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Australian Aborigines
Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 years ago, and over time formed as many as 500 language-based groups. In the past, Aboriginal people lived over large sections of the continental shelf. They were isolated on many of the smaller offshore islands and Tasmania when the land was inundated at the start of the Holocene inter-glacial period, about 11,700 years ago. Despite this, Aboriginal people maintained extensive networks within the continent and certain groups maintained relationships with Torres Strait Islanders and the Makassar people of modern-day Indonesia. Over the millennia, Aboriginal people developed complex trade networks, inter-cultural relationships, law and religions, which make up some of the oldest, and possibly ''the'' oldest, continuous cultures in the world. At ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Torres Strait Islanders
Torres Strait Islanders ( ) are the Indigenous Melanesians, Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal peoples of the rest of Australia, they are often grouped with them as Indigenous Australians. Today, many more Torres Strait Islander people live in mainland Australia than on the Islands. Five distinct peoples exist within the broader designation of Torres Strait Islander people, based partly on geographical and cultural divisions. Kalaw Lagaw Ya and Meriam Mir comprise the two main Indigenous language groups; Torres Strait Creole is also widely spoken as a language of trade and commerce. The core of Island culture is Indigenous people of New Guinea, Papuan, and the people are traditionally a seafaring nation. The Torres Islanders exhibit a strong artistic culture, particularly in sculpture, printmaking, and mask-making. Demographics Of the 133 islands ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mainland Australia
Mainland Australia is the main landmass of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, excluding the Aru Islands Regency, Aru Islands, New Guinea, Tasmania, and other list of islands of Australia, Australian offshore islands. The landmass also constitutes the mainland of the territory governed by the Australia, Commonwealth of Australia, and the term, along with continental Australia, can be used in a geographic sense to exclude surrounding Island#Continental islands, continental islands and states and territories of Australia, external territories. Generally, the term is applied to the states of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, and Western Australia, as well as the Australian Capital Territory, Jervis Bay Territory, and Northern Territory. The term is typically used when referring to the relationship between Tasmania and the other Australian states, in that people not from Tasmania are referred to as mainlanders. omission of Tas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indigenous Australian Art
Indigenous Australian art includes art made by Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, including collaborations with others. It includes works in a wide range of media including painting on leaves, bark painting, wood carving, rock carving, watercolour painting, sculpting, Aboriginal ceremony, ceremonial clothing and sandpainting. The traditional visual symbols vary widely among the differing peoples' traditions, despite the common mistaken perception that dot painting is representative of all Aboriginal art. Traditional Aboriginal art There are many types of and methods used in making Aboriginal art, including rock painting, dot painting, rock engravings, bark painting, carvings, sculptures, weaving, and string art. Australian Aboriginal art is the oldest unbroken tradition of art in the world.Worms, Ernest ''Contemporary and prehistoric rock paintings in Central and Northern North Kimberley'' Anthropos Switzerland 1955 p. 555 Stone art Rock art, including paint ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Songline
A songline, also called dreaming track, is one of the paths across the land (or sometimes the sky) within the animist belief systems of the Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal cultures of Australia. They mark the route followed by localised "creator-beings" in the Dreamtime, Dreaming. These routes serve as crucial connections between individuals and their ancestral lands, carrying intricate geographical, mythological, and cultural information. At its core, a songline functions as both a navigational aid and a repository of cultural knowledge. Embedded within traditional song cycles, dance rituals, stories, and artistic expressions, these pathways enable individuals to traverse vast distances while reciting the songs that describe landmarks, water sources, and natural features. Notably, the melodic contours and rhythmic nuances of the songs transcend linguistic barriers, facilitating cross-cultural understanding as different language groups interact and share the essence of these a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oral Tradition
Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication in which knowledge, art, ideas and culture are received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another.Jan Vansina, Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (1985), reported statements from present generation which "specifies that the message must be oral statements spoken, sung or called out on musical instruments only"; "There must be transmission by word of mouth over at least a generation". He points out, "Our definition is a working definition for the use of historians. Sociologists, linguists or scholars of the verbal arts propose their own, which in, e.g., sociology, stresses common knowledge. In linguistics, features that distinguish the language from common dialogue (linguists), and in the verbal arts features of form and content that define art (folklorists)."Ki-Zerbo, Joseph: "Methodology and African Pre-history", 1990, ''UNESCO International Scientific Committee for the Drafting of a G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indigenous Australian Dance
