Aboriginal Australians

Aboriginal Australians or Aborigines, original inhabitants of Australia and their descendants. The term Aboriginal does not include the Torres Strait Islanders, a much smaller indigenous population in Australia whose homelands are the islands off the tip of the Cape York Peninsula in far northeastern Australia.Archaeological evidence suggests that Aboriginal people have lived in Australia for at least 50,000 years. They have inhabited every region of the island continent. Today they live in all states and mainland territories of Australia, with the highest population concentrations in the states of Queensland and New South Wales. In 2001 the Aboriginal population of Australia numbered approximately 427,000, or about 2.2 percent of the total population.Aboriginal people traditionally lived as hunter-gatherers in small family groups, hunting, fishing, and collecting a variety of plant foods. Most groups were nomadic or seminomadic and built simple brush or bark shelters. Hundreds of culturally distinct Aboriginal groups were spread across the Australian continent. They occupied a wide range of environments, from the savanna woodlands of the north to the harsh desert outback and temperate woodlands of the south. Like indigenous peoples elsewhere in the world, they developed an intimate understanding of the environment in which they lived. This connection to the land, and to its animals and plants, permeated every aspect of Aboriginal culture.
Coutesy: Encarta Reference Library Premium 2005