Amazing features in indigenous Australian culture and Torres Strait Islanders

Explore Australia’s rich Indigenous Aboriginal arts and culture with our 10 amazing facts…

Fact 1: The Indigenous Aboriginal arts and cultures of Australia are the oldest living cultures in the world! One of the reasons they have survived for so long is their ability to adapt to change.

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Fact 2: The earliest Indigenous art was paintings or engravings on the walls of rock shelters and caves which is called rock art. Red ochre was being used for painting at least 30,000 years ago in central Australia.

Fact 3: One of the largest collections of Indigenous Aboriginal rock art is in the heritage listed Dampier Archipelago in Western Australia, where the rock engravings are thought to number in the millions.

Fact 4: Albert Namatjira is one of Australia’s best-known Aboriginal artists, and the first Aboriginal painter to receive international recognition for his art.

Fact 5: Aboriginal people were in contact with the culture of other peoples, sharing ideas and skills, long before European occupation in 1788, including Macassans, Melanesians, Dutch, Portuguese navigators and traders.

Fact 6: At the time of European occupation, there were over 700 different Indigenous Aboriginal languages and dialects spoken in Australia. Now there are less that 250 still in use.

Fact 7: Land is fundamental to the wellbeing of Aboriginal people. The land is not just soil or rocks or minerals, but a whole environment that sustains and is sustained by people and culture.

Fact 8: One of the most well known sacred sites in Australia is Uluru, located in the centre of Australia. The first European explorers named it Ayers Rock. In 1985 the Commonwealth Government of Australia returned Uluru to its traditional owners, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people (also known as Anangu).

Fact 9: The didgeridoo is one of the world’s oldest musical instruments and is made from limbs and tree trunks hollowed out by termites.

Fact 10: Aboriginal Arts and Culture can be found in some of the most incredible locations. Lake Mungo in western New South Wales is a site of great Aboriginal and archaeological importance, containing material dated to at least 33,000 years ago. Aboriginal Arts and Culture

(source: natgeokids.com)