{{Short description|none}} {{for|specific artefacts|Australian Aboriginal artefacts}} {{Use Australian English |date= July 2018}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2018}} '''Australian Aboriginal culture''' includes a number of practices and ceremonies centred on a belief in the Dreamtime and other mythology. Reverence and respect for the land and oral traditions are emphasised. The words "law" and "lore", the latter relating to the customs and stories passed down through the generations, are commonly used interchangeably. Learned from childhood, lore dictates the rules on how to interact with the land, kinship and community.
Over 300 languages, as well as sign languages, and other groupings have developed a wide range of individual cultures. Aboriginal art has existed for thousands of years and ranges from ancient rock art to modern watercolour landscapes. Traditional Aboriginal music developed a number of unique instruments, and contemporary Aboriginal music spans many genres. Aboriginal peoples did not develop a system of writing before colonisation.
==Oral tradition== Cultural traditions and beliefs as well as historical tellings of actual events are passed down in Aboriginal oral tradition, also known loosely as oral history (although the latter has a more specific definition). Some of the stories are many thousands of years old. In a study published in February 2020, new evidence produced using radiometric dating showed that both Budj Bim and Tower Hill volcanoes erupted at least 34,000 years ago.<ref name=earlier>{{cite web | first= Sian|last= Johnson | title=Study dates Victorian volcano that buried a human-made axe | website=ABC News | date=26 February 2020 | url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-26/study-dates-victorian-volcano-that-buried-a-human-made-axe/11991290 | access-date=9 March 2020}}</ref> Significantly, this is a "minimum age constraint for human presence in Victoria", and also could be interpreted as evidence for the Gunditjmara oral histories which tell of volcanic eruptions being some of the oldest oral traditions in existence.<ref name="MatchanPhillips2020">{{cite journal|last1=Matchan|first1=Erin L.|last2=Phillips| first2=David|last3=Jourdan| first3=Fred|last4=Oostingh| first4=Korien|title=Early human occupation of southeastern Australia: New insights from 40Ar/39Ar dating of young volcanoes|journal=Geology|year=2020|volume=48 |issue=4 |pages=390–394 |issn=0091-7613|doi=10.1130/G47166.1|bibcode=2020Geo....48..390M |s2cid=214357121 }}</ref> An axe found underneath volcanic ash in 1947 was also proof that humans inhabited the region before the eruption of Tower Hill.<ref name=earlier />
==Art and crafts== {{main|Indigenous Australian art}} Australian Aboriginal art has a history spanning thousands of years. Aboriginal artists continue these traditions using both modern and traditional materials in their artworks. Aboriginal art is the most internationally recognizable form of Australian art. Several styles of Aboriginal art have developed in modern times including the watercolour paintings of Albert Namatjira, the Hermannsburg School, and the acrylic Papunya Tula "dot art" movement. Painting is a large source of income for some Central Australian communities such as at Yuendumu.
Basket weaving has been traditionally practised by the women of many Aboriginal peoples across the continent for centuries.<ref name="Maningrida 2017">{{cite web|date=1 March 2017|title=About weaving|url=https://maningrida.com/artworks/weavings/about-weaving/|access-date=25 January 2020|website=Maningrida}}</ref><ref name="archive.maas.museum 2017">{{cite web|date=9 April 2017|title=History of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander textiles|url=http://archive.maas.museum/hsc/paperbark/history.html|access-date=25 January 2020|website=archive.maas.museum}}</ref><ref name="Mills 2011">{{cite web|last=Mills|first=Vanessa|date=21 July 2011|title=Weaving magical baskets and sharing Aboriginal knowledge|url=https://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/07/21/3274981.htm|access-date=25 January 2020|website=ABC Kimberley|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation}}</ref><ref name="Sustainable Communities SA 2016">{{cite web|date=24 August 2016|title=Ngarrindjeri basket weaving|url=https://www.sustainablecommunitiessa.org.au/craft/ngarrindjeri-basket-weaving/|access-date=25 January 2020|website=Sustainable Communities SA}}</ref>
==Astronomy== {{main|Australian Aboriginal astronomy}}
[[Image:Emu public.jpg|frame|A depiction of the ''Emu in the sky'', which is an Australian Aboriginal constellation consisting of dark clouds rather than stars. The time of year in which the ''Emu in the sky'' stands upright in the evening marks the time when emu eggs are ready to be collected.]]
