The aborigines of Australia

Written by Gary Wonning

The Australian Aborigine has a long and interesting history. Their elders say the aborigines have been inhabiting Australia for over forty thousand years. During that time, they have developed a culture and a system of beliefs we could learn from today.

I have posted a few of their core values.

To the Aborigine, life was all about survival, we are taught a work ethic in order to improve our lot and to make a better life. The Aborigine knew no such thing, because of their extreme environment, their only focus was survival, they don’t understand and laugh at us for working so hard.

People say to them that it must be great to live off the land, their reply is “If people think it is so great, let them try it!”

Only the healthy babies were kept, they were suckled for seven years and if the mother couldn’t keep up with work and the child, the baby was killed.

Most tribes contained 20- 30 people , with 4-5 in each family, some lived to be 100 and some had more than one wife, if the man died or left, another male stepped in and took care of her.

It took about six acres of land to support one person, they survived by eating whatever was available, including termites, ants and grub worms. I actually ate a cooked grub worm, it wasn’t too bad!

There are many shapes and sizes of boomerangs which they used to hunt and kill food, everything from birds to kangaroos. The boomerang was designed to come back to it’s original location, that way if the prey was missed, the boomerang would return to the person who threw it, eliminating his need to run after it. I

n today’s world most Aborigines have lost the ability to make and throw boomerangs, many are becoming like us and we are becoming like them, in time we will all be the same.

If the tribe became too large and there wasn’t enough food, the weaker ones were either killed or left to die.

They would rub animal fat on their bodies to shut down sweating in order to conserve water. They still don’t wear many clothes because clothes create body odor in the heat.

In the dry years, women would not ovulate, they had 0 population growth, sometimes the droughts would last 10 years, so there would be no children born in that time. The lack of food and environmental stress ruined the sex drive.

When woman first felt kick of child, the first animal they saw was believed to be it’s totem or spirit animal, because that is the closest source of energy, it could be a snake, kangaroo or anything.

They believe that newspapers print only bad things, I guess I agree with that.

The earth was flat and void, spiritual beings created what they needed

Rock Art only has meaning to the author, it tells the story of some happening, corroboree, and the retelling of old stories, and creation, photograph carries the spirit of the soul, they wouldn’t allow anyone to photograph them, they felt by doing so, the spirit was stolen.

Ancient aboriginal rock art

You can’t have a  can’t have creation without creator.

The rock art is a teaching aid, as is the red facial paintings, and costumes, 

Stories are a memory aid, their stories are laws on which aboriginal life is based, music is also a memory aid.

More to follow.

Gary has been a writer/photographer for over thirty years. Specializing in nature and landscape photography, while studying native cultures.

His travels have taken him to most of the United States, as well as Australia, Belize, Egypt and the Canary Islands.

He has studied the Mayan culture of Central America and the aborigines of

Australia. Photography has given him the opportunity to observe life in various parts of the world.

He has observed that many of the forgotten cultures had spiritual beliefs that were stronger than ours in modern times.

While we have advanced technically far superior to those that came before us, we have lagged behind in spiritual knowledge.

For us to advance as the human race, we need to combine the spiritual knowledge of those that came before us, not only that of the ancients but the knowledge of our direct ancestors as well, with the technical knowledge we have today for us to propel into the twenty-first century and beyond.

He has published several books about his adventures.

For more information, please consult his website,www.journeysthrulife.com.

Your comments are welcome