Indigenous Australians - Groups and Communities

Groups and Communities

Throughout the history of the continent, there have been many different Aboriginal groups, each with its own individual language, culture, and belief structure. At the time of British settlement, there were over 200 distinct languages.

There are an indeterminate number of Indigenous communities, comprising several hundred groupings. Some communities, cultures or groups may be inclusive of others and alter or overlap; significant changes have occurred in the generations after colonisation.

The word 'community' is often used to describe groups identifying by kinship, language or belonging to a particular place or 'country'. A community may draw on separate cultural values and individuals can conceivably belong to a number of communities within Australia; identification within them may be adopted or rejected.

An individual community may identify itself by many names, each of which can have alternate English spellings. The largest Aboriginal communities – the Pitjantjatjara, the Arrernte, the Luritja and the Warlpiri – are all from Central Australia.

Indigenous 'communities' in remote Australia are typically small, isolated towns with basic facilities, on traditionally owned land. These communities have between 20 – 300 inhabitants and are often closed to outsiders for cultural reasons. The long term viability and resiliance of Indigenous communities has been debated by scholars and continues to be a political issue receiving fluctuating media attention.

Tasmania

The Tasmanian Aboriginal population are thought to have first crossed into Tasmania approximately 40,000 years ago via a land bridge between the island and the rest of mainland Australia during the last glacial period. Estimates of the population of the Aboriginal people of Tasmania, before European arrival, are in the range of 3,000 to 15,000 people although genetic studies have suggested significantly higher figures which is supported by Indigenous oral traditions that indicates a reduction in population from diseases introduced by British and American sealers before settlement. The original population was further reduced to around 300 between 1803 and 1833 due to disease, warfare and other actions of British settlers. Despite over 170 years of debate over who or what was responsible for this near-extinction, no consensus exists on its origins, process, or whether or not it was genocide however, using the "U.N. definition, sufficient evidence exists to designate the Tasmanian catastrophe genocide."

A woman named Trugernanner (often rendered as Truganini) who died in 1876, was, and still is, widely believed to be the very last of the full blooded Aborigines. However, in 1889 Parliament recognized Fanny Cochrane Smith (d:1905) as the last surviving full blooded Tasmanian Aborigine. The 2006 census showed that there were nearly 17,000 Indigenous Australians in the State.