For many Aboriginal cultures, the night sky is a repository of stories and law. Songlines can be traced through the sky and the land. Stories and songs associated with the sky under many cultural tents.<ref name="EmuPD1">{{cite book|author=Peter D'Arcy|title=The Emu in the Sky: Stories about the Aboriginals and the day and night skies. The emu in the sky is shown in the dark space between stars° - The Emu|publisher=The National Science and Technology Centre|year=1994|isbn=978-0-64618-202-5|editor=Margo Sutton|pages=15, 16}}</ref>
==Beliefs== {{see also|Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology}} Aboriginal Australians' oral tradition and spiritual values build on reverence for the land and on a belief in the Dreamtime, or Dreaming. The Dreaming is considered to be both the ancient time of creation and the present-day reality of Dreaming. It describes the Aboriginal cosmology, and includes the ancestral stories about the supernatural creator-beings and how they created places. Each story can be called a "Dreaming", with the whole continent criss-crossed by Dreamings or ancestral tracks, also represented by songlines.<ref name="Aboriginal Incursions">{{cite web | title=Rainbow dreaming [ceremonies explained] | website=Aboriginal Incursions | url=https://aboriginalincursions.com.au/the-dreaming/aboriginal-ceremony-explained | access-date=16 January 2020}}</ref>
There are many different groups, each with their own individual culture, belief structure and language. *The Rainbow Serpent is a major ancestral being for many Aboriginal people across Australia. *Baiame or Bunjil are regarded as the primary creator-spirits in South-East Australia. *Dingo Dreaming is a significant ancestor in the interior regions of ''Bandiyan'', as Dingo formed the songlines that cross the continent from north to south and east to west.<ref>Andrews, M. (2000) 'The Seven Sisters', Spinifex Press, North Melbourne, p. 428</ref> *The Yowie and Bunyip have their roots in Aboriginal mythology.
===Sacred sites=== {{main|Australian Aboriginal sacred sites}} To Aboriginal people, some places are sacred, owing to their central place in the mythology of the local people.<ref name=AAP1>{{cite web|title=Sacred sites|website=Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority |url=https://www.aapant.org.au/sacred-sites|publisher=Northern Territory Government|access-date=12 February 2020}}</ref>
=={{anchor|law}}Customary law== {{main|Australian Aboriginal customary law}} The words "law" and "lore" are commonly used interchangeably: "law" was introduced by the British, whereas "lore" relates to the customs and stories from the Dreamtime, which has been passed on through countless generations through songlines, stories and dance. Learned from childhood, lore dictates the rules on how to interact with the land, kinship and community.<ref name=working>{{cite web | title=The Law and the Lore | website=Working with Indigenous Australians | date=19 February 2017 | url=http://www.workingwithindigenousaustralians.info/content/Culture_4_The_Law_and_the_Lore.html | access-date=29 January 2020}}</ref>
=== Kurdaitcha === {{Main|Kurdaitcha}} Kurdaitcha (or kurdaitcha man, and also spelled ''kurdaitcha'', ''gadaidja'', ''cadiche'', ''kadaitcha'', or ''karadji'')<ref>See James Cowan, ''Mysteries of the Dream-time: Spiritual Life of the Australian Aborigines'', 2nd Revised edition, Prism Press, 1992 ({{ISBN|978-1-8532-7077-2}}).</ref> is a type of shaman amongst the Arrernte people, an Aboriginal group in Central Australia. The kurdaitcha may be brought in to punish a guilty party by death. The word may also relate to the ritual in which the death is willed by the kurdaitcha man, known also as bone-pointing.
The expectation that death would result from having a bone pointed at a victim is not without foundation. Other similar rituals that cause death have been recorded around the world.<ref>Roonka. Compiled by Dr Keryn Walshe for the South Australian Museum. Hyde Park Press 2009 {{ISBN|978-0-646-50388-2}}</ref> Victims become listless and apathetic, usually refusing food or water with death often occurring within days of being "cursed". When victims survive, it is assumed that the ritual was faulty in its execution. The phenomenon is recognized as psychosomatic in that death is caused by an emotional response—often fear—to some suggested outside force and is known as "voodoo death". As this term refers to a specific religion, the medical establishment has suggested that "self-willed death", or "bone-pointing syndrome" is more appropriate.<ref>{{cite web|last=Hahn|first=Patrick D|date=4 September 2007|title=Scared to Death: Self-Willed Death, or the Bone-Pointing Syndrome|url=http://www.biology-online.org/articles/scared_death.html|website=Biology Online}}</ref><ref name="Cannon">{{cite book|last=Cannon|first=Walter|title=Voodoo Death|pages=169–181}}</ref> In Australia, the practice is still common enough that hospitals and nursing staff are trained to manage illness caused by "bad spirits" and bone pointing.<ref>{{cite book|title=Emergency and Trauma Nursing|publisher=Elsevier Australia|year=2007|isbn=978-0-7295-3769-8|editor1-last=Curtis|editor1-first=Kate|page=34|editor2-last=Ramsden|editor2-first=Clair|editor3-last=Friendship|editor3-first=Julie}}</ref>
