project work of shiksha

8/9/2019 Project Work of Shiksha

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Aborigines

Th e Worlds Oldest In ha bit a nts?

The word "aboriginal" means "the first" or "earliest known". The word was firstused in Italy and Greece to describe people who lived there, natives or oldinhabitants, not newcomers, or invaders.

A ustralia may well be the home of the worlds first people. Stone tools discoveredin a quarry near Penrith, New South Wales, in 1971 show that humans lived inA ustralia at least twelve thousand years before they appeared in Europe.

So far three early sites have been discovered in A ustralia, the Penrith one beingdated about forty-seven thousand years old, a Western A ustralian site fortythousand years old and another in Lake Mungo, New South Wales, thirty-fivethousand years old.

DO NOT WRITE To put this in perspective, so that we can appreciate thetime scales, since the first fleet arrived in 1788 there have only been 8generations of settlers. On the other hand, there have been in excess of 18,500

generations of aboriginals!!!

Aborigines And Th eir Culture

More than 30,000 years ago the population of the world was small, and people livedin family groups, hunting, fishing and food gathering. There where no cultivatedcrops, animals were not herded for food and metalworking was yet to bediscovered.

A t that time, known as the last great Ice A ge, A ustralia was joined to New Guinea.Islands such as Java and Borneo were larger than today, sea passages betweenthem narrower. This made it possible for the ancestors of the people now calledA ustralian A boriginals to reach A ustralia from lands to the north.


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It is not known from where the A boriginals began their journey, but it is certain that people with some kind of watercraft crossed the 100 - 160 kilometres stretches of waterbetween the islands to the north; and reach the southern

continent. This sea voyage is the earliest evidence of seatravel by prehistoric man.

A s the ice flows of the Ice A ge began tomelt, the sea level rose, isolatingA ustralia, and making the sea passagestoo wide for crossing by the simple forms

of watercraft available at the time. A bout 10,000 years ago,Tasmania became separated from the main land, thus isolatingthe people there, and about 5,000 years ago the A ustralian continent took on theshape of that it has today.

Nobody knows how long the A boriginals took to reach A ustralia, or how theysettled the continent when they arrived. A t present archaeologists are searchingancient camping sites for evidence of their history, and each new discoveryprovides links in the history of the thousands of years before the white manreached the Great South Land. New discoveries also are changing previous ideasabout the length of time that A boriginals have been in A ustralia, and modernscientific methods of dating have provided new possibilities for further research.It is certain that man reached A ustralia more than 40,000 years ago. A ustralia,once called the "lost continent of prehistory", is fast losing that title.

A Perfect Environment

The first A boriginals found an A ustralia with a better environment than today.Large animals, now extinct, provided more meat than the animals with which we arefamiliar. Some parts of the continent were richer in vegetable foods, but the landcontained no cultivated crops, or animals that could be domesticated, such as

cattle and sheep.Whatever their early history, A boriginals had settled throughout the entirecontinent many thousands of years before the white man came and had evolved away of living that was in harmony with the environment, and that satisfied theirneeds. Because A ustralia was isolated from the rest of the world, A boriginals hadlittle contact with outside groups from whom to "borrow" techniques, to trade


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goods, to acquire crop seeds, or animals, as was happening in the North of theworld. It was only for a few centuries prior to white settlement that visitors camefrom islands to the north. However, the A boriginals adjusted to the environment,learned to understand it and gained the maximum from it.

La nd, Th e Ultim a te Provider

Each clan grouping occupied a well-defined area of land, their "clan" territory withwhich they had close and dependent relationship. The group belonged with, or to,the land - like the animals and plants of the area; man was an integral part of arelatively unchanging environment. They had no concept of being able to buy or sellland, the land was given long ago in the Dreamtime. Land was not something to bebartered, and the future of the group was tied closely with the continued ability ofthe land to provide food for gathering, animals to kill, and fresh water.

Gatherers

A borigines were limited to the range of foods occurring naturally in their area, butthey knew exactly when, where and how to find everything edible. But food was notobtained without effort. In some areas both men and women had to spend fromhalf to two thirds of each day hunting or foraging for food.

Inland, the quest for water was a life and death

matter.A

borigines survived where others wouldperish. They knew where the water holes andsoaks were in their area. They drained dew, andobtained water from certain trees and roots.They even dug up and squeezed out frogs, whichstore water in their bodies.

Within the clan grouping, allspeaking the same language,or the same dialect, smallbands of families carried outtheir daily living as a group.They moved around their clancountry, from place to place,depending on the season andthe availability of food. In


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coastal areas, and the more fertile parts of the continent, groups were relativelystatic, because food was readily obtainable, but in the desert areas vast tracts ofland could support only a few people, and these had to travel long distances in theirendless quest for food.

