What are the indigenous people of Australia called? A lost branch of humanity has been discovered nearby in New Guinea. They're still going

Residents of each country have their own mentality. Different habits, different character and different rules behavior... This is what distinguishes the Japanese from the Chinese, Americans from the British, Ukrainians from Russians. Each nation has its own rich history, which goes back to the depths of time and shapes the appearance modern man. Who were the indigenous people of Australia and who lives in the country now? More about this.

The first mentions of the Australian continent date back to XVII century, but it was explored only a hundred years later - in 1770, James Cook landed on shore with an expedition. It is from this moment that it begins European history states. 18 years later, on January 26, 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip set foot on the shores of the continent and founded the first settlement - Sydney Cove. This date is still a big holiday in the country and is celebrated as Australia Day.

The history of the settlement of the continent cannot be called romantic: the first settlers were English prisoners, for whom there was simply no place in prison. They, led by Captain Arthur Phillip, began the exploration of Australia at the end of the 18th century.

After 100 years, the group of prisoners had grown into a fully mature society. Immigration was in full swing, with those wishing to live on the “new continent” flocking from all over the world. Australia became a full-fledged participant in the economic life of Great Britain; meat and wool were even exported from there.

The authorities tried to introduce restrictions on those entering on the basis of race: for example, at one time, Asians were prohibited from immigrating here. But the restrictions did not bring results, so the audience was motley. Most of the visitors are of Asian, New Zealand, and English origin.

Of course, it is impossible to summarize the history of the formation of an entire nation in one short article. If you are interested in how the continent was explored by the British, we recommend watching this documentary film made by Australians about Australians.

Since the settlement of the British, the problems of the indigenous people of Australia began. Initially, the number ranged, according to various sources, from 300 thousand to 4 million people, but with the appearance on the mainland of not the most intelligent Englishmen with a criminal record, the number of aborigines began to decline sharply.

Indigenous people of Australia: how did the oldest civilization fall?

So who were the owners of the continent before Arthur Phillip appeared on it? The indigenous people of Australia are also called Bushmen. There is a theory according to which the Bushmen are the oldest people on Earth. Civilization dates back more than 70 thousand years! The indigenous people of Australia are divided into three distinct types, and more than 500 languages ​​were spoken on the continent when Europeans landed. The main occupations of the Australians were hunting, gathering, and construction.

The indigenous inhabitants of Australia belong to the race of the same name - Australoids, their facial features are appropriate: dark skin (but lighter than that of Negroids), a wide nose, lush hair, very dark and curly

The aborigines also had a religion, according to which God is nature and all the phenomena that surround man. Mountains, trees, water are sacred things in which the spirit of powerful gods is hidden.

How do the indigenous people of Australia live today?

The paradox is that Aboriginal descendants could not become Australian citizens until 1967. Until this time, they lived in special reservations - villages where access to outsiders was closed. They were not taken into account even in the population census. Only half a century ago, the indigenous people of Australia received the right to choose their place of residence and move around the country. Not everyone, however, left the reservation. Moreover, some of them never reached civilization. About ten thousand descendants of the ancient Australoids still live without knowing writing, English, or modern technology.

Most of the aborigines have dispersed throughout the country; you can meet them in any city. Some work in the tourism industry: they entertain tourists with excursions to fake tribes or real reservations, where the life and way of historical times have been preserved.

As souvenirs you can buy a variety of gizmos supposedly made by the hands of the aborigines. In fact, you rarely come across truly authentic things; usually, under their guise, they are sold in an ordinary village “mass market”. We wrote an article about what souvenirs to buy in the country. Some of them may be no less interesting. Check out the list of the best souvenirs from Australia.

Not far from Australia, in New Zealand there are also aborigines. They are called Maori, which translates as “natural, real.” These tribes are remembered as brave people who defended their rights like no other.

Unfortunately, among the aborigines who moved to large cities, there are many representatives of marginal sections of the population. A large percentage of the crimes committed in the country are attributed to them; Among the descendants of ancient people, alas, drug addicts and drinkers are often found.

Modern inhabitants of Australia: who are they?