===Arnhem Land=== {{see also|Yolngu#Yolŋu culture, law and mythology}} The complete system of Yolngu customary law is the "Madayin", which embodies the rights and responsibilities of the owners of the law, or citizens (''rom watangu walal'', or simply ''rom''). Madayin includes the rom, as well as the objects that symbolise the law, oral rules, names and song cycles, and the sacred places that are used to maintain, develop and provide education in the law.<ref name=nhulunbuy>{{cite web | title=About Yolngu| website=Nhulunbuy Corporation | url=http://ncl.net.au/play/about-yolngu/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200220095326/http://ncl.net.au/play/about-yolngu/ | access-date=19 December 2022| archive-date=20 February 2020 }}</ref> Rom can be roughly translated as "law" or "culture", but it embodies more than either of these words.<ref name=yidakistory>{{cite web | title=Yolŋu Rom (Law and Culture) | website=Yidaki Story | date=2 August 2016 | url=http://yidakistory.com/dhawu/yolngu-rom/ | access-date=29 January 2020}}</ref> Galarrwuy Yunupingu has described ''Rom watangu'' as the overarching law of the land, which is "lasting and alive... my backbone".<ref>{{cite journal|journal=The Monthly|url=https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2016/july/1467295200/galarrwuy-yunupingu/rom-watangu|title=Rom Watangu |first=Galarrwuy|last= Yunupingu|author-link=Galarrwuy Yunupingu|date=July 2016|access-date=19 July 2020}}</ref>
It covers ownership of land and waters and the resources within this region; it controls production trade; and includes social, religious and ethical laws. These include laws for conservation and farming of flora and fauna. Observance of Madayin creates a state of balance, peace and true justice, known as ''Magaya''.<ref name=nhulunbuy/>
Rom includes bush crafts such as basket-weaving and mat-making, and stories which teach history, hunting, spear-making, gathering food, building shelters and rafts, various rituals, and taking care of others.<ref name=gapuwiyak/>
"Rom" is a word and concept shared by at least one of the nearby peoples, the Anbarra, who also perform a Rom ceremony.<ref>{{Citation | last=Long|first=Andrew Stawowczyk | title=[Portrait of unidentified Anbarra people performing Rom ceremony...] | year=1995 | section=1 transparency : col. ; 5.5 x 5.5 cm. | series=Collection of photographs taken at opening of 'It's about friendship' - Rom, a ceremony from Arnhem Land exhibition at the National Library of Australia, Canberra, 5 January 1995. | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-147351861 | id=nla.obj-147351861 | access-date=29 January 2020 | via=Trove}}</ref><ref name=aiatsisrom>{{cite web | title=ROM: An Aboriginal ritual of democracy | website=Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies | date=20 January 2015 | url=https://aiatsis.gov.au/publication/35822 | access-date=19 December 2022|quote= The first ROM ceremony, a 'ritual of diplomacy', performed outside Arnhem Land was held when the Anbarra people...presented a Rom to AIATSIS in 1982.|others=Blurb of 1986 book by Stephen Wild}}</ref>
=={{anchor|ceremony}}Ceremonies and sacred objects==
'''Aboriginal ceremonies''' have been a part of Aboriginal culture since the beginning, and still play a vital part in society.<ref name=style>{{cite web|url=http://www.indigenousinstyle.com.au/aboriginal-culture/aboriginal-ceremonies/|website=Indigenous in Style|title=Aboriginal ceremonies|access-date=17 January 2020}}</ref> They are held often, for many different reasons, all of which are based on the spiritual beliefs and cultural practices of the community.<ref name=resource8>{{cite report|url=https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/downloads/approach2/indigenous_res010_0802.pdf|publisher=Queensland Government and Queensland Studies Authority|series=Resource: Indigenous Perspectives: Res008|date=February 2008|title=Aboriginal Ceremonies|access-date=17 January 2020}}</ref> They include Dreaming stories, secret events at sacred sites, homecomings, births and deaths.<ref>{{cite web | title=Aboriginal Culture: Aboriginal Cultural Ceremonies| website=Mbantua Fine Art Gallery and Cultural Museum | url=https://mbantua.com.au/aboriginal-culture/ | access-date=16 January 2020}}</ref> They still play a very important part in the lives and culture of Aboriginal people. They are performed in Arnhem Land and Central Australia with the aim of ensuring a plentiful supply of foods; in many regions they play an important part in educating children, passing on the lore of their people, spiritual beliefs and survival skills; some ceremonies are a rite of passage for adolescents; other ceremonies are around marriage, death or burial. Most include dance, song, rituals and elaborate body decoration and/or costume. Ancient Aboriginal rock art shows ceremonies and traditions that are still continued today.<ref name=artlandish>{{cite web | title=Traditional Aboriginal Ceremonial Dancing | website=Artlandish Aboriginal Art Gallery | date=15 July 2015 | url=https://www.aboriginal-art-australia.com/aboriginal-art-library/aboriginal-ceremonial-dancing/ | access-date=16 January 2020}}</ref>
