IN MY OPINION THIS IS THE ABORIGINES ANSWER
DEAR WHITE FELLA
COUPLE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW
WHEN I BORN, I BLACK
WHEN I GROW UP, I BLACK
WHEN I GO IN SUN, I BLACK
WHEN I GO COLD, I BLACK
WHEN I SCARED, I BLACK
WHEN I SICK, I BLACK
AND WHEN I DIE, I STILL BLACK
YOU WHITE FELLA
WHEN YOU BORN, YOU PINK
WHEN YOU GROW UP, YOU WHITE
WHEN YOU GO IN SUN, YOU RED
WHEN YOU COLD, YOU BLUE
WHEN YOU SCARED, YOU YELLOW
WHEN YOU SICK, YOU GREEN
WHEN YOU DIE, YOU GREY.
AND YOU HAVE THE CHEEK TO CALL ME COLOURED?????????
AUSTRALIAN ABOIGINES, NATIVE PEOPLE OF AUSTRALIA WHO PROBABLY CAME FORM SOMEWHERE IN ASIA AT LEAST 30,000 YEARS AGO. IN 1996 THE POPULATION OF ABORIGINES AND TORRES STRAITS ISLANDER WAS 386,049, 1.5% OF THE AUSTRALIAN POPULATION AS A WHOLE AND SLIGHTLY MORE THAN THE ESTIMATED ABORIGINAL POPULATION OF 350,000 ATH THE TIME OF EUROPEAN COLONIZATION IN THE LATE 18TH CENTURY. AT THAT TIME, THERE WERE 500-600 DISTINCT GROUPS OF ABORIGINES SPEAKING ABOUT 200 DIFFERENT LANGUAGES OR DIALECTS (AT LEAST 50 OF WHICH ARE NOW EXTINCT). ALTHOUGH CULTURALLY DIVERSE, THESE GROUPS WERE NOT POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC ENTITIES AND LACKED CLASS HIERARCHIES AND CHIEFS. THEY LIVED BU HUNTING AND GATHERING, AND THERE WAS EXTENSIVE INTERGROUP TRADE THROUGHOUT THE CONTINENT.
THE ABORIGINES HAVE AN INTRICATE CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM THAT DEFINES KINSHIP REALTIONS AND REGULATES MARRIAGES. THE KARIERA, FOR EXAMPLE, ARE DIVIDED INTO HORDES, OR LOCAL GROUPS OF ABOUT 30 PEOPLE, WHIC ARE DIVIDED INTO FOUR CLASSES, OR SECTIONS. MEMBERSHIP IN A SECTION DETERMINES RITUAL AND TERRITORIAL CLAIMS. IN HALF OF THE HORDES THE MEN ARE DIVIDED AMOUNG THE KARIMERA AND BURUNG SECTIONS; IN THE OTHER HALF THEY ARE DIVIDED AMOUNG THE PALYERI AND BANAKA SECTIONS. THESE SECTIONS ARE EXOGMOUS, AND RULES OF MARRIAGE, DESCENT, AND RESIDENCE DETERMINE HOW THESE SECTIONS INTERACT: KARIMERA MEN MUST MARRY PALYERI WOMEN, AND THEIR CHILDREN ARE BURUNG, AND SO ON. SOND LIVE IN THE SAME HORDES AS THEIR FATHERS, SO THE COMPOSTION OF HORDES ALTERNATES EVERY GENERATION. THE COMPLEX SYSTEM, BY REQUIRING EACH MAN TO MARRY A WOMAN FROM ONLY ONE OF THESE POSSIBLE SECTIONS, FOSTERS A BROAD NETWORK OF SOCIAL RELATIONS AND CREATES FAMILIAL SOLIDARITY WITHIN THE HORDE AS A WHOLE. ABORIGINES MAINTAIN ELABORATE SYSTEMS OF TOTEMISM (THE BELIEF THT THERE IS A GENEALOGICAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PEOPLE AND SPECIES OF PLANTS OR ANIMALS). THEY SEE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TOTEMIC PLANTS AND ANIMALS AS A SYMBOLIC MAP OF THE RELATIONS BETWEEN DIFFERENT PEOPLE.
CONTAC WITH BRITISH STTLERS, BEGINING IN 1788, INITIALLY LED TO ECONOMIC MARGINALIZATION, A LOSS OF POLITICAL AUTONOMY, AND DEATH BY DISEASE. SO-CALLED PACIFICATION BY FORCE CULMINATED INT THE LATE 1880'S, LEADING TO A MASSIVE DEPOPULATION AND EXTINCTION FOR SOME GROUPS. BY THE 1940'S ALMOST ALL ABORIGINES WERE MISSIONIZED AND ASSIMILATED INTO RURAL AND URBAN AUSTRALIAN SOCIETY AS LOW-PAID LABORERS WITH LIMITED RIGHTS. IN 1976 AND 1993 THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT ENACTED LAND-RIGHTS LEGISLATION THAT HAS RETURNED TO THE ABORIGINES A DEGREE OF AUTONOMY, AND COURT DECISIONS IN 1992 AND 1996 RECOGNIZED ABORIGINAL PROPERTY RIGHTS. THE RECENT INCREASE IN ABORIGINAL POPULATION REFLECTS IMPROVED LIVING CONDITIONS AND A BROAD AND INCLUSIVE DEFINITION OF ABORIGINAL IDENTITY ON THE PART OF THE GOVERNMENT. THEIR AVERAGE STANDARD OF LIVING AND LIFE WXPECTANCY, HOWEVER, ARE NOT COMPARABLE WITH THAT OF MOST AUSTRALIANS. IN 1999 THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT ISSUED AN OFFICIAL EXPRESSION OF REGRET FOR PAST MISTREATMENT OF ABORIGINES.
SEE P.S. BELLWOOD, MAN'S CONQUEST OF THE PACIFIC (1978);
W. SHAPIRO, SOCIAL ORGANIZATION IN ABORIGINAL AUSTRLIA (1979);
G. BLAINEY, TRIUMPH OF THE NOMADS: A HISTORY OF ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIA(1982);
S. BENNETT, ABORIGINES AND POLITICAL POWER (1989).
