indigeneous australians~~

The indigenous of Australian.

Indigenous Australians are ancestor of the first human inhabitants of the Australian continent and its nearby islands. The group includes both the Torres Straits Islanders and the Aboriginal People, who together make up about 2.5% of Australia’s population.

The Torres Straits Islanders are indigenous Australians who live in the Torres Straits Islands between Australia and New Guinea. Indigenous Australians are recognised to have arrived between 40,000 and 70,000 years ago.

The term Indigenous Australians encompasses many diverse communities and societies, and these are further divided into local communities with unique cultures. Less than 200 of the languages of these groups remain in use and there 20 are highly endangered.

It is estimated that prior to the arrival of European settlers the populations of indigenous Australians was up to 1 million.

Although the culture and lifestyle of Aboriginal groups have much in common, Aboriginal society is not a single entity.

The diverse Aboriginal communities have different ways of subsistence, cultural practices, languages, and technologies. However, these peoples also share a larger part of traits, and are otherwise seen as being broadly related.

These are include Koori (or Koorie) in New South Wales and Victoria; Murri inQueensland; Noongar in southern Western Australia; Yamatjiin Central Western Australia; Wangkai in the Western Australian Goldfields; Nunga in southern South Australia; Anangu in northern South Australia, and neighbouring parts of Western Australia and Northern Territory; Yapa in western central Northern Territory;Yolngu in eastern Arnhem Land (NT) and Palawah (or Pallawah) in Tasmania.

These larger groups may be further subdivided. For example, Anangu (meaning a person from Australia's central desert region) recognizes localized subdivisions such as Yankunytjatjara, Pitjantjatjara, Ngaanyatjara, Luritja and Antikirinya.

Religious demography among Indigenous Australians is not conclusive because of flaws in the census.

This 1996 census reported that almost 72% of Aborigines practiced some form of Christianity, and 16% listed no religion. There has also been an increase in the growth of Islam among the Indigenous Australian community.

In most stories of the Dreaming, the Ancestor spirits came to the earth in human form and as they moved through the land, they created the animals, plants, rocks and other forms of the land that we know today. They also created the relationships between groups and individuals to the land, the animals and other people.