Local residents of Australia are full of different types, skin and eye colors. This picture is completely unusual for a tourist from Russia, because in our country we only see people who are similar to us. Everything is mixed up here, so no matter how you look, you will never catch a single sideways glance on yourself. For the same reason, representatives of different faiths coexist peacefully in the country. Religions were distributed as follows: 26% of the local population of Australia are Protestants, 19% are Catholics, the rest are less than 5%.

The country, by local standards, has very cheap food. This played a cruel joke on the residents: obesity is very common on the sunny continent.

Number local residents Australia – just over 24 million people. This is data for 2016. By 2030, an increase to 28 million is expected. The birth rate here is the highest in the world: on average there are 1.9 children per woman. Average duration life is also one of the highest - more than 80 years. The majority of Australians, of course, come from England. Next come visitors from New Zealand and Italy. There are very few indigenous people in Australia, less than 5%.

The largest city in Australia in terms of population is Sydney, but there are many Asians among them, which is why the city cannot be called prosperous and comfortable for living.

Nevertheless, there is a lot to see in Sydney, you just need to know where to go. To find out what sights to see in the largest city on the continent, so as not to constantly bump into migrant workers, read. In it we have collected the most interesting sights of Sydney

What do Australians do?

The country has a high standard of living: the purchasing power of the average citizen is $3,000 per month. This means that life is not aimed at constantly making money. Local residents of Australia devote a lot of time to self-development, hobbies, active and passive recreation.

There is no excessive desire to look good. They dress “newly” only for work and on important occasions. The rest of the time, due to the hot weather, it is impossible to constantly look chic.

It's not just about the weather, but also about the mentality: the local residents of Australia are approximately equally well off, so they do not seek to prove anything to anyone, but only live in pleasure. Accordingly, no one tries to dress pretentiously and expensively. It is not easy to distinguish an employee from a millionaire.

The hobbies of Australian residents are directly related to environment. Are there a lot of rocks around? Great, let's climb them! Is there an ocean all around? Just great, grab your surfboard! No snow at all, but tons of sand in the desert? What's the problem, let's invent a snowboard on the sand!

This sport is called "snedboarding". It proves that the lack of snow is not a hindrance to true extreme sports enthusiasts. The rules are the same as in snowboarding: slide on the board. The only difference is that instead of snow there are dunes, and instead of a warm suit there is a T-shirt and shorts.

Another hobby of Australians is gambling and horse racing. This is understandable: when people do not feel a constant lack of money, it is easy to waste it.

The local people in Australia are called "Ozzy". Or rather, that's what they call themselves. Being an Ozzy means getting confused about the words of the National Anthem, boasting a beer belly, and not giving a damn about what's going on in the rest of the world.

In general, Australians have quite a lot of strange character traits. It is these features that form the rules of conduct for tourists in Australia. So that you know how to behave in this distant country, we have collected all the rules

Roughly speaking, the Universe for Ozzie is limited to the ocean. Where the continent ends, everything that can worry local residents ends. If you suddenly told a resident of Australia that a lot of interesting and interesting things are happening outside the continent important events– most likely, he would have grinned and bluntly stated that he was not interested. Here, as a rule, they do not stand on ceremony and speak directly as it is. But, nevertheless, I don’t want to be offended by the charming, simple-minded Ozzies at all.

Australian Aborigines, that is, the indigenous people of Australia, who now number about half a million people, live mostly in remote areas of the northern half of the continent. Until recently, the existence of the original peoples inhabiting Australia was under threat. With the beginning of European colonization, epidemics, displacement from their native lands and uncontrolled physical destruction came to their lands. The British, having come to new lands and considering the tribes living there to be the most primitive people, not far removed from the monkey, unceremoniously slaughtered them in entire villages. By 1921, their number had dropped to 60 thousand people, while by the time of the discovery of Australia by Europeans there were approximately 1 million people.

But in the 20th century, the Australian government became concerned about the problems of the indigenous population, reservations began to be created, government funds were allocated and donations were collected, so that, given the high birth rate, their numbers have now increased sharply.

