Reconciliation Week

Indigenous Australian facts for Reconciliation Week

1. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures are the oldest living cultures in the world and can be traced back approximately 50,000 years or more
2. The Dreamtime is a creation story from the very beginning, when the land, seas, waterways and people were created by the Spirits. Aboriginal people believe the whole world was created by their ancestors, who were sometimes in animal form such as the Rainbow Serpent.
3. Many Australian English words are derived from Aboriginal dialects such as bilby, kangaroo, wallaby, barramundi, koala, wombat and kookaburra.
4. Aboriginal rock art is the oldest surviving human art form that depicts animals, food, symbols and stories. The Aboriginal rock art in Western Australia’s Dampier Archipelago is believed to be at least twice as old as the pyramids of Egypt.
5. The didgeridoo is one of the oldest musical instruments and used for ceremonial purposes
6. Bush Tucker and medicine use native flora and fauna including kangaroo, emu, turtles, quandong, yams and lemon myrtle.
7. Native plants were used as bush medicine, which is a holistic approach to healing
8. Smoking ceremonies are used in rituals to cleanse the are and people of bad Spirits.
9. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have a culture of kinship where they are often connected beyond immediate family, referring to extended family members with titles such as aunty, sister and mother.
10. Australian Rules Football is inspired by the traditional game; Marn Grook, where First Nations Australians use possum hide as a ball
11. The famous Mabo case abolished Australia as ‘Terra Nullius’ (land belonging to no-one) and acknowledged the history of First Nations dispossession of country.
12. NAIDOC Week, held in July, celebrates the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
13. Bundjalung Aboriginal people from the coast of NSW crushed tea-tree leaves and applied the paste to wounds as well as brewing it to a kind of tea for throat ailments. The oil has also been used to treat everything since the 1920s, from fungal infections to acne.
14. Eucalyptus leaves can be infused for body pains and fevers and child. Today the oil is used in mouthwash, throat lozenges and cough suppressants.
15. Kakadu plum/Billy Goat plum is native to the Northern Territory and Western Australia, and holds the world’s richest source of Vitamin C.
16. Archaeologists found two skeletons of people in Mungo National Park in NSW that were more than 40000 years old.
17. In 2005, a skeleton of an Aboriginal man that was nearly 4000 years old was discovered. He had stone spear ends in his spine and a wound in his skull. The positioning of his body suggested that it may have been the result of a ritual punishment. The skeleton became known as Narrabeen Man.
18. Aboriginal peoples originally lived in all types of areas, including desert, tropical, coastal, bush, mountain and inland regions. At the time when the first British settlers arrived in 1788, there were about 600 different grounds of Aboriginal people throughout the continent.
19. Scientists think that the Aboriginal peoples originally came from Asia, during a time of lowered sea levels when there were land bridges between Asia and Australia.
20. Aboriginal peoples lived in clans that were made up of family groups. Each clan had its own language, cultural practices and traditional lands. The lands were referred to as Country.
21. Exchange and trade were essential parts of the Aboriginal society, items that were traded including kangaroo skin, pearl shells, stone and timber.
22. The flag of the Australian Aboriginal peoples was designed by an Aboriginal artist in 1971.