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AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES

The australian aborigines are a group of slender people with brown skin. They have brown eyes and and dark wavy hair, and many of the men have beards. When the first Europeans went to Australia to live, they were divided into 500 tribes, each with its own language. Each tribe was a related family group and lived in its own area

The aborigines have been in Australia for at least 10,000 years. No one knows for sure, but they probably came from the mountains of southern Asia. Perhaps they left there because there were too many people living in their area. This is called population pressure. Scientists think that at one time Australia was connected to Asia by a land bridge. The aborigines traveled south by land. Then there were changes in the Earth and the land between Australia and Asia became islands. The aborigines were cut off from the rest of the world for thousands of years

Australia was a difficult land to live in. It is huge, but it has no large river systems. Most of the country receives less than 25 centimeters of rain per year. However, the aborigines learned to live in the desert. Each tribe had its own watering hole. They learned to hunt animals and insects for food. They made flour from grass seeds. In the cold areas they made warm clothes from kangaroo skins. They usually slept outdoors by a fire with their pet dogs nearby. They probably brought these dogs with them from Asia. The dogs are very different from the native Australian animals

Religion was very important in the lives of the aborigines. They had stories about the creation of the Earth, the stars, and the moon. They believed that human beings never died, but became a part of nature. They passed down their stories from one generation to the next. Parents taught their children these beliefs, and the children taught their children. They call these ancient beliefs that they learned from their ancestors the " dreaming " or the dream time

The aborigines invented the boomerang. It is a curved throwing stick that they used for hunting and for war. The boomerang is thin, light, and well-balanced. When someone throws a boomerang, it completes a circle and returns to the thrower

Life was very difficult for aborigines because of the desert climate. Yet their lives were rich in art. They carved and painted designs on their boomerangs and other objects. They also painted on bark. They made beautiful cave paintings and rock carvings

The Europeans killed many of the aborigines. Many died from diseases that the Europeans brought. Others were driven from their homelands, and many died of hunger. Today there are only about 140,000 aborigines left, but their numbers are increasing. Many of them work on sheep and cattle stations. ( Australians use the word station for a farm that raises animals. ) Evonne Goolagong, an international tennis start, is part aborigine

It might be easy to forget about the aborigines in Australia because most of the population is European. However, there is one thing to make us remember them. There are thousands of aborigine place names. When we see towns called Wooloomooloo, Wagga Wagga, Toowoomba, or Murwillumbah, we know that the aborigines have made a contribution to Australian life

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