The necessity to be mobile meant that A boriginals could afford only thosepossessions that were essential to their way of life. Many belongings weremultipurpose - like the coolamon, a curved wooden dish, which was used to dig, tocarry water or the baby; to toss seeds or collect the plant food gathered daily bythe women.

H unters

Often, the men carried only a spear thrower, spears, and thoseweapons needed to procure the animals native to his territory.The women carried the rest - babies, household utensils - toleave the men free to use the weapons.

Full use was made of natural resources to produce whateverpossessions were needed. String, cord and hair were woveninto nets, baskets, mats and fishing lines. Wood and bark wereused to make dishes, shields, spears, and boomerangs, to make

dugout canoes, and other types of watercraft, such as rafts. Stone was chipped to

form tools that could be used as weapons, or to cut and carve wood. Large pebblesand flat stones were used to grind seeds to flour. Pieces of bone were sharpenedinto spear points, and even used as needles to sew together skin for cloaks andrugs. Skins of animals were treated to carry water, and in some places human skullswere used for the same purpose.

Clubs, nets, snare and spears were used to catch different types of animals andbirds. Large animals were speared or clubbed, smaller ones caught in pits and nets.Fish were speared, or caught with traps, and sometimes water was poisoned with

plant juices. The foot tracks of animals - and of every member of the group - wererecognised. A fter years of training, the A boriginals developed extraordinary skillsin tracking their prey, by following broken twigs, or by very faint markings, even onhard ground.

Many ingenious devices were used to get within striking distance of prey. The menapproached their prey running where there was cover, or "freezing" and crawling in


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the open. They were careful to stay downwind, and sometimes covered themselveswith mud to disguise their smell.

Mud also served as camouflage, or the hunter held a bush in front of him whilestalking in the open. He glided through the water with a bunch of rushes or a lily-leaf over his head until he was close enough to pull down a waterbird. He prepared"hides" and, with bait or birdcalls, lured birds to within grabbing distance. Heattracted emus, which are inquisitive birds, by imitating their movements with astick and a bunch of feathers or some other simple device.

The catch of the hunter was in addition too, not always constant, to the daily plantfood and small animals gathered by women. Women collected the larger part of thegroup's daily needs, and their skill in finding food, even in the poorest conditions,often kept the group alive. Fruit, manna, honey, lizards, snakes, witchetty grubs,roots, yams, grass seeds - almost anything grew, or moved could be use for food.The women then usually prepared and cooked the food in an earth oven.

A s A boriginals had to make use of the natural materials available in their area,huts were often made from bark and boughs, sometimes flimsy and sometimesmore substantial, depending on the climate, the time of year, and the length oftime that the group forced to remain in one camp.

Ch ildren

When an A boriginals child was born, he began to learn how to cope with thematerial and non-material elements of his world. He had been born into the group,and had to learn to become a full member with a knowledge of how to keep aliveand also the rules and traditions that governed his nomadic society.

When very young, children were indulged - played with and loved by all members ofthe group. But soon, each child had to begin to fend for himself. Shortly after hecould walk, he began to handle small spears, followed his father and the other men,watching while they fished, made tools. Little girls began to follow their mother,helping her and trying to copy what she was doing.

A s well as the practical side of life, they began to join in spiritual matters. Theywere taught the rhythms of dances in preparation for later participation in sacredand non-sacred rituals. Children began to learn songs and stories that embodiedknowledge to be passed on from generation to generation.


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From early childhood to death, the A boriginal was continuously learning more aboutthe traditions of the past. Religion was related to the past, the present and future.Man identified with animals, plants and other natural phenomenon, and groupedhimself according to this identification - his totem. Relationship with a totem

meant a responsibility towards that totem - for example, people of a kangaroototem might not kill kangaroos, and carry out special ceremonies to ensure thecontinued increase of the kangaroo.

D re a mtime

The "Dreamtime", the mythological past, was the time when spirit ancestors hadtravelled throughout the land, giving it its physical form, and setting down therules to be followed by the A boriginals. Beings such as the "Fertility Mother", the"Great Rainbow Snake", the Djanggawul brothers and sisters, survive in stories andceremonies that have been passed down from generation to generation.

Some sacred aspect of these stories and ceremonies were available only toinitiated adult males. Women had their own sacred ceremonies from which theyexcluded men, but there were ceremonies and songs in which the whole group

joined men, women and children.