Scientists identify Australian aborigines as a separate Australian branch of the Australoid race. Outwardly it is tall people with black wavy hair, large protruding forward brow ridges, large nose with wide nostrils and deep-set eyes. They are distinguished by very large teeth, an elongated skull shape with very thick skull bones, and extremely dark pigmentation of the skin and eyes. Among the Aborigines there are natural blondes, this is a mutation that has become established as a result of isolation. Initially, they were classified as a Negroid race, but later genetic studies proved their closeness to the Mongoloid race and the maximum distance of kinship with Negroids.

In their better times Australian Aborigines were engaged in gathering, hunting and fishing. They were not engaged in agriculture or other productive activities, they did not have writing, laws, or social hierarchy. They did not build cities and large settlements, and did not engage in handicrafts. Australians lived in groups based on a common language and family ties. Only the related Tasmanians had a more primitive cultural and material environment. The spiritual and religious side of life of the indigenous population was more developed. Hundreds of scattered tribes spoke their own languages ​​or dialects, had rich oral traditions and an extensive mythology.

Indigenous Australians were united in approximately 400 ethnic groups, spoke several hundred dialects, grouped into 26 language groups. The Aboriginal tribes of southern Australia developed a special sign language as an alternative form of communication with speakers of other languages. Sign language was also used in special cases taboo speech. The wealth of myths and legends of different tribes have much in common; common plot lines and heroes stand out. They developed their own system of understanding the world, in which, in addition to the real world around us, there is also a world of dreams where the spirits of ancestors live. These worlds meet in the sky and the movements of the Sun, Moon and stars can depend on the actions of ancestors or living people. Special attention The natives paid attention to the starry sky and the movements occurring in it, but at the same time they did not use celestial objects either for navigation or for calendar readings. Structurally, society consisted of communities, led by elders and hereditary leaders. There were initiations - special rituals that preceded the entry of young men and women into adult life. Serious restrictions on marriage were based on a complex system of kinship. Funeral rites included cremation, which was invented in Australia earlier than anywhere else.

Unfortunately, the new Australians, white-skinned settlers, paid little attention to the indigenous population. Even when the era of hard labor development of the continent passed and scientists from Europe began to come to the cities, there was no special attitude towards the collection and analysis of materials about aspects of the life of indigenous peoples. Therefore, much knowledge about the culture and heritage of the Australian Aborigines is now irretrievably lost. Modern descendants of the aborigines have almost completely lost traditional means of livelihood, are focused on government and charitable assistance and preserve religious traditions. Aboriginal people were recognized as citizens of the state of Australia with corresponding rights and responsibilities only in 1967. Currently, in modern Australia, movements for the preservation of cultural identity are developing, lands are allocated for collective ownership for the protection of cultural heritage, National Aboriginal Television operates, and lessons are held in the study of Aboriginal languages. You can see firsthand how the aborigines live and get to know their culture better by visiting

According to the 2001 census, Australia's Aboriginal population makes up only 2.7%. This is about half a million people, whereas in the 18th century, at the time of the British landing, there were more than five million natives. The colonial period is one of the most difficult for the aborigines of Australia in history, because during this time the tribes were mercilessly exterminated and persecuted. From favorable conditions the southern coast with a comfortable climate, the aborigines had to move to arid desert areas in the north of the continent and in its central part.

Modern Australian Aboriginal lifestyle

Since 1967, when representatives of the Aboriginal people of Australia achieved equal rights with the white population of the country, the situation of the indigenous population began to improve. Many tribes state support assimilated and moved to live in cities. Programs began to work to increase the birth rate and preserve the cultural heritage of the Aboriginal people. In 2007, a television channel for the indigenous population even began operating, although due to the wide variety of dialects of Australian languages, broadcasting is conducted in English.

Australia and Oceania are one of the smallest parts of the world, its area is about 9 million km 2, with 7.7 million km 2 falling on the Australian continent, the rest on the island states of Oceania. The population is also not very large: about 25 million people, most of them from Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand. The composition of the historical and cultural region of Australia and Oceania is the states of Australia, New Zealand, Vanuatu, Caribbean, Micronesia, Nauru, Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, Palau, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu and Fiji.