Ceremonies provide a time and place for everyone in the group and community to work together to ensure the ongoing survival of spiritual and cultural beliefs. Certain stories are individually "owned" by a group, and in some cases dances, body decoration and symbols in a ceremony pass on these stories only within the group, so it is vital that these ceremonies are remembered and performed correctly. Men and women have different roles, and are sometimes appointed as guardians of a sacred site, whose role it is to care for the site and the spiritual beings who live there, achieved partly by performing ceremonies. The terms “men’s business” and “women’s business” are sometimes used; neither have greater spiritual needs or responsibilities than the other, but jointly ensure that sacred practices are passed on. Men often conduct ceremonies, but women are also guardians of special knowledge, hold great spiritual power within a group, and conduct ceremonies. Participation in ceremonies can also be restricted by age, family group, language group, but are sometimes open to all, depending on the purpose of the ceremony.<ref name=resource8/>
Right of access to songs and dances pertaining to a specific ceremony belong to a certain defined group (known as manikay by the Yolngu peoples of north-east Arnhem Land, or clan songs<ref name=manikayclan>{{cite web | title=Song Types in the Top End | website=Manikay.Com | url=http://www.manikay.com/didjeridu/songs.shtml#clansongs | access-date=22 January 2020| first=Peter| last=Lister}}</ref>); some may be shared with people outside the community, but some are never shared. There is a wide range of songs, dances, music, body ornamentation, costume, and symbolism, designed to connect the body with the spiritual world of the ancestors. Ceremonies help to sustain Aboriginal identity as well as the group's connection to country and family.<ref name=resource8/>
===Examples of ceremonies=== *A bora is an initiation ceremony in which young boys (''Kippas'')<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.seqhistory.com/index.php/aboriginals-south-east-queensland/thomas-petrie/66-pt1-chpt5 |title=Tom Petrie's Reminiscences of Early Queensland |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029211258/http://www.seqhistory.com/index.php/aboriginals-south-east-queensland/thomas-petrie/66-pt1-chpt5 |access-date=2022-12-20 |archive-date=29 October 2013 }}</ref> become men. *Bunggul is a traditional ceremonial dance of the Yolngu people of East Arnhem Land.<ref>{{cite web | title=Yolngu clans pay tribute to cherished Gumatj leader Yunupiŋu at Garma Festival bunggul | first =Tahnee |last =Jash| website=ABC News (Australia) | date=6 August 2023 | url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-06/garma-festival-bunggul-ceremony/102674470 | access-date=5 August 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | last=Hennessy | first=Kate | title=Garma: art and politics come together for a moving Arnhem Land festival | website=The Guardian | date=6 August 2015 | url=http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/aug/06/garma-art-and-politics-come-together-for-a-moving-arnhem-land-festival | access-date=6 August 2023}}</ref> *The bunya feast held in the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast of Queensland is well-known. Representatives from many different groups from across southern Queensland and northern New South Wales would meet to discuss important issues relating to the environment, social relationships, politics and Dreaming lore, feasting and sharing dance ceremonies. Many conflicts would be settled at this event, and consequences for breaches of laws were discussed.<ref name=resource8/> *Burial practices differ from group to group. In parts of Northern Australia, there are two stages of burial. After the body has been on an elevated platform, covered with leaves and branches, long enough for the flesh to rot away from the bones, the bones are collected, painted with ochre, and dispersed in various ways.<ref name=style/> *A corroboree is a ceremonial meeting for Australian Aboriginal people, interacting with the Dreaming and accompanied by song and dance. They differ from group to group, and may be sacred and private.<ref name="Aboriginal Incursions"/> *An ilma is both a public ceremony or performance of the Bardi people, and the hand-held objects used in these ceremonies. *The '''inma''' is a cultural ceremony of Aṉangu women of Central Australia, involving song and dance and embodying the stories and designs of the tjukurrpa (Ancestral Law, or Dreamtime). The ceremony carries camaraderie, joy, playfulness and seriousness, and may last for hours. There are many different inma, all profoundly significant to the culture.<ref>{{cite web | last=Lindsay | first=Kirstyn | title=Tjungu Festival 2017: Anangu Senior Women share law and understanding of coming together | website=NITV Radio|publisher=SBS | date=4 May 2017 | url=https://www.sbs.com.au/language/english/tjungu-festival-2017-anangu-senior-women-share-law-and-understanding-of-coming-together | access-date=12 February 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |website=Tjanpi Desert Weavers| title=Inma (dance and song) performance | url=http://www.gfcomms.com.au/AboutUs/OurWork/Inmaperformance/tabid/273/language/en-US/Default.aspx | access-date=12 February 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=IY2019: Saving language through Dreaming story | website=Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications | date=8 July 2019 | url=https://www.arts.gov.au/departmental-news/iy2019-saving-language-through-dreaming-story | access-date=12 February 2020}}</ref> *The '''Mamurrng''' is a ceremony of West Arnhem Land in which two different language communities come together for trade and diplomacy.