Art

A rt was regarded as an integral part of life, not simplysomething that was decorative but outside the import andareas of life. Bodies were painted for ceremonies; themarkings and designs have totemic significance and weretaught to the young. Rocks were engraved and became one ofthe few art forms to survive. Designs were painted on thewalls of rock shelters; these were perishable, and relied uponregular re-touching for preservation.

Bark painting is probably the most well knownA

boriginal artform but this could be done only in areas where trees with suitable bark wereavailable, such as A rnhem Land. Pigments were made from rocks, clay and charcoal,a narrow range of colours that produced characteristic red, brown, black and whiteof A boriginal art.


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Paintings told stories; in fact they were the forms by whichpreliterate people kept a record of their daily life andreligious beliefs. They reflected also what was happeningaround them - drawing the animals of the area, and later

telling stories of contact with other peoples, such as theMacassans who visited A rnhem Land and other northerncoastal regions.

Adult h ood

A s children reach puberty they began to take on greater responsibilities. To markthe transition from childhood special ceremonies were held. For girls these werefairly simple, although they could be spectacular. For boy's initiation ceremoniesextended over several years, and were associated with the intensive training in thetraditions and mythology of the clan - in many clans the focal point of initiation wascircumcision. From the point of view of the group, the boy was entering uponmembership of society. However, he did not learn everything at his initiation, itmerely open the door of adulthood, and to the sacred life of the group.

A fter a boy's final initiation ceremonies, he could marry, and it was only when hehad a wife, and sometimes a child, that the community regarded him as a fully-grown man. He now had an obligation, obtaining food by using hunting skills learnedin childhood, skills used for the group's survival.

Th e Supern a tur a l

In A boriginal society, like every other society, there were problems; droughts,shortages of food, people became sick or injured, and they died. Supernaturalforces were blamed for almost every event, and magic and ritual used to correctthe situation. The "medicine man" or "doctor" was a powerful man, and tried to curemany physical ills, sometimes by massage or sucking, to remove the "evil" causingthe pain, or by the application of natural medicines made from plants or roots. The

emphasis on healing was on the spirit, rather than the body. It was the belief thatthe spirit was the primary resource of illness - evil thoughts act first on the spirit,and the physical symptoms came later - that led to "evil thinking" someone, as inthe well-known custom of "bone pointing". The person who was a victim of a spellwould usually sicken and die, because he believed that this would happen.


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Old people in A boriginal society were cared for, and respected for their wisdomand knowledge. When a person died the mourning custom and burial rights werecomplex and varied from region to region. The mourners freely expressed theirsorrow and distress, sometimes covering themselves in ochre and clay. The dead

were either buried, cremated, placed on platforms in trees, or left in caves or rockshelters. Sometimes the bones were recovered and part, such as the bone of theforearm, kept as relics for long periods.

F irst Sig h tings

The first recorded sighting of A ustralia was in 1606 by the Dutch captain of"Duyfken" William Jansz who described the natives as "...savage, cruel, blackbarbarians who slew some of our sailors". In the same year the Spaniard, Luis Vaezde Torres sailed around the strait that bears his name. He described the nativesas "...very corpulent and naked. Their arms were lances, arrows, and clubs of stoneill fashioned". Jan Carstenz in 1623 described several armed encounters withA boriginals, and judged the country "...the most arid and barren region that couldbe found anywhere on earth; the inhabitants too, are the most wretched andpoorest creatures that I have ever seen in my age or time". A s a result of suchreports the Dutch government decided the land that was not suitable forcolonisation.

M a ca ss a ns: Th e F irst Visitors?

In northern A rnhem Land, and on Melville and Bathurst Islands, the A boriginalscarved special wooden grave posts. These posts were adapted from the masts ofthe Macassan boats that visited the northern coast each year from Macassar andCeledes to collect trepan.

The Macassan visitors came in what the A boriginals regard as historic times, andtheir camps were both large and well organized. The campsites are still marked bytamarind trees, which grew from the seeds of the fruit, dropped by the fishermen.

Dont write The Macassan introduced the dugout canoes and taught theA boriginals the use of steel in making knives, spear blades and tomahawks. TheA boriginals watched or took part in the entertainment and ceremonies; theylearned to play cards, and began to adapt their song rhythms to the strange tunesand sounds of foreign musical instruments.


