A History of Australia’s Aboriginal People

Aborigines in the 20th Century

Aboriginal children. The practice of slavery in Australia didn't end at the same time it did in the United States. There was no war, and there was no proclamation decreeing that all slaves must go free. In fact, slavery didn't end in Australia until the 1970s. However, it did take a different form than it did in the United States.

Text Box: Aboriginal children were taken from their families and put in institutions for over half of the 20th century. Photo circa 1975. Beginning in 1910, non-Indigenous Australians began to take Aboriginal children from their homes and families. These children, known as the Stolen Generation, were either given to white families -- to be raised as white children -- or to institutions and orphanages where they were forced to assimilate to white society. Between 1910 and 1970, when the practice stopped, over 100,000 children had been separated from their families and culture [sources: Parliament of Australia, The Independent].

Bruce Trevorrow

In 1957, Bruce Trevorrow was taken from his family and given to a white family. He was 13 months old. Meanwhile, his two brothers and two sisters remained with his parents. Trevorrow eventually sued the government for compensation and won. Trevorrow was the first member of the Stolen Generation to receive government compensation and was awarded $450,000.

In 1967, following the example of the Civil Rights Movement in America, the Aborigines began to fight for equal rights. The white Australians -- the only ones with the power to vote -- passed a referendum to the Australian constitution that gave Aborigines the right to vote. The passing of the referendum also meant that Aborigines could be included in future censuses, officially recognizing them as citizens of Australia.

Aborigines are still fighting for equality in Australia today, and racism is still prevalent throughout the continent. The life expectancy of a typical Aborigine lags almost 20 years behind that of a typical white Australian [source: The Independent]. Aborigines still don't own most of the land that was taken from them during the colonial period.

But over the last two decades, the Aborigines have tried to reclaim what was once theirs. Some of the major turning points were:

· 1976 - The Aboriginal Land Rights Act was passed, allowing the Aborigines to begin staking claims on land. This turned out to be a double-edged sword, however. In order to win rights to the land, Aborigines had to prove that they were the first ones on it. To do this, they had to tell of their history. But as we saw with the Dreamtime, Aborigines consider these stories sacred and secret. Aborigines had to make a choice between betraying their ancestors and taking back their land.

· 1995 - The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission launched the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families, which resulted in recommendations for reparations and equal rights for Aborigines. At the time, the Australian government rejected all recommendations and refused to pay compensation [source: Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission].

· 1999 - The Australian Parliament released a statement stating that they regret what happened to the Stolen Generation.

· 2006 - An Australian court granted the Aborigines land rights to almost 2,300 square miles of the major city Perth.

· 2008 - The Australian government announced its plan to formally apologize to the Stolen Generation of children in order to bridge the gap between Aborigines and non-indigenous Australians [source: BBC News].

cell phone on loin cloth While all of these events helped to usher in equality for the Aborigines, they by no means left a perfect system in place. In the next section, we'll look at how the Australian Aborigines live today.

Aborigines Today

As of 2001, the Aboriginal population had grown to more than 400,000, and it was expected to rise to 470,000 by 2006 [sources: The New York Times, Australian Bureau of Statistics]. But that's still only 2 percent of the population of all of Australia. And although things are improving, there are still glaring inequalities between the races.

Text Box: A case of old meeting new: An Aboriginal man stands in traditional dress with a cell phone clipped to his loincloth. For the Aborigines who live in the major cities of Australia, alcoholism and violence are a way of life. Most Aborigines are very poor and have a very low standard of living. Aboriginal Elders are attempting to change violent tendencies in young men by taking them to one of many sacred sites and teaching them the ancient ways of their people. The educational system, which was once segregated, is now open Aboriginal man at the train station. to Aboriginal children, who are encouraged to attend. However, many Aboriginal children drop out at a young age.

Text Box: An Aborgine in a modern train station in Sydney, Australia. Many Aborigines live in modern, large cities. The Aborigines who continue to live in the rural areas of Australia -- or the outback -- have tried to keep as much of their tradition and history alive as they can. Australians have attempted to build houses and other types of shelter for them. But for the most part, Aborigines use these structures only for storage.

Many of these traditional Aborigines are also trying to spread their history to the members of their race who seem to have lost it. They've hired teachers to train students in the traditional Aboriginal languages. Even a few radio and TV stations feature only Aboriginal programming to educate the generations that have had no prior experience with their culture.

And of course, there's Aboriginal art. Their art is world famous, and many Aborigines make a living off selling their pieces. Traditionally, they view art much like their dreamings: sacred and secret. Only a select few people, after reaching a proper level of knowledge of Aboriginal history, are permitted to see the artwork. In recent years, though, that's changed, so some artists can make money to support themselves and their families.

Aboriginal art comes many media: paintings, beadwork, woodwork, bark paintings and baskets. Aborigines also make and sell the most famous item to come out of Australia: the boomerang. But some art can't be sold -- it's on the walls of caves. A famous Australian landmark, Ayers Rock, is one such place. It's an Aboriginal sacred site named Uluru, located near the center of Australia. The rock covers a series of caves. Within those caves are walls and walls of paintings done by the Aborigines to illustrate their dreamings. While people visit Ayers Rock and see the paintings, there's still no way to know what they mean. And the Aborigines, for the time being, are keeping it a secret.