- It's believed that the first aborigines traveled to the continent from southeast Asia 40,000 to 60,000 years ago, according to Queen's University of Belfast. Researchers believe that as many as 1 million aboriginal people representing 500 tribes lived on the continent prior to the white man's arrival in the late 1700s. Today indigenous peoples make up less than 2 percent of the population.
- Like a lot of indigenous cultures, aborigines didn't write anything down. Their legends and stories are instead told through their dance, according to Australian Broadcasting Corporation Canberra. Just as diaries and books are passed down through generations in other cultures, so is song and dance in the aboriginal culture.
- Aboriginal people have clans, which are like kinship or family groups. It is an honor for a group to be bestowed with a dance that then becomes their permanent possession. According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, you have to get permission to participate in a dance that doesn't belong to your particular family group.
- These family dances are passed down from generation to generation in a way that in and of itself is a tradition. According to the Artlandish Aboriginal Art Gallery, the dance is passed on to the oldest child in the generation that follows, and so forth. The dance may also be passed on to the "most deserving" in the generation that follows, so it isn't always the oldest son that will be bestowed with this honor.
- If you attend a "corroboree," you are attending a dance ceremony. There are different types of corroborees. A ceremony that is passed down within a family group is referred to as a Joonba, according to Artlandish. If you go to a "Munga Munga," the participants will be all women. A "Wangka" is a festive ceremony. Generally speaking, these ceremonies depict stories of the community, land, religion, culture and beliefs.
- After more than a century of oppression, starvation, disease and dislocation at the hands of white colonizers, steps were made to protect aboriginal identity starting in the 1920s, according to Queen's University of Belfast. As recent as the late 1940s, however, there were formal calls to advocate for assimilation into the white Australian culture. Fearing a complete loss of identity, many aboriginal people have called instead for integration--whereby the cornerstones of the culture, which include stories told through music and dance--are allowed to thrive for future generations in the modern world.
Background
Importance
Group Structure
Lineage
Types
Integration
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