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The A boriginals learned more about the culture of the visitors by travelling toMacassar with the fishermen, returning with the fleet the following season; someof them remained in Macassar. The A boriginals adopted some Macassan words intotheir own languages; for example compass directions, names of tools and parts of

the boats. The names of Macassans are still remembered, andA

boriginals oftenadopted Macassan names as well as their own

Willia m D a mpier

In 1697, the Englishman William Dampier had published his"New Voyage Round the World" in which he describedA boriginals on the Western A ustralian coast as "themiserablest people in the World ... they were tall, straightbodied, and thin, with small long limbs. They have greatheads, round foreheads and great brows. Their eyelids arealways half closed, to keep the flies out of their eyes." Hisobservations remained the most detailed description ofthe Western A ustralian A boriginals for well over acentury.

Ca pt a in J a mes Cook RN

A bout this time in Europe, the concept of the "noble

savage" was changing people's attitude to other races, abelief that the material and spiritual simplicity of"primitive" people's was an ideal to be aspired to. This ideawas given to later explorers, and was adopted readily byCaptain James Cook. He set out in 1768 with the aim ofexercising "...The utmost patience and forbearance withrespect to the native ... They are human creatures, thework of the same omnipotent author, equally under hiscare with the most polished European; perhaps being less

offensive, more entitled to his favour."

Captain Cook's observations of the A boriginals were numerous and detailed; "thesepeople may truly be said to be in the pure state of nature, and may appear to someto be the most wretched upon the earth; but in reality they are far happier than ...we Europeans."


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Colonisa tion

In 1788 when the First Fleet arrived in A ustralia, the country was inhabited by anestimated 300,000 A boriginals.

The British did not wish harm the A boriginals - in fact,Governor Phillip began the penal settlement with the goodintentions of "reconciling the A boriginals to live amongst us,and to teach them the advantages they will reap fromcultivating the land". But the newcomers assumed that theirways were superior to those of the A boriginals, and that apeople who were not Christians and who did not try to"improve" the land of their birth by agriculture were not onlyinferior beings, but also deserve to have their country takeover.

Few attempts were made to understand the A boriginals, their beliefs or theircustoms, or to understand how the A boriginals had come to terms with an often-harsh environment - an environment that ruined many early settlers and cause thedeath of some white "explorers". Governor Macquarie in 1816 invited the natives to"relinquish their wandering, idle and predatory habits of life, and to becomeindustrious and useful members of a community where they will find protection andencouragement".

Not surprisingly, the A boriginals did not want to give up their way of life andenthusiastically embrace the ways of the newcomers, who in turn found theirreluctance only further proof of the A boriginals inferiority.

There were no treaties to regulate the movement of the British on to A boriginalsLand, and the attitudes of the two groups towards Land differed greatly. To theA boriginals, to whom the Land was part of this life and the future of his group,land was not something to be bought and sold - it was not a commodity for

exchange. The British believed that land could not only be bought and sold, buttaken to be exploited by productive agriculture, and that those who carry out thisobligation had some kind of "moral right" to the land.

A s the settlers moved inland, the A boriginals began to lose their hunting grounds,their watering holes, in fact their source of life. They contracted diseases to


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which they had no resistance; they suffered from the effects of alcohol, and fromfighting between the groups.

A boriginals resisted the advancing parties of the white man, sometimes soeffectively that farming and grazing ventures had to be abandoned. Settlersretaliated and with their superior weapons sometimes wiped out whole groups ofA boriginals, justifying violence with the argument that these "savages" needed tobe "taught a lesson" to ensure for future peace. A lthough the A boriginals weresupposed to be protected by British law, this protection was difficult to enforced -almost impossible at the frontiers of settlement.

Aborigina l F la g

The A boriginal flag is divided horizontally into two equal halves of black (top) andred (bottom), with a yellow circle in the centre. The black symbolises A boriginalpeople and the yellow represents the sun, the constant renewer of life. Red depictsthe earth and also represents ochre, which is used by A boriginal People inceremonies.

The flag - designed by Harold Thomas - was first flown at Victoria Square,A delaide, on National A borigines' Day on 12 July 1971. It was used later at theTent Embassy in Canberra in 1972.

Today the flag has been adopted by all A boriginal groups and is flown or displayedpermanently at A boriginal centres throughout A ustralia.

T orres Str a it Isl a nder F la g


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The Torres Strait Islander flag - designed by the late Bernard Namok - stands forthe unity and identity of all Torres Strait Islanders.

It features three horizontal coloured stripes, with green at the top and bottomand blue in between - divided by thin black lines.

A white dhari (headdress) sits in the centre, with a five-pointed white underneathit. The colour green is for the land, and the dhari is a symbol of all Torres StraitIslanders. The black represents the people and the blue is for the sea. The five-pointed start represents the island groups. Used in navigation, the star is also animportant symbol for the seafaring Torres Strait Islander people. The colourwhite of the star represents peace.

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