Indigenous
Who are the World's Indigenous People > Aboriginal Culture > Aboriginal Art and the DreamingTwo Laws, One Land > Sorry, We have Ruined our World
Issues No.24
Indigenous People
All Australian Educational Magazine
(Published at Bayswater 3153 by Underwood Publications, 1993)
[PWAC-Science Lab]
2
Who are the World's Indigenous People?
People everywhere, often without realizing it, have been influenced by the cultures and achievements of indigenous people - through the foods on our tables, the words in our languages, and the medicines we use daily for everything from headaches to heart disease.
Many of the world's staple foods, such as peppers, potatoes, lentils, peas, sugar cane, garlic and tomatoes, were first cultivated by indigenous peoples. From the various indigenous languages of the Americas come familiar words like canoe, barbecue, squash, powwow and moccasin. An estimated 75 per cent of the world's plant-based pharmaceuticals, including aspirin, digitalis and quinine, have been derived from medicinal plants found in areas occupied by indigenous people. Indeed, the contribution of indigenous peoples to modern civilization is pervasive.
Indigenous peoples inhabit large areas of the earth's surface. Spread across the world from the Artic to the South Pacific, they number, at a rough estimate, some 300 million. Indigenous or aboriginal peoples are so called because they were living on their lands before settlers came from elsewhere; they are the descendants - according to one definition - of those who inhabited a country or geographic region at the time when peoples of different cultures or ethnic origins arrived. The new arrivals later became dominant through conquest, occupation, settlement or other means.
People everywhere, often without realizing it, have been influenced by the cultures and achievements of indigenous people - through the foods on our tables, the words in our languages, and the medicines we use daily for everything from headaches to heart disease.
Many of the world's staple foods, such as peppers, potatoes, lentils, peas, sugar cane, garlic and tomatoes, were first cultivated by indigenous peoples. From the various indigenous languages of the Americas come familiar words like canoe, barbecue, squash, powwow and moccasin. An estimated 75 per cent of the world's plant-based pharmaceuticals, including aspirin, digitalis and quinine, have been derived from medicinal plants found in areas occupied by indigenous people. Indeed, the contribution of indigenous peoples to modern civilization is pervasive.
Indigenous peoples inhabit large areas of the earth's surface. Spread across the world from the Artic to the South Pacific, they number, at a rough estimate, some 300 million. Indigenous or aboriginal peoples are so called because they were living on their lands before settlers came from elsewhere; they are the descendants - according to one definition - of those who inhabited a country or geographic region at the time when peoples of different cultures or ethnic origins arrived. The new arrivals later became dominant through conquest, occupation, settlement or other means.
1a)
How many Aboriginal groups are believed to have occupied Australia prior to 1788? 601
1b)
How many different groups occupied the area now known as South Australia? 54
5)
What was the purpose of seasonal trails?
The purpose of seasonal trails was to get full use of the land and its environment. The necessity of food and water required Aboriginal cultural groups to move according to available supplies. The availability of food was influenced according to changing seasons and moving location in accordance with the seasons.
Seasonal food trails were also a way of preserving the land and its surrounding environment. By moving to a different location they would allow the land, vegetation and wildlife to replenish and recover from human interference. Seasonal food trails were a way of keeping in balance with the natural ecosystems rather than straining the life out of them.
Aboriginal art is not about painting pretty pictures that look nice as is often the case with Western European art,
Aboriginal art is all about projecting meaning & conveying stories. Their art reveals a part of them, their life and purpose; which is all in turn interrelated with their dreaming.
Design's and symbols convey a message which relates to their deeper selves - their dreaming faith and sacred beliefs. Aboriginal art is all about passing on their lifestyle and culture.
Captain Goods(CG) slowly approaches Kaurna Karpany(KK) with his hands up and opened up above him. He has a number of men with guns further back and to the side of him as he proceeds cautiously forward. Meanwhile Kaurna Karpany is stationary and alert; his fellow hunters with spears in hands surround him. Captain Goods speaks the first words.
. . .
