This is an NFSA Digital Learning resource. See all Digital Learning websites.
Adapted To Their Continent
More Information

More than seven hundred and fifty thousand people lived in Australia before the arrival of the first fleet in 1788. This is only an estimate, but the evidence suggests that indigenous people occupied every corner of the continent.

However, in more fertile regions where population densities were high, introduced diseases like small pox decimated many communities.

As a result, nineteenth century observers popularised the mistaken impression that there were very few aboriginal Australians. This myth has been challenged over the last forty years, with research rediscovering the diversity and sophistication of indigenous culture before European invasion.
Yirrkala & Gove
Topic
1963-1971
bark petition, Gove, industry, land rights, Marika, Roy, mining, Nabalco, Yunupingu, Galarrwuy
Belonging To Country
Topic
 
aborigines, Australia, dreamtime, indigenous Australians, land ownership, land rights, sacred
Aborigines of the Sea Coast
Video
1948
Arnhem Land, cultural preservation, culture, custom, Gove, hunting, Northern Territory, turtles
Archaeologists and the knowledge frontier
Text
1788
anthropology, archaeology, cultural preservation, Tasmania, Victoria
Cultural Diversity & Common Identity
Topic
 
aborigines, fishing, hunting, land ownership, land use
A Sacred Landscape
Topic
 
aboriginal property ownership, anthropology, Australia, clans, dispossession, kinship, land ownership, religion, sacred
Terra Nullius
Topic
 
colonisation, crown land, doctrine of tenure, First Fleet, New South Wales, sovereignty, terra nullius
Dispossession
Topic
 
colonisation, dispossession
Farming The Sea
Topic
 
fishing, Great Barrier Reef, Meriam culture, sea rights
Seafarers & Food Growers
Topic
 
fishing, gardening, sea rights, seafarers
Terra Nullius & Australia
Topic
 
crown land, dispossession, doctrine of tenure, First Fleet, land rights, resistance, terra nullius
Arrente woman resting on a digging stick
Image and Text
1895
aborigines, anthropology, Arrente, Baldwin Spencer, Walter, Central Australia, native title
National Library of Australia
URL
 
Australia, culture
Dhimurru Land Management
URL
 
aboriginal property ownership, aborigines, Dhimurru