Australia and the Pacific Islands were explored by European sailors much later than other continents. The name of the continent of Australia is the fruit of an erroneous theory of 16th century scientists who believed that New Guinea, discovered by the Spaniards, and the archipelago of Tierra del Fuego islands, discovered by Magellan, were in fact the northern spurs of the new continent, as they called it “the unknown southern land” or in Latin "terra australius incognita".

Conventionally, Oceania is divided into several parts, which are radically different both in culture and in ethnic composition.

The so-called “Black Islands” are Melanesia, islands in the western Pacific Ocean that were formerly the Australian mainland, the largest of which is New Guinea.

The second part, Polynesia or “Numerous Islands,” includes the southernmost part of the western islands, including New Zealand, also with a large number of large and small islands, randomly scattered in the ocean, resembling a triangle in shape. Its peak is Hawaii in the north, Easter Island in the east, and New Zealand in the south.

The part called Micronesia or "Small Islands" lies to the north of Melanesia, these are the Marshall Islands, Gilbert Islands, Caroline and Mariana Islands.

Indigenous tribes

When European sailors visited this part of the world, they found here tribes of indigenous people who belonged to the Australo-Negroid group of peoples at various stages of development.

(Papuan from New Guinea)

The settlement of the Australian continent and nearby islands was mainly due to tribes who came here in search of happiness from Indonesia, as well as from the west of the Pacific Ocean, and lasted for many centuries.

New Guinea was settled by settlers from Southeast Asia belonging to the Australoid race, then this region was overtaken by a wave of migrations several more times, as a result, all the descendants of various “waves” of migrations to New Guinea are called Papuans.

(Papuans today)

Another group of settlers who settled some part of Oceania, probably belonging to the Southern Mongoloid race, first came to the island of Fiji, then Samoa and Tonga. The thousand-year isolation of this region formed a unique and inimitable Polynesian culture here, which spread throughout the Polynesian part of Oceania. The population has a variegated ethnic composition: the inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands are Hawaiians, in Samoa - Samoans, in Tahitians - Tahitians, in New Zealand - Maoris, etc.

Level of development of tribes

(Development of Australia by European colonizers)

By the time Europeans penetrated into Australian lands, local tribes lived at Stone Age levels, which is explained by the continent’s remoteness from the ancient centers of world civilizations. The Aborigines hunted kangaroos and other representatives of the marsupial order, collected fruits and roots, and had weapons made of wood and stone. The most famous device of the Australian aborigines for hunting game is the boomerang, a sickle-shaped club made of wood that flies along a curved path and returns to its owner. The Australian tribes lived in a tribal communal system, there were no tribal unions, each tribe lived separately, and sometimes military conflicts arose over land or for other reasons (for example, due to accusations of malicious witchcraft).

(Modern Papuans are no longer different from Europeans in terms of their level of development, having skillfully transformed themselves into actors of national traditions)

The population of the island of Tasmania differed in appearance from the Australian aborigines; they had a darker skin color, curly hair, and full lips, which made them similar to the Negroid race living in Melanesia. They were at the lowest level of development (Stone Age), worked with stone hoes, and hunted with wooden spears. They spent time collecting fruits, berries and roots, and hunting. In the 19th century, the last representatives of the Tasmanian tribes were exterminated by Europeans.

The level of technical development of all the tribes that inhabited Oceania was approximately at the same level: they used tools made of stone, wooden weapons with tips made of processed stone, knives made of bone, and scrapers made of seashells. The inhabitants of Melanesia used bows and arrows, grew crops, and raised domestic animals. Very good development received fishing, the inhabitants of Oceania were excellent at moving across the sea over long distances, and knew how to build strong double boats with floats and wicker sails. Advances were made in pottery, weaving clothing, and constructing household items from plant materials.

