Aboriginal Australia today
In Australia, 'Indigenous' refers to people who are Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander. An Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander is:
- a person of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander descent
- a person who identifies as an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander and
- a person who is accepted by the Aboriginal community in which he or she lives or has lived.
• In 2006 the Australian Bureau of Statistics calculated 2.5% of the population identified themselves as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander.
• Some of the continuing issues for Aboriginal people today are the continuing processes of reconciliation, self-determination and land ownership, the gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians in education, housing and health.
• People today live across the full spectrum of change from traditional Aboriginal culture to European culture. At one end are family groups living in remote areas away from larger Aboriginal communities, trying to maintain traditional hunting, food gathering and ceremonial life. But even at this level, people now wear clothes, may own a car or four wheel drive vehicle, and the men will hunt with rifles as well as spears.
• Modern transport, communication and life styles, with subsequent loss of craft skills and tribal knowledge are inevitable changes. It is the spirituality and the heritage, the sense of belonging to the land, some arts and crafts, and the importance of family and ancestry, which continue as the modern essentials of Aboriginal culture.