HISTORY

 The Origin of The Sun
    Gnowee,the Sun was once a woman, who lived upon the earth when it was dark all the time and people had to walk about with the aid of bark torches.
    One day she left her little boy asleep while she went out to dig roots for food.Yams were scarce and Gnowee reached the end of the earth and continuing her wanderings , passed under it.
    Not knowing wher she was,as it was dark, she could not find her littlr boy anywhere. So she went into the sky carrying her great bark torch and still wanders across it and then travels under the earth looking for him.

THE DREAMTIME
   Most people wonder about the mysteries of life. Such as how did it all begin,where did the animals come from?
The Aboriginal people were given their anwsers in the Dreamtime stories,which were passed down and added to from generation to generation.All Aboriginals believed in a Supreme Being, who was know by different names in different areas.
The Rainbow Serpant legends are perhaps the most well-known stories and he is named as the cause of many of Australias landscape like rivers, mountains etc.

Image12.jpg (53269 bytes)

 Aboriginal people were the first Australians.Aboriginal history is Australian history.The history of mankind on the Australian continent did not commence when Captain Cook landed on the eastern coast , but 40 000 years before when the ancient predecessors of the Aboriginal people began their sea voyages south. It is believed that they have traveled from Asia along transitory land bridges created by the rising and ebbing seas of the Ice Age.

WE BELONG TO THE GROUND
IT IS OUR POWER
AND WE MUST STAY CLOSE TO IT
OR MAYBE WE WILL GET LOST
                                                     Narritjin Maymuru;Yirkala

ABORIGINES

   Dutch sailors saw the north and west coasts of Australia but did not like the land or the people.Attempts by Dutch seamen and other ships crews to land were usually met with Fierce resistance from the Aborigines.Often there was fighting between Europeans and the Aborigines.When Captain Cook's ship passed them in 1770 where Sydney is today, no one knew that the visit of this ship was to lead to big changes. A few years after Captain Cook returned to Britain, it was decided that British people could settle in New South Wales.

Arrival of the First Fleet On 26 January 1788 the first European setttlement in Australia started at Sydney. There were 1473 settlers in the First fleet.Among them were 778 of whom 192 were women.At the time, there was a number of separate Aboriginal groups living around Port Jackson Suddenly there was an invasion of 1473 people, who had weapons such as guns.Not one of the Sydney groups could have gathered together 1000 warriors on the spot.

   But Aboriginal resistance to the invasion began.As European settlement spread, white people occupied more and more of the land settled by the Aborigines.Tribes who had to move forced other tribes to move in their turn. By losing their tribal lands, the Aborigines lost everything.When the Aborigines settled an area they named sacred sites on their land.These sites and the land were of great importance to their livelihood and their religion.The Aborigines were part of their land and some Aborigines died because it was taken away from them.

 TOTEM ANCESTORS AND SACRET COLOURS
   There are stories that tell how men and women could change bodies into their special totem animal. For example a man could turn into a kangaroo. The stories tell of how these people made adventurous journeys across the continent sometimes as a human, sometimes as an animal.The people believed that their totem ancestors helped increase plant and animal life in their area.Colours were also important to each tribe and usually resulted from a Dreamtime Legend. White was the sacret colour for Central N.S.W .The Dreamtime Legends were controlled by the elders of the tribe. They explain how animals developed particular traits, eg. How the kangaroo got his tail.Most of the legends were told to everyone but some sacred stories were only for the men and were kept secret from everyone else.

ABORIGINES TODAY
   For the Aborigines about 50 000 years of life had changed in just a few years.Now about 200 years of European settlement, land is being given back to the Aborigines in several parts of Australia.In October 1985 Ayres Rock was returned to the Aborigines. Tribes and communities are once again living on Aboriginal land,but life is very different from what it was in the days of Ancient Australia.