(By the middle of the 20th century, the indigenous Polynesians had already merged with the European way of life and modern life society)

Polynesians were tall dark skin with a yellowish tint, curly strands of hair. They were mainly engaged in the cultivation of agricultural crops, the cultivation of various root crops, one of the main sources of food and an excellent material for making clothing, household items and a wide variety of devices was the coconut palm. Weapons - clubs made of wood, stone and bone. High level development of shipbuilding and navigation. In the social system there was a division of labor, division into castes (artisans, warriors, priests), there was a concept of property;

(Also, today's Micronesians)

The population of Micronesia was a mixed ethnic group whose appearance was a mixture of characteristics of the inhabitants of Melanesia, Indonesia and Polynesia. The level of development of the social system was intermediate between that of the inhabitants of Melanesia and Polynesia: division of labor, a group of artisans was allocated, exchange was carried out in the form of natural resources (shells and beads), the famous money of the island of Yap - huge stone discs. Formally, the land was common, but in fact it belonged to the tribal nobility; wealth and power were in the hands of the elders, they were called Yurosi. It turns out that the inhabitants of Micronesia did not yet have their own state when the Europeans arrived, but they were very close to creating one.

Traditions and customs of local residents

(Traditional musical instruments Aboriginals)

In Australia, each tribe belonged to a specific totem group, that is, each tribe had patrons among representatives of flora and fauna, which were strictly forbidden to kill or eat. The ancient Australians believed in mythical ancestors, who were represented as half people, half animals, in connection with this it was very common to conduct various magical rituals, for example, when young men, having passed the test of courage and endurance, became men and received the title of warrior or hunter. The main public entertainment in the life of the Australian Aborigines were ritual holidays with singing and dancing. Corroboree is a traditional ceremonial dance of Australian Aboriginal men, during which its participants, painted in a certain way and decorated with feathers and animal skins, showing various scenes of hunting and everyday life, mythological and legendary scenes from the history of their tribe, thus communicate with the gods and spirits of their ancestors .

In Polynesia, various tales, myths and legends about the creation of the world, various deities and ancestral spirits are widely developed. Their whole world was divided into the divine or sacred “moa” and the simple “noa”; the world of moa belonged to persons of royal blood, rich nobility and priests, for ordinary person the sacred world was taboo, which means “specially marked.” The open-air cult temples of the Polynesians, “marae,” have survived to this day.

(Aboriginal geometric designs and designs)

The bodies of Polynesians (Maori tribes, inhabitants of Tahiti, Hawaii, Easter Island, etc.) were densely covered with a special geometric pattern, which was special and sacred to them. The word “tatau” itself, which means drawing, has Polynesian roots. Previously, tattoos could only be worn by priests and respected people of the Polynesian people (men only), drawings and ornaments on the body told about its owner, what kind of tribe he was, his social status, type of activity, his main achievements in life.

In the culture of the Polynesians, ritual chants and dances were developed; the popular Tahitian dance “tamure” is known throughout the world, which is performed by a group of men and women dressed in fluffy skirts made of durable fiber from the hibiscus plant. Another famous Polynesian dance is “otea”, which is recognizable by the luxurious movements of the dancers’ shaking hips.

(Typical housing of local tribes)

The Polynesians believed that communication between people occurs not only on the physical level, but also on the spiritual level, i.e. When people meet, their souls still touch each other, so all rituals and customs are built in accordance with this statement. Families highly respect community foundations; for Polynesians, the concept of family is called “fetia,” which includes a large number of relatives on both sides, can extend to an entire town or village. In such family formations, traditions of mutual assistance and mutual assistance are strong, joint farming is carried out, common financial problems are solved. Polynesian women have a special place in society, they dominate men and are the head of the family.

Most of the Papuan tribes of New Guinea still live, observing the customs and traditions of their ancestors, in large families of up to 30-40 people, the head of the family is a man, he can have many wives. The traditions and customs of the Papuan tribes vary greatly, because there are a very large number of them (about 700).

Modernity

(Coast of modern Australia)

Today, Australia and Oceania are one of the least populated parts of the world. The population density of the Australian continent is 2.2 people/km 2 . Australia and New Zealand are states with a migrant type of population formation. Here, descendants of immigrants from Great Britain mainly predominate; in New Zealand they represent 4-5 of the entire population of the state, it is even called “Britain of the South Seas.”