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Brown|first=Reuben|title=A Different Mode of Exchange:: The Mamurrng Ceremony of Western Arnhem Land|chapter=A Different Mode of Exchange |date=2017|work=A Distinctive Voice in the Antipodes|pages=41–72|editor-last=Gillespie|editor-first=Kirsty|series=Essays in Honour of Stephen A. Wild|publisher=ANU Press|jstor=j.ctt1trkk4c.9|isbn=978-1-76046-111-9|editor2-last=Treloyn|editor2-first=Sally|editor3-last=Niles|editor3-first=Don}}</ref> *The Morning Star Ceremony is a mortuary ceremony of the Dhuwa moiety.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book|last=Hutcherson|first=Gillian|title=Djalkiri Wanga: The Land is My Foundation|publisher=Berndt Museum of Anthropology| year=1995| isbn=0864224214| location=Western Australia}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Norris|first=Ray P.|date=2016|title=Dawes Review 5: Australian Aboriginal Astronomy and Navigation|journal=Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia|language=en|volume=33|article-number=e039|doi=10.1017/pasa.2016.25|arxiv=1607.02215 |bibcode=2016PASA...33...39N |issn=1323-3580|doi-access=free}}</ref> *The '''ngarra''' is one of the major regional rituals performed in north-east Arnhem Land, begun by the Rirratjingu clan of the Yolŋu people of East Arnhem. The first ngarra was performed by creation ancestors called Djang'kawu at the sacred site of Balma, in Yalangbara, after giving birth to the first of the Rirratjingu clan.<ref name=wam>{{cite web | title=Yalangbara: art of the Djang'kawu|first1=Banduk| last1=Marika |last2=West |first2=Margie | website=Western Australian Museum | date=7 December 2010 | url=http://museum.wa.gov.au/whats-on/yalangbara/background-essay | access-date=18 July 2021}}</ref> *A Pukamani, or Pukumani, is a burial ceremony of the Tiwi Islands, which lasts for several days around the grave of the deceased about six months after their death. Elaborate funerary posts known as tutini are erected around the grave before the ceremony, and dancers dance and sing around the posts.<ref name=am>{{cite web | title=Burial - Pukumani, Tiwi Islands | website=The Australian Museum | url=https://australianmuseum.net.au/about/history/exhibitions/death-the-last-taboo/burial-pukumani-tiwi-islands/| access-date=10 February 2020|date =6 December 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=Being Tiwi: the work of 9 artists from the Tiwi Islands - Stories & ideas | website=MCA Australia | url=https://www.mca.com.au/stories-and-ideas/being-tiwi-curatorial-essay/ | access-date=10 February 2020}}</ref> *The '''ROM''' (or '''Rom''' - see previous section) ceremony, involving songs, dances, and artefacts, which involve presenting other neighbouring communities with decorated totem poles, with the intent of establishing or re-establishing friendly terms with them; a form of diplomacy. The process of making and decorating the poles can extend over weeks, and involves successive sessions of song and dance, culminating in the ceremony where gifts are exchanged.<ref name=aiatsisrom/><ref>{{cite web|website=AIATSIS|url=https://aiatsis.gov.au/collections/about-collection/art-and-object|title=Art and object|first=Wally |last=Caruana|date=4 August 2014 |access-date=26 December 2019}}</ref> In April 2017, a four-day festival to mark the Rom ceremony was attended by about 500 people at Gapuwiyak School, in north-eastern Arnhem Land. It was planned to hold the event each term.<ref name=gapuwiyak>{{cite web | title=Gapuwiyak School celebrates Yolngu Rom | website=Department of Education | date=28 April 2017 | url=https://education.nt.gov.au/news/2017/gapuwiyak-school-celebrates-yolngu-rom | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200401013320/https://education.nt.gov.au/news/2017/gapuwiyak-school-celebrates-yolngu-rom | access-date=19 December 2022| archive-date=1 April 2020 }}</ref> Historian and writer Billy Griffiths wrote in his award-winning book ''Deep Time Dreaming: Uncovering Ancient Australia'' (2018), of the Rom ceremony as an "extension of friendship" and "ritual of diplomacy", of which the "full significance ... has yet to be appreciated by the Australian public. At the heart of this symbolic act is a gift – of song and dance and cultural knowledge, but it comes with obligations. The acceptance of such a gift enmeshes the recipients into a continual process of reciprocity".<ref>{{cite web | last=Robinson | first=Scott | title=The archaeologist as hero in Billy Griffiths' Deep Time Dreaming | website=Overland | date=12 December 2018 | url=https://overland.org.au/2018/11/the-archaeologist-as-hero-in-billy-griffiths-deep-time-dreaming/ | access-date=11 April 2020}}</ref> *A smoking ceremony is a cleansing ritual performed on special occasions. *Tjurunga (or churinga) are objects of religious significance by Central Australian Arrernte groups. *Walkabout is a rite of passage journey during adolescence, often mis-applied. *A welcome to country is a ritual now performed at many events held in Australia, intended to highlight the cultural significance of the surrounding area to a particular Aboriginal group. The welcome must be performed by a recognised elder of the group. The welcome ceremony is sometimes accompanied by a smoking ceremony, music or dance.
