Contemporary Aboriginal Perceptions of Community

Abstract

Aboriginal Australian people have lived on the continent for over 40,000 years. They were a hunting-gathering people, with a total population, prior to colonization, estimated to be at least 300,000 people, and possibly as high as 1,000,000 ( Bourke, 1994). From the onset of colonization in 1788, as was the case for many other Indigenous peoples, the subsequent centuries were characterized by genocide; by forced removal from land, peoples, families; by enslavement; and by assimilation and destruction of cultural ways. Despite this, the fact that Indigenous people have sustained their identity, and are experiencing a cultural renaissance, is a testimony to the determination of the human spirit.