Australian Aborigines live in central Australia on marginal lands. The indigenous Maori tribes of New Zealand make up about 12% of the country's total population. On the islands of Polynesia, there is a predominance of the indigenous population: Papuans and other Polynesian peoples; descendants of European settlers, immigrants from India and Malaysia also live here.

(Today's natives are not averse to hospitality and are happy to pose for guests of the mainland)

Modern culture of the peoples of Australia and Oceania in varying degrees has retained its originality and uniqueness. On remote islands and territories where European influence was minimal (inland Australia or New Guinea) folk customs and the traditions of the local population remained practically unchanged, and in those states where the influence of European culture was stronger (New Zealand, Tahiti, Hawaii), folk culture underwent a significant transformation, and now we can only observe the remnants of once original traditions and rituals.

Also sometimes called the "Australian Bushmen", they are linguistically and racially distinct from other peoples of the world. They speak Australian languages, a significant part speak only English and/or various options pidgins. They live mainly in remote areas of Northern, North-Western, North-Eastern and Central Australia, some in cities.

Nowadays, most Aboriginal people rely on government and other charity. Traditional methods livelihoods (hunting, fishing and gathering, among some of the Torres Strait Islanders) have been almost completely lost.

Types of Australian Aboriginals[ | ]

• Murray type
• Carpentarian type
• Barrinean type

Before the arrival of Europeans[ | ]

The settlement of Australia took place 50-40 thousand years ago. The ancestors of Australians came from South-East Asia(mainly along the Pleistocene continental shelf, but also overcoming at least 90 km of water barriers). The first inhabitants of Australia were extremely massive and very large people.

The Australian Aborigines acquired their modern anthropological appearance ca. 4 thousand years ago.

The additional influx of settlers who arrived by sea about 5 thousand years ago is probably associated with the appearance of the dingo dog and a new stone industry on the continent. Before European colonization began, the culture and racial type of Australians underwent significant evolution.

The latest evidence suggests that Indigenous Australians are descendants of the first modern humans who migrated from Africa almost 75,000 years ago.

Culture [ | ]

By the time of the appearance of people of the European type (XVIII century), the number of aborigines was, according to various estimates, from 750 thousand to 3 million people, united in more than 500 tribes that had a complex social organization, various myths and rituals and spoke more than 250 languages.

Although the Australian Aborigines did not have a written language, they used symbolic drawings to convey information about ancient legends, as well as counting marks in the form of notches on sticks.

The traditional diet consists of wild animals, insects, fish and shellfish, fruits and roots. Flatbreads baked over coals are made from wild grains.

According to the memoirs of the exiled Englishman William Buckley, who lived for over 30 years among the Aborigines in the territory of the modern state of Victoria in the first third of the 19th century, cannibalism was not typical for them. However, according to Sid Kyle-Little, who lived among the Aboriginal people of Liverpool River (Northern Territory) in the first half. XX century, some of them periodically practiced ritual cannibalism, or resorted to it in case of emergency.

Astronomical and cosmological ideas[ | ]

Australian Aborigines believed that there was not only our physical reality, but also another reality inhabited by the spirits of our ancestors. Our world and this reality intersect and mutually influence each other.

One of the places where the world of “dreams” and the real world meet is the sky: the actions of ancestors are manifested in the appearance and movement of the Sun, Moon, planets and stars, however, the actions of people can also affect what is happening in the sky.

Despite the presence of certain knowledge among the aborigines about the sky and objects on it, as well as individual attempts to use celestial objects for calendar purposes, there is no information that any of the aboriginal tribes used a calendar associated with the phases of the moon; Celestial objects were not used for navigation either.

Colonial period[ | ]

Colonization, which began in the 18th century, was accompanied by the targeted extermination of Australians, land dispossession and displacement into environmentally unfavorable areas, epidemics, and led to sharp decline their numbers reached 60 thousand in 1921. However, government policy of protectionism (since the end of the 19th century), including the creation of government-protected reservations, as well as material and health care(especially after the 2nd World War) contributed to the increase in the number of Australians.

