Pre-European Settlement

The original Aboriginal population was diverse with over 500 nations living within mainland Australia and Tasmania. Each nation or tribe had their own language and their own customs.

The Aboriginal people had a well developed system of trade that allowed them to flourish in Australia for over 60,000 years. Aboriginal tribes were trading across Australia from the far inland desert countries right across to the coast.

The arrival of Europeans spelt the end of traditional Aboriginal culture.
- The dispossession of land
- Removal of children
- Loss of identity
- Loss of culture
- Introduction of diseases never seen before in Australia

The lack of a familiar hierarchal system of power within traditional Aboriginal culture lead the British to perceive that no one ruled the land, hence they could claim Terra Nullius, which at the time gave the British the right to occupy the land and the people who lived there.

Over a 217 year period Aboriginal people have gone from being a healthy race to a race of people that are now considered to be the most disadvantaged Indigenous race in the first world in relation to health statistics.

Aboriginal men and women have lost their traditional roles within the tribe and this loss of identity is a major cause of the current health and well being issues Aboriginal people face today.