IND/Indigenous Nations

Last week, when you reflected on the map of Indigenous country across Australia, you will have noted the different names attached to areas on the map. These are the names of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations, sometimes called language groups, who are living on, and caring for, a particular area of country. There are approximately 270 Indigenous nations in Australia. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations were, and are, culturally and linguistically diverse.

Required Reading

Read/View TWO of the following:

The Wiradjuri nation

Charles Sturt University is primarily based on Wiradjuri country. When you think of the distance between different CSU campuses, at Wagga Wagga, Bathurst and Dubbo for example, you get a sense of the size of Wiradjuri nation.

Macdonald, G. (2001). Does ‘culture’ have ‘history’? Thinking about continuity and change in central New south Wales. In Aboriginal History. Vol 25. Pp. 176-199. Online

or

The Arrernte nation are desert people from country which now spans South Australia and the Northern Territory, including Alice Springs.

Perkins, R. (2008). First Australians, Episode 4 – No other law. video clip The Kulin nation

or

The Kulin nation are people from what is now Victoria, and their country includes Melbourne. They are a confederation (or a grouping) of 5 different clan groups who shared common language. Yarra City Council. (2013). The Aboriginal History of Yarra. Online. Accessed 26/7/15.

Learning Activity

Indigenous Diversity

Reflect again on this map of Aboriginal Australia which we looked at in the previous topic.

The reading/viewing listed above gives information about three different Indigenous nations in Australia. Read/watch two of the resources and compare the Indigenous nations. You can choose to compare another nation that might be familiar to you or of interest to you.

As you read, identify features that are related to:

• Cultural practices
• Dreaming
• Language
• Place
• Kinship structures
• History

It may help you to draw up a table like this:

	Reading 1	Reading 2
Cultural practices	e.g. p.#
Dreaming

Once you have compared your two nations, write a paragraph that compares one or two features. Be sure to reference your sources clearly. For example:

Perkins (2008) explains that for the Arrernte people, the world was created by giant beings that were part animal and part human.

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