From about 1909 to 1969, but in some areas well into the 1970s, Aboriginal and Half-Blood children were removed from their families. Children were forbidden to use their native language for communication; elementary education sufficient for housework and farm work. Parents were prohibited from communicating with the selected children, including even correspondence. In fact, a policy was pursued of “whitening” the indigenous population, the forcible destruction of their languages, traditions, customs and culture.

By the mid-1990s, the Aboriginal population reached approximately 257 thousand people, representing 1.5% of the total population of Australia.

Current situation[ | ]

Currently, the growth rate of the Aboriginal population (due to the high birth rate) significantly exceeds the Australian average, although the standard of living is significantly lower than the Australian average. In 1967, previously granted to Aboriginal people civil rights were legally established. Since the late 1960s, a movement has been developing to revive cultural identity and gain legal rights to traditional lands. Many states have enacted laws providing for the collective ownership of reserve lands by Australians under self-government conditions, as well as protecting their cultural heritage.

Famous representatives of the Australian Aborigines include artist Albert Namatjira, writer David Unaipon, footballer , TV presenter , actor and storyteller (Gulpilil), singer Jessica Mauboy (of mixed Australian-Timorese descent), singer Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, Australian track and field athlete, 2000 Olympic 400m champion Katie Freeman.

Since 2007, Australia has had National Aboriginal Television of Australia, operating along with other broadcasting for the national communities of the country SBS (broadcasts in 68 languages, including Russian). These programs, which began as domestic broadcasts, are now available throughout the world with the development of the Internet. Although National Aboriginal Television of Australia operates English language Due to the low usage of indigenous languages, it provides an opportunity for domestic and international audiences to learn indigenous languages ​​through televised lessons launched since 2010.

Aboriginal culture in film[ | ]

• - “Detour” - a film by British director Nicolas Roeg based on the novel by James Marshall (1959), dedicated to the unsuccessful attempt of white children to make friends with an Aboriginal teenager undergoing an initiation rite.
• - “The Last Wave”, a film by the famous Australian director Peter Weir.
• - “Where the Green Ants Dream” - an environmental parable by Werner Herzog about the unsuccessful attempts of the aborigines to defend wildlife and the age-old culture of their ancestors from the steadily advancing Western civilization.
• - “Crocodile Dundee” is an adventure comedy.
• - "Crocodile Dundee 2".
• - Quigley in Australia - a film directed by Simon Whisler about an American gunslinger from the Wild West, hired by white settlers to exterminate the Aborigines, but instead took their side.
• - "Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles."
• - “A Cage for Rabbits”, talks about attempts to “re-educate” the children of Australian Aborigines.
• - "Offer" . Against the background of the struggle of the colonial authorities with a gang of Irish migrants, episodes of genocide of Aboriginal people and violence against them unfold.
• - “Ten Boats”, from the life of the Australian aborigines, which enjoyed success in the world film distribution and was even awarded a special prize at the Cannes Film Festival. All the actors in the film were Aboriginal and spoke their native language.
• - "Jindabyne" (English)", the plot of the film is built on a "conspiracy of silence" around the murder of an aboriginal girl.
• - “Samson and Delilah”, Feature Film Australian director Warwick Thornton, telling about the modern difficult life of Australian Aborigines in isolated communities.
• - Paths - a film directed by John Curran based on the book of the same name by Australian writer Robyn Davidson, based on her nine-month journey through the Australian deserts.
• - "Charlie's Country" Charlie's Country) - drama by Australian director of Dutch origin Rolf de Heer (English), dedicated to the fate of the elderly Aboriginal Charlie (actor David Galpilil (English)), rejecting civilization and unsuccessfully trying to live according to the behests of their ancestors.
• - “The Secret River” - a television series by Australian director Daina Reid based on the novel of the same name (English) Kate Grenville (English), the plot of which is based on clashes between exiled English settlers and aborigines in early XIX century.
• - “Sweet Land” (eng. Sweet land (English) ) - detective drama by Australian director