===Musical instruments and other objects=== The didgeridoo originated in northern Australia, but is now used throughout the continent. Clapsticks, seed rattles and objects such as rocks or pieces of wood are used; in a few areas, women play a drum made from goanna, snake, kangaroo or emu skin.<ref name=resource8/>
== Cuisine == {{Main|Bush tucker}} [[File:Yuendumu Gold 08.jpg|thumb|Aboriginal boy eating witchetty grub: Yuendumu, 2017]] Animal native foods include kangaroo, emu, witchetty grubs and crocodile. Plant foods include fruits such as quandong, kutjera, spices such as lemon myrtle and vegetables such as warrigal greens, bananas and various native yams. Since the 1970s, there has been recognition of the nutritional and gourmet value of native foods by non-Indigenous Australians, and the bushfood industry has grown enormously.<ref>{{cite book |isbn=0-207-16930-6 |title=Wild Food Plants of Australia |last1=Low |first1=Tim |year=1991 |publisher=Angus & Robertson }}</ref>
== Medicine == {{further|Bush medicine}} Pituri is a mixture of leaves and wood ash traditionally chewed as a stimulant (or, after extended use, a depressant) by Aboriginal Australians widely across the continent. Leaves are gathered from any of several species of native tobacco (''Nicotiana'') or from at least one distinct population of the species ''Duboisia hopwoodii''. Various species of ''Acacia'', ''Grevillea'' and ''Eucalyptus'' are burned to produce the ash. Traditional healers (known as Ngangkari in the Western jester areas of Central Australia) are highly respected men and women who not only acted as healers or doctors, but also generally served as custodians of important Dreaming stories.<ref>''Traditional Healers of Central Australia: Ngangkari''. Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Women's Council Aboriginal Corporation. 2013. Magabala Books, Broome, WA, pp. 15-19.</ref>
==Fire practices== Cultural burning, identified by Australian archaeologist Rhys Jones in 1969, is the practice of regularly and systematically burning patches of vegetation used in Central to Northern Australia to facilitate hunting, to reduce the frequency of major bush-fires, and to change the composition of plant and animal species in an area. This "fire-stick farming", or "burning off", reduces the fuel-load for a potential major bush fire, while fertilising the ground and increasing the number of young plants, providing additional food for kangaroos and other fauna hunted for meat. It is regarded as good husbandry and "looking after the land" by Aboriginal people of the Northern Territory.<ref>''Kakadu Man'', by Big Bill Neidjie, Stephen Davis, and Allan Fox, 1986, {{ISBN|0-9589458-0-2}}</ref>
== Language == {{Main|Australian Aboriginal languages}} The Australian Aboriginal languages consist of around 290–363{{sfn|Bowern|2011}} languages belonging to an estimated 28 language families and isolates, spoken by Aboriginal Australians of mainland Australia and a few nearby islands.{{sfn|Bowern|Atkinson|2012|p=830}} The relationships between these languages are not clear at present. Many Australian Aboriginal cultures have or traditionally had a manually coded language, a signed counterpart of their oral language. This appears to be connected with various speech taboos between certain kin or at particular times, such as during a mourning period for women or during initiation ceremonies for men.
Avoidance speech in Australian Aboriginal languages is closely tied to elaborate tribal kinship systems in which certain relatives are considered taboo. Avoidance relations differ from tribe to tribe in terms of strictness and to whom they apply. Typically, there is an avoidance relationship between a man and his mother-in-law, usually between a woman and her father-in-law, and sometimes between any person and their same-sex parent-in-law. For some tribes, avoidance relationships are extended to other family members, such as the mother-in-law's brother in Warlpiri or cross-cousins in Dyirbal. All relations are classificatory – more people may fall into the "mother-in-law" category than just a man's wife's mother.{{sfn|Dixon|1980|pp=58–59}}
Australian Aboriginal English (AAE) is a dialect of Australian English used by a large section of the Indigenous Australian (Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander) population. Australian Kriol is an English-based creole language that developed from a pidgin used in the early days of European colonisation. The pidgin died out in most parts of the country, except in the Northern Territory, which has maintained a vibrant use of the language, spoken by about 30,000 people. It is distinct from Torres Strait Creole.
== Literature == {{Main|Indigenous Australian literature}} At the point of the first colonisation, Indigenous Australians had not developed a system of writing, so the first literary accounts of Aboriginal people come from the journals of early European explorers, which contain descriptions of first contact.<ref>{{cite book|last=Genoni|first=Paul|title=Subverting the Empire: Explorers and Exploration in Australian Fiction|publisher=Common Ground|year=2004|location=Altona, VIC}}</ref>
A letter to Governor Arthur Phillip written by Bennelong in 1796 is the first known work written in English by an Aboriginal person.<ref>{{cite web|last=Maher|first=Louise|date=8 August 2013|title=Treasure Trove: Bennelong's letter|url=http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2013/08/08/3821136.htm|access-date=6 January 2020|work=666 ABC Canberra|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation}}</ref>
While his father, James Unaipon ({{circa|1835–1907}}), contributed to accounts of Ngarrindjeri mythology written by the missionary George Taplin in South Australia,<ref>{{cite book|last=Jenkin|first=Graham|title=Conquest of the Ngarrindjeri|publisher=Rigby|year=1979|location=Adelaide|isbn =9780727011121}}</ref> David Unaipon (1872–1967) provided the first accounts of Aboriginal mythology written by an Aboriginal person, ''Legendary Tales of the Australian Aborigines'' (1924–25), and was the first Aboriginal author to be published.
The Yirrkala bark petitions of 1963 are the first traditional Aboriginal document recognised by the Australian Parliament.<ref>{{cite web|title=Documenting Democracy|url=http://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/item.asp?dID=104|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110601205536/http://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/item.asp?dID=104|archive-date=1 June 2011|access-date=2011-06-02}}</ref>
Oodgeroo Noonuccal (1920–1993) was a famous Aboriginal poet, writer and rights activist credited with publishing the first Aboriginal book of verse: ''We Are Going'' (1964).<ref>{{in lang|en}} {{cite web|title=Modern Australian poetry|url=http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/poetry/index.htm|publisher=Ministère de la culture|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110410090353/http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/poetry/index.htm |archive-date=10 April 2011 }}</ref>
Sally Morgan's 1987 memoir ''My Place'' brought Indigenous stories to wider notice.