. . . how do indigenous people find their place in a capitalist consuming society when their own lifestyle is based on conservation and living in harmony with the land and its environment? Without a doubt one lifestyle uses and abuses the land and its resources for their consumer needs and greed's, whilst the other simply utilizes the land to simply survive. How can two such contrasting cultures come together as one, everything about them is conflicting. Perhaps the following quote from the Publication 'Issues No.24, Indigenous People' points a way for two such contrasting cultures to come together.
With crisis such as global warming, deforestation, desertification and depletion of the ozone layer surging to the top of the international agenda, indigenous people find themselves in an ironic position. Once dismissed as too "primitive" to cope with modernization, and for centuries the victims of discrimination, land seizures and worse, indigenous people have begun to be recognized for their prowess at environmental management, and acknowledged as key players in the global effort to chart a more hopeful course of development for the future of humanity.
For centuries we have proclaimed our white superiority, boasting of our technological and educational prowess, only to find that we have turned the world and its environment into an awful mess. We have despised the culture and lifestyle's of indigenous cultures worldwide; thinking that we know it all and they have nothing to offer. Isn't it ironic that we should have to look to the very ones we have labelled less than human for solutions to the mess we have made. We can no longer ignore the demise of our environment; isn’t it time to acknowledge our sins and say 'sorry we have ruined our world'! but together we can make it right.
The purpose of seasonal trails was to get full use of the land and its environment. The necessity of food and water required Aboriginal cultural groups to move according to available supplies. The availability of food was influenced according to changing seasons and moving location in accordance with the seasons.
Seasonal food trails were also a way of preserving the land and its surrounding environment. By moving to a different location they would allow the land, vegetation and wildlife to replenish and recover from human interference. Seasonal food trails were a way of keeping in balance with the natural ecosystems rather than straining the life out of them.
First view the video Dreamings: The Art of Aboriginal Australia,
then answer in essay form: Is there any connection between Aboriginal Art and the Dreaming? Explain
then answer in essay form: Is there any connection between Aboriginal Art and the Dreaming? Explain
(13 June 2000)
[Christom]
Captain Goods(CG) slowly approaches Kaurna Karpany(KK) with his hands up and opened up above him. He has a number of men with guns further back and to the side of him as he proceeds cautiously forward. Meanwhile Kaurna Karpany is stationary and alert; his fellow hunters with spears in hands surround him. Captain Goods speaks the first words.
CG -
Peace, peace, we come in peace,
. . .
KK -
Why do you spend all that time making special food when there is food everywhere?
Why do you put it in those boxes to store it, instead of just gathering it when you need it?
It is much better fresh, when you put it in that box it go old and bad, why all this work for food when you can simply eat all around you?
CG -
We don’t move to where the food becomes available. We make a house and don’t move.
KK -
Why you make a house out of the land, why not live with the land.
CG -
We use the land to help us to make what we need to live.
KK -
Why you make when you can be a part of the land. We know the land and the spirit of the land is a part of us.
. . . how do indigenous people find their place in a capitalist consuming society when their own lifestyle is based on conservation and living in harmony with the land and its environment? Without a doubt one lifestyle uses and abuses the land and its resources for their consumer needs and greed's, whilst the other simply utilizes the land to simply survive. How can two such contrasting cultures come together as one, everything about them is conflicting. Perhaps the following quote from the Publication 'Issues No.24, Indigenous People' points a way for two such contrasting cultures to come together.
With crisis such as global warming, deforestation, desertification and depletion of the ozone layer surging to the top of the international agenda, indigenous people find themselves in an ironic position. Once dismissed as too "primitive" to cope with modernization, and for centuries the victims of discrimination, land seizures and worse, indigenous people have begun to be recognized for their prowess at environmental management, and acknowledged as key players in the global effort to chart a more hopeful course of development for the future of humanity.
For centuries we have proclaimed our white superiority, boasting of our technological and educational prowess, only to find that we have turned the world and its environment into an awful mess. We have despised the culture and lifestyle's of indigenous cultures worldwide; thinking that we know it all and they have nothing to offer. Isn't it ironic that we should have to look to the very ones we have labelled less than human for solutions to the mess we have made. We can no longer ignore the demise of our environment; isn’t it time to acknowledge our sins and say 'sorry we have ruined our world'! but together we can make it right.