Aboriginal Australia: History, Culture, and Conflict

Aboriginal AustraliaHistory and culture of Australia's indigenous peoples Who Are Aborigines? Aborigines are Australia's indigenous people. Recent government statistics counted approximately 400,000 aboriginal people, or about 2% of Australia's total population. Australian Aborigines migrated from somewhere in Asia at least 30,000 years ago. "The Dreamtime" Aboriginal spirituality entails a close relationship between humans and the land. Unlike other religions, however, aboriginal belief does not place the human species apart from or on a higher level than nature. Storytelling, Art, and the Didgeridoo The oral tradition of storytelling informs aboriginals' vibrant cultural life. In the Northern Territory, aboriginal art includes sculpture, bark and rock paintings, and baskets and beadwork. Aboriginal music is often recognizable for its most famous instrument, the didgeridoo. Land Rights Movement Land and property rights fueled an important civil rights movement in the 1970s.

Australia country profile Australia ranks as one of the best countries to live in the world by international comparisons of wealth, education, health and quality of life. The sixth-largest country by land mass, its population is comparatively small with most people living around the eastern and south-eastern coastlines. The country's first inhabitants, the Aboriginal people, are believed to have migrated from Asia tens of thousands of years before the arrival of British settlers in 1788. They now make up less than 3% of Australia's 23 million people. Years of mass immigration after the Second World War heralded sweeping demographic changes, making modern Australia one of the world's most multicultural countries. But migration continues to be a sensitive issue politically. In shaping its foreign and economic policy, Australia first looked to Europe and the US but in the last 20 years has developed stronger ties with Asia. Read more country profiles - Profiles by BBC Monitoring Prime Minister: Malcolm Turnbull

Australia Country Profile