Leading Aboriginal activists Marcia Langton (''First Australians'' documentary TV series, 2008) and Noel Pearson (''Up from the Mission'', 2009) are contemporary contributors to Australian non-fiction. Other voices of Indigenous Australians include the playwright Jack Davis and Kevin Gilbert.
Writers coming to prominence in the 21st century include Kim Scott, Alexis Wright, Kate Howarth, Tara June Winch, Yvette Holt and Anita Heiss. Indigenous authors who have won Australia's Miles Franklin Award include Kim Scott, who was joint winner (with Thea Astley) in 2000 for ''Benang'' and again in 2011 for ''That Deadman Dance.'' Alexis Wright won the award in 2007 for her novel ''Carpentaria.'' Melissa Lucashenko won the Miles Franklin Award in 2019 for her novel ''Too Much Lip''.<ref>{{Cite web|title=2019 Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlist unveiled {{!}} Perpetual|url=https://www.perpetual.com.au/insights/2019-miles-franklin-literary-award-winner|access-date=2019-08-13|website=www.perpetual.com.au}}</ref>
==Music== {{further|Indigenous Australian music|didgeridoo|Indigenous rock#Australia}} [[Image:Didgeridoo Entier1.jpg|thumb|A didgeridoo, or yidaki]] Aboriginal people have developed unique musical instruments and folk styles. The didgeridoo is often considered the national instrument of Aboriginal Australians; however, it was traditionally played by peoples of Northern Australia, and only by the men. It has possibly been used by the people of the Kakadu region for 1500 years.
Clapping sticks are probably the more ubiquitous musical instrument, especially because they help maintain rhythm. More recently, Aboriginal musicians have branched into rock and roll, hip hop and reggae. Bands such as No Fixed Address and Yothu Yindi were two of the earliest Aboriginal bands to gain a popular following among Australians of all cultures.
In 1997 the State and Federal Governments set up the Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts (ACPA) to preserve and nurture Aboriginal music and talent across all styles and genres from traditional to contemporary.
==Sport and games== {{Main|Indigenous Australian sport}} Woggabaliri is a traditional Indigenous Australian "co-operative kicking volley game".<ref name="Maynard">{{Citation|author1=Maynard, John|title=The Aboriginal soccer tribe : A history of aboriginal involvement with the world game|year=2011 |publication-date=2011|publisher=Magabala Books|isbn=978-1-921248-39-9}}</ref> The Indigenous in areas of and near New South Wales played a ball game called Woggabaliri. The ball was usually made of possum fur, and was played in a group of four to six players in circle. It was a co-operative kicking game to see for how long the ball can be kept in the air before it touches the ground.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Woggabaliri|url=https://www.sport.nsw.gov.au/traditional-indigenous-games/woggabaliri|access-date=20 December 2022|website=NSW Government - Office of Sport}}</ref>[[Image:Aboriginal football.jpg|260px|thumb|right|An Indigenous community Australian rules football game]] The Djab Wurrung and Jardwadjali people of western Victoria once participated in the traditional game of Marn Grook, a type of football played with possum hide. The game is believed by some commentators, including Martin Flanagan,<ref>Martin Flanagan, ''The Call''. St. Leonards, Allen & Unwin, 1998, p. 8 Martin Flanagan, 'Sport and Culture'</ref> Jim Poulter and Col Hutchinson, to have inspired Tom Wills, inventor of the code of Australian rules football.
Similarity between Marn Grook and Australian football include jumping to catch the ball or high "marking", which results in a free kick. Use of the word "mark" in the game may be influenced by the Marn Grook word ''mumarki'', meaning "catch".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.footystamps.com/ot_early_history.htm |title=Early History |work=Footystamps.com}}</ref><!--For the reason that immediately follows, this sounds more like a co-incidence--> However, this is likely a false etymology; the term "mark" is traditionally used in Rugby and other games that predate AFL to describe a free kick resulting from a catch,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.irb.com/mm/Document/LawsRegs/0/070110LGLAW18_722.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=10 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121014004521/http://www.irb.com/mm/Document/LawsRegs/0/070110LGLAW18_722.pdf |archive-date=14 October 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> in reference to the player making a mark on the ground from which to take a free kick, rather than continuing to play on.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FmorleyEC.htm |title=Francis Marindin |access-date=2008-05-22 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080514032921/http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FmorleyEC.htm |archive-date=2008-05-14 }}</ref>
There are many Indigenous AFL players at professional level, with approximately one in ten players being of Indigenous origin {{as of|lc=yes|2007}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.academia.edu/346473 |title=Australian Game, Australian Identity:(Post)Colonial Identity in Football |work=Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies, Monash University |date=2007 |page=10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130617020837/http://www.academia.edu/346473/Australian_Game_Australian_Identity |archive-date=2013-06-17 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.theroar.com.au/2013/05/22/australian-rules-football-and-improving-indigenous-relations/ |title=Australian rules football and improving Indigenous relations |work=The Roar |date=22 May 2013}}</ref> The contribution of the Aboriginal people to the game is recognized by the annual AFL "Dreamtime at the 'G" match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground between Essendon and Richmond football clubs (the colors of the two clubs combine to form the colours of the Aboriginal flag). <!--Many great players have come from these clubs, including Essendon's Michael Long and Richmond's Maurice Rioli [there are many 'great' players from many teams]-->
Testifying to this abundance of Indigenous talent, the Aboriginal All-Stars, an AFL-level all-Aboriginal football side competes against any one of the Australian Football League's current football teams in pre-season tests. The Clontarf Foundation and football academy is just one organisation aimed at further developing aboriginal football talent. The Tiwi Bombers began playing in the Northern Territory Football League and became the first all-Aboriginal side to compete in a major Australian competition.