Ceremonial dancing has a very important place in the Indigenous cultures of Australia. They vary from place to place, but most ceremonies combine dance, song, rituals and often elaborate body decorations and costumes. The different body paintings indicate the type of ceremony being performed. They play an important role in marriage ceremonies, in the education of Indigenous children, as well as storytelling and oral history. The term corroboree is commonly used to refer to Australian Aboriginal dances, although this term has its origins among the people of the Sydney region. In some places, Aboriginal people perform corroborees for tourists. In the latter part of the 20th century the influence of Indigenous Australian dance traditions has been seen with the development of concert dance, with the Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts (ACPA) providing training in contemporary dance. The Australian bush dance, which draws on traditions from English, Irish, Scottish and other Eur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australian Institute Of Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Studies
The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), established as the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) in 1964, is an independent Australian Government statutory authority. It is a collecting, publishing, and research institute and is considered to be Australia's premier resource for information about the cultures and societies of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The institute is a leader in ethical research and the handling of culturally sensitive material. The collection at AIATSIS has been built through over 50 years of research and engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and is now a source of language and culture revitalisation, native title research, and Indigenous family and community history. AIATSIS is located on Acton Peninsula in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. History The proposal and interim council (1959–1964) In the late 1950s, there was an increasing focus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Makassar People
The native Makassar, Macassar, Makassarese, Makassan or Macassan are one of the indigenous Sulawesi people, native to the southern Celebic peninsular regions (concentrated around the Makassar area) in Indonesia. The Makassar people are rich in culture and they are acknowledged for their traditional culinary and maritime knowledges, together with the Bugis, its closest related ethnic group. The '' Phinisi'', a worldwide well-known boatbuilding of Southern Sulawesi-origin, a joint invention of Bugis-Makassar people, is internationally inscribed as the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The Makassar people speak various Makassaric languages, including Standard Makassar, as well as Standard Indonesian and Makassar Malay. The Makassar people are amongst the first native people who are endowed with the harvesting and processing knowledge of '' holothuroidea'' (sea cucumber, natively found betw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Interglacial
An interglacial period (or alternatively interglacial, interglaciation) is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age. The current Holocene interglacial began at the end of the Pleistocene, about 11,700 years ago. Pleistocene During the 2.5 million years of the Pleistocene, numerous glacials, or significant advances of continental ice sheets, in North America and Europe, occurred at intervals of approximately 40,000 to 100,000 years. The long glacial periods were separated by more temperate and shorter interglacials. During interglacials, such as the present one, the climate warms and the tundra recedes polewards following the ice sheets. Forests return to areas that once supported tundra vegetation. Interglacials are identified on land or in shallow epicontinental seas by their paleontology. Floral and faunal remains of species pointing to temperate climate and indicating a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Holocene
The Holocene () is the current geologic time scale, geological epoch, beginning approximately 11,700 years ago. It follows the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene together form the Quaternary period. The Holocene is an interglacial period within the ongoing Ice age, glacial cycles of the Quaternary, and is equivalent to Marine isotope stages, Marine Isotope Stage 1. The Holocene correlates with the last maximum axial tilt towards the Sun of the Earth#Axial tilt and seasons, Earth's obliquity. The Holocene corresponds with the rapid proliferation, growth, and impacts of the human species worldwide, including Recorded history, all of its written history, technological revolutions, development of major civilizations, and overall significant transition towards urban culture, urban living in the present. The human impact on modern-era Earth and its ecosystems may be considered of global significance for th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tasmania
Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The state encompasses the main island of Tasmania, the List of islands by area#Islands, 26th-largest island in the world, and the List of islands of Tasmania, surrounding 1000 islands. It is Australia's smallest and least populous state, with 573,479 residents . The List of Australian capital cities, state capital and largest city is Hobart, with around 40% of the population living in the Greater Hobart area. Estimated resident population, 30 June 2017. Tasmania is the most decentralised state in Australia, with the lowest proportion of its residents living within its capital city. Tasmania's main island was first inhabited by Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal peoples, who today generally identify as Palawa or Pakana. It is believed that Abori ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Continental Shelf
A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an island is known as an "''insular shelf''." The continental margin, between the continental shelf and the abyssal plain, comprises a steep continental slope, surrounded by the flatter continental rise, in which sediment from the continent above cascades down the slope and accumulates as a pile of sediment at the base of the slope. Extending as far as 500 km (310 mi) from the slope, it consists of thick sediments deposited by turbidity currents from the shelf and slope. The continental rise's gradient is intermediate between the gradients of the slope and the shelf. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the name continental shelf was given a legal definition as the stretch of the seabed adjacent to the shores ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
