ("Aboriginal Societies," n.d.).

In more recent times, a major change in Aboriginal society, identity, and culture has been the enactment of new government policies. Commonwealth policy has been based on the fundamental right of Aboriginal people to maintain their racial identity and traditional lifestyle. The policy is also oriented toward making the partial or total adoption of a European lifestyle optional for Aboriginal people who desire it. Additionally, the policy has encouraged the participation and control of Aboriginal people in local and community government and other relevant areas. While described as a policy of self-determination or self-management, it has been accompanied by government support programs administered by Aboriginal organizations.

While numerous changes have occurred in Aboriginal society, identity, and culture as a result of various factors, certain characteristics have remained constant. Aboriginal people have retained aspects of their culture and traditions, and other Australians have come to understand them and the functioning of their social system within its cultural context (Albrecht, 2012). The traditional Aboriginal culture and society did not die out completely; Aborigines in both rural and urban Australia maintain many characteristics of the traditional way of life. In fact, many Aboriginal people actively work to revive lost features of their traditional lifestyle. Aboriginal commitment to the traditional way of life has therefore persisted despite the significant changes that have taken place across generations.

Major Changes in Aboriginal Society

The significant changes that have taken place throughout the history of the Aboriginal population can be attributed to various factors. First, the increased dominance of other peoples or language groups contributed to these changes. The history of contact between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people created an imbalance in acculturative influences (Berry, 1999). As a result of this contact — stemming from settlement and the dominance of non-Aboriginal peoples — Aboriginal society changed significantly, with severe erosion of the people's identities and cultures. While intercultural contact was met with considerable resistance from Aboriginal people, it had profound effects on their cultural identity.

Second, Aboriginal society, culture, and lifestyle changed significantly due to the takeover and renaming of the east coast of Australia by Lieutenant James Cook in 1770 ("Australian Aboriginal Culture," n.d.). This event contributed to British colonization approximately two decades later and the subsequent spread of epidemic diseases such as influenza by Europeans.

Aboriginal culture, society, and identity represents one of the longest surviving cultures and people groups in the world. These people have a history stretching back at least 50,000 years, making them regarded as the world's first peoples. Nevertheless, various changes have reshaped Aboriginal society as a result of external pressures and historical events. Understanding both the enduring traditions and the transformations that have taken place is essential to appreciating the full complexity of Aboriginal history and identity.

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Conclusion

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