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AUSTRALIA

Aboriginal Australia

AUSTRALIA WIKI
WORLD'S INDIGENOUS PEOPLE FORUM

I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today.
- Australia Notebook

PHOTO GALLERY: 2007 Corroboree
SLIDESHOW

Aboriginal Australians conserve the oldest culture in the world. Human occupation of Australia started about 65,000 years ago with successive waves of immigration from south and southeast Asia. Archaeologists continue to revise the date of early settlements.

The word 'aboriginal' has appeared in the English language since the 17th century and means 'first or earliest known, indigenous.' This term has been used to describe its indigenous peoples as early as 1789. It was appropriated when the English colonized Australia. Before colonists arrived from Europe, there were no aboriginals, just people.

The world's oldest surviving man-made houses are situated in Victoria at Lake Condah. They are about 8,000 years old and pre-dated the Egyptian pyramids by about 5,000 years. Curiously, the site has no World Heritage listing.

AWARDS

Winner of the 2009 Indigenous Tourism and Biodiversity Website Award is Queensland-based Guurrbi Tours!

RESPONSIBLE TRAVEL

Many Aboriginal communities require permits to enter their lands. This helps insure the privacy of locals. If you are visiting an Aboriginal community, wait until you are invited to approach people's homes or groups of people. Funerals and cultural ceremonies are times of special privacy in communities. Use extra sensitivity in communities at these times.

Visitors can make contact with Australia's Aboriginals on their turf. In Sydney Aboriginal guides conduct heritage walks in the Royal Botanical Gardens and ferry travelers on cruises in the harbor.

ABORIGINAL TOURISM

In Australia Planeta.com has collaborated with Aboriginal Tourism Australia in developing marketing strategies for aboriginal tour operators. We participated in the 2007 Business Development Symposium, a powerful capacity building training seminar that brought together a number of stakeholders to review current policy.

Indigenous and aboriginal operations have a challenge not faced by other stakeholders: succession. What if the kids do not wish to follow? Operations that are developed and marketed for their indigenous identity cannot be sold.

In research conducted for Australia's Indigenous Tourism Research Agenda (pdf), experts found that funding goes to communities, even though the sole proprietorships and joint ventures have better chance of financial success. "Policy-makers need better information to shape policy," says researcher Joc Schmicchen.

Aboriginal Tourism Australia provided a central point of contact for Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tourism with a membership that spans the country. However in recent times it has become increasingly difficult to survive and we have done so through the tireless work of our staff and a number of other people in voluntary roles along with the financial assistance of a few organisations, both corporate and government, who have shared our vision ...The Board of Directors have arrived at just one conclusion - that we are unable to see a sustainable future for Aboriginal Tourism Australia. Consequently the Board of Directors has resolved that Aboriginal Tourism Australia will cease trading at the end of July 2008. (Planeta Update)

FYI

The Torres Strait Islanders are considered a distinct ethnic group.

Many of the national parks, including Kakadu and Uluru (Ayers Rock), are owned and jointly run by their traditional owners

Aboriginal people use 'songlines' to pass down creation stories, laws and trading routes through generations

Aboriginal people may have a number of names, for example a European first name and surname, a bush name, a 'skin name' (based on 'skin names' of parents) and perhaps a nickname.