Aborigine is a term which comes from the Latin (ab and origo) meaning (from the beginning) and the word aborigines is still sometimes used to describe the earliest inhabitants of any land. The word aboriginal has been in the English language since at least the 16th century to mean, ‘indigenous’.
However, Aborigines is usually used to refer to the inhabitants of Australia before the arrival of Europeans in the late 18th century, and to their descendants down to the present.
The Aborigines are thought to have arrived in Australia in two waves, probably about 20,000 years ago. The first group were eventually driven south-east into Tasmania; the second — and racially quite different — group occupied the rest of Australia. The Aborigines developed a complex culture and a religion. These gave rise to an interesting art which included paintings on their bodies, on rocks, in caves and on bark; and chants, and music played on a kind of trumpet, the didgeridoo.
However, their material life remained at a Stone-Age level. They lived in a semi-nomadic fashion, hunting with wood and stone spears, and boomerangs, and gathering (but not cultivating) edible plants, grubs and so on. On this level they were superbly skillful and well-adapted to the Australian environment – until the arrival of Europeans. This was a disaster for the Aborigines. They are believed to have numbered about 3,00,000 in the late 18th century, while now there are only a few tens of thousands.
The Tasmanians were soon completely wiped out, and the Aborigine way of life was destroyed. As in the case of the American Indian, although conditions have improved for many people in the 21st century, the Aborigines remain poor and deprived, and uncertain what their place should be in modern Australia.
