Exploring Our World: Latin America and Canada, Europe, and Australia © 2012 Georgia Edition

"The Aborigines"

Introduction
In this chapter, you learned about the culture, lifestyles, and challenges of Australia today. The people now called Aborigines are the descendants of the first people who migrated to the region. The ancestors of another group, the Torres Strait Islanders, were the first people to settle the Torres Strait Islands, which is part of Queensland, Australia. The Aborigines and the Torres Strait Islanders make up the indigenous, or original, inhabitants of Australia.

Destination Title: Australian Indigenous cultural heritage

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Directions
Start at the Australian Government Culture and Recreation Portal.

• Read the introduction about the indigenous people of Australia.
• Then scroll down and read the paragraphs under the headings “Land – at the core of belief” and “Diversity—location and languages.”

Use the information to answer the following questions.

1			How did Aborigines live and get their food?
2			How many Aboriginal clan groups were in Australia when Europeans first arrived?
3			Is it important for the Aborigines to keep using their languages? Why?
4			Why have Australia’s indigenous people been able to survive for so long?
5			How have Aboriginal people kept their culture alive?