Coreeda is a style of folk wrestling practiced in Australia and is based on Aboriginal combat sports that existed in the pre-colonial period before the 19th century.<ref>{{cite web|title=Coreeda Association of Australia|url=http://coreedaoz.com/|website=Coreedaoz.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160111121924/http://coreedaoz.com/ |access-date=2022-12-20|archive-date=11 January 2016 }}</ref> Combining the movements of the traditional kangaroo dance as a warm up ritual, with a style of wrestling that utilizes a yellow 4.5 meter diameter circle that has black and red borders (similar to the Aboriginal flag), Coreeda is often compared to sports as diverse as capoeira and sumo.<ref>{{cite web|date=2014-01-14|title=Blog Archive » Coreeda Assoc. of Australia | Documenting & Promoting Traditional Wrestling Styles from Around the World|url=http://wrestlingroots.org/coreeda-assoc-of-australia/|publisher=Wrestling Roots|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303221148/http://wrestlingroots.org/coreeda-assoc-of-australia/ |access-date=2022-12-20|archive-date=3 March 2016 }}</ref>
A popular children's game in some parts of Australia is weet weet, or throwing the play stick. The winner throws the weet weet furthest or the most accurately.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ausport.gov.au/participating/indigenous/resources/games_and_activities/individual_games/target_games/weet_weet.pdf |title=Weet weet |publisher=Australian Sports Commission |access-date=12 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120322061416/http://ausport.gov.au/participating/indigenous/resources/games_and_activities/individual_games/target_games/weet_weet.pdf |archive-date=22 March 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==See also== {{Portal|Australia}} *Australian Aboriginal artefacts *Black Theatre (Sydney) *Contemporary Indigenous Australian art *Country (Indigenous Australians) *Garma Festival of Traditional Cultures *Indigenous Australian art *Indigenous Australian literature *Indigenous Australian traditional custodianship *Jindyworobak Movement, a white Australian literary movement inspired by Aboriginal culture *Living Archive of Aboriginal Languages, a digital archive of literature in endangered languages of the Northern Territory *Lizard Island#Mangrove Beach, a 2024 pottery finding *Stone tool#Aboriginal Australian use *Yaama Ngunna Baaka, 2019 festival consisting of a series of corroborees
==References== {{reflist}}
==Bibliography== *{{Cite news | title = How many languages were spoken in Australia? | last = Bowern | first = Claire | author-link = Claire Bowern | publisher = Anggarrgoon | url = https://anggarrgoon.wordpress.com/2011/12/23/how-many-languages-were-spoken-in-australia/ | date = 23 December 2011 | access-date = 30 March 2018 | archive-date = 3 February 2019 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190203152329/https://anggarrgoon.wordpress.com/2011/12/23/how-many-languages-were-spoken-in-australia/ | url-status = live }} * {{Cite journal | title = Computational Phylogenetics and the Internal Structure of Pama-Nyungan | last1 = Bowern | first1 = Claire | last2 = Atkinson | first2 = Quentin | author1-link = Claire Bowern | journal = Language | year = 2012 | volume = 84 | issue = 4 | pages = 817–845| citeseerx = 10.1.1.691.3903 | doi = 10.1353/lan.2012.0081 | s2cid = 4375648 }} *{{Cite book | title = The Languages of Australia | last = Dixon | first = R. M. W. | author-link = Robert M. W. Dixon | year = 1980 | publisher = Cambridge University Press | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=0b5XGja0HKIC&pg=PA3 | isbn = 978-0-521-29450-8 | access-date = 30 August 2017 | archive-date = 22 December 2019 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191222090950/https://books.google.com/books?id=0b5XGja0HKIC&pg=PA3 | url-status = live }}
==Further reading== {{Library resources box|by=no|onlinebooks=no|about=yes|wikititle=Australian Aboriginal culture}} {{Commons category|Australian Aboriginal culture}} *{{Wikivoyage inline|Indigenous Australian culture}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20160330114112/http://arts.adelaide.edu.au/linguistics/guide.pdf ''ENGAGING - A Guide to Interacting Respectfully and Reciprocally with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People, and their Arts Practices and Intellectual Property''] (Australian Government: Indigenous Culture Support)
{{Indigenous Australians}} {{Indigenous music of Australia}}
Category:Australian Aboriginal culture