welcome to today's show on today's show we're going to discuss Australia's original inhabitants the Aborigines and what was the last ice age that was about 40,000 45,000 years ago ocean levels were lower the average global climate was cooler due to the closer proximity of Southeast Asia to the Australian mainland there was a migration of people by boat and foot around and over a land bridge the land bridge is no longer present today sea levels inevitably rose the disappearance of the lam bridge isolated the migrated peoples within Australia the migrating peoples were native or Aboriginal we now refer to them as Australia's Aborigines Aborigines eventually inhabited the island of Tasmania south of the Australian mainland the Australian Aborigines utilized transportation to acquire food clothing and shelter boomerangs were used to hunt at boomerang is an l-shaped tool that when thrown returns to the thrower Aborigines are hunters and gatherers they hunt birds kangaroos emus possums lizards and snakes they gather fruits nuts berries seeds vegetables and insects Australian Aborigine culture consists of religious activities singing dancing drawing edging painting and storytelling Aborigines value the role of families they have a close relationship with nature and land and are mindful of its utility and do not waste they have identified their roles as protectors of nature and land and have identified spirits as being responsible for the creation of people animals and land Aborigines throughout Australia and Tasmania developed over 200 distinct languages the Aboriginal population has dramatically declined with European colonization of Australia specifically English colonization it is speculated that over a million Aborigines once inhabited Australia's temperate coasts European settlers forced Aborigines into reservations throughout Australia's outback disease displacement and violence inevitably degraded that once thriving civilization to less than 50,000 Aborigines by the early 1900's European diseases colonized Aboriginal communities for which they possessed no natural immunities today approximately 3 percent of Australia's population is represented by Aborigines there are less than 800,000 Aborigines living in Australia today most Aborigines live in Australia's Northern Territory at about 30% as the original inhabitants of Australia Aboriginal people have inherent rights that were never taken away these rights exist in addition to general citizenship rights they include the right to self-determination this is the right of Aboriginal people to determine the direction of their own social cultural economic and political development Aboriginal people also maintain the right to maintain their developed culture language knowledge and identity modern Aborigines face difficulties in Australian society such as tobacco usage alcoholism and obesity due to diet
