The First Australians Life went on for the Aboriginal people as it had for thousands of years; hunter-gatherers, the bounty of the land provided all their needs. Populations were larger in the higher rainfall areas of the Top End where fish and game were plentiful. There was little need to go far for food. Further south and around Central Australia groups were scattered over huge territories. Survival in these harsher regions was dependant on waterholes and seasonal bush tucker. Desert people needed great skill and knowledge of the land in all aspects of its often meagre resources. Permanent waterholes were a focus for people and animals during the severest droughts. The men, with boomerangs, spears and traps hunted larger game - kangaroos, wallabies and emus. Whilst a spear could be hurled with great force using a spear-thrower or woomera, the skill of the hunters was in getting close to the quarry. Fire was used to generate new growth of valuable food plants and provide tender new shoots to attract animals. The women, accompanied by the children, provided the bulk of the staple diet. They collected seeds for grinding into flour, also fruits, bulbs, roots and smaller animals. Honey ants and plump witchetty grubs were a favourite. All food was taken back and shared among the group. To do otherwise would be considered an intolerable act of greed and selfishness. The Aboriginal culture is enshrined within complex laws of social, family and religious life and has been passed on generation after generation in ceremonies, songs and stories. Central to Aboriginal religious beliefs are the Ancestral Creative Beings. In the Dreamtime they journeyed over a featureless continent, stopping at different places, forming rivers and billabongs, rocks, hills, valleys and mountains, putting plant life, animals and humans in place. Aborigines were thus spiritually linked to the land and all it contained. Territories were recognised by themselves and neighbouring groups. Major land features were sacred and these sites were sanctuaries, where only the initiated could go; plants were not taken nor animals killed there. When droughts brought increased human pressure, survival of Ceremonies - An important part of Aboriginal culture. flora and fauna species was ensured. In Aboriginal society, kinship ties are very close; cousins are like brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles are other mothers and fathers. Living with nature, they knew intimately all footprints made by their group and every lizard, animal and bird. When boot prints and hoof marks were discovered, they were terrified; “.... what kind of creatures could men be who had broad flat toeless feet and a heel that was a hard lump? As for horse tracks, we could tell that they must have been made by huge four legged creatures, larger than we had ever seen before...their heavy feet had cut their way even into hard clay ground...Surely, we thought, both these creatures must be evil maneating monsters,” old men who had been boys at the time of Stuart’s trip years later told Professor Strehlow. Earlier too, Stuart had written an account of how, when riding through sandhills he had come upon a hunter intent on his task. “I called out to draw his attention; he turned around and saw me. What he imagined I was I do not know, but a finer picture of fear and astonishment I never saw. He stood riveted to the spot, mouth open and eyes staring.” As the largest animal he had ever seen was a kangaroo and all people dark skinned, at first glance Stuart on his horse must have appeared to be an apparition, perhaps a spirit. This was the first sign of changes that were to come. Aranda family group. Central Australia 1890’s. Send to a friend… australiasexplorersway.com.au 9
