Visitors should be aware that this website includes images and names of deceased people that may cause sadness or distress to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Our story is in the land ... It is written in those sacred places. My children will look after those places, that's the law.
Bill Neidjie, 1985
People should remember that we are the oldest surviving race of people, culture of people, in the world ... We know that our people have been here from the beginning of time.
Kevin Gilbert, 1996
Connections to country (land, water and sky) are an essential part of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identity.
Ancestors, languages, ceremonies and people all belong together in particular tracts of country. Maintaining these connections to country and environment, both built and natural, is very important to us.
For some, these connections have been disrupted by massacres, diseases and removal by government agencies.
Yet, our identity as Indigenous Australians remains shaped by shared stories and experiences. This remains strong.
Use these links to understand our connection to country.
Since time immemorial
Aboriginal people have a long continuous relationship with the land.
Over the thousands of years we have adapted our lifestyles to environmental changes. Innovative ways have been developed to cope with changing conditions, including vast ecological changes. These innovations have been documented in the landscape, rock art and oral traditions.
The First Australians gallery shows that Aboriginal cultures have instigated many 'world firsts'. These include the earliest known evidence of art-making and some of the oldest axes of a particular kind in the world.
The world's first artists
Indigenous people have been mining ochre at the Karrku ochre mine in the Campbell Ranges west of Yuendumu, Northern Territory, for at least 30,000 years. It is still prized for its intense red colour.
A piece of ochre on display in the First Australians gallery has been ground to produce pigment for painting. It was in use between 53,000 to 59,000 years ago (from Nauwalabila 1, basal levels). This painting technique is among the earliest known evidence for art-making in the world.
Central Australia: 10,000 years of tradition
Rock engravings found throughout Central Australia feature circles and concentric circles, animal tracks, crescents, dots and straight-line designs. In the First Australians gallery, visitors can view designs that were pecked into the rock with a stone.
Today Aboriginal artists prefer acrylic paints and paintbrushes, but we use the same symbols. These endure like the law, the creation stories and the ceremonies from which we come.
The cutting edge: axes
Axes on display in the First Australians gallery were made 19,000 to 23,000 years ago. They are the oldest axes of this kind in the world. The craftsman sharpened a pebble by grinding it against harder stone. Then he fixed it into a handle, for easier use.
Fighting for our rights
Since colonisation, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been striving for equality and recognition of our rights to our country and to adequate services.
Many communities still experience deplorable living conditions and high rates of imprisonment. But increasingly, programs are being initiated to prevent and combat these problems.
For decades Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have led marches, rallies and protests to gain recognition of land and human rights.
Leaders and organisations have actively targeted the policies and administration of state and federal governments to fight for recognition as the Indigenous peoples of Australia.
The First Australians gallery explores the struggle for rights through five case studies: Wreck Bay, Wik, Murray Island, Larrakia and Darwin.
Wik country
Wik Country is located on the western Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. The main town centre is Aurukun.
The Wik people have been fighters for a long time.
During the past few decades, the Wik people have been in the courts fighting to have their rights recognised under Australian law. In a landmark case in 1996, the High Court ruled that pastoral leases did not necessarily extinguish native title to land.
What is native title?
Denny Bowenda with Yuk Puyngk 1997 Photo by Kerry Trapnell, Cape York Land Council
Native title only is the term of the white man's philosophy! It's not native title. It was the title there for us from centuries ago. This is what people outside of here do not understand ... Like, why do we say, 'It's my land'? It is because before it's ever being written there and in the internet this was passed on to us verbally and we have to remember.
Gladys Tybingoompa, Aurukun, 1999
We are the first people who lived here. Our ancestors, they had their own law before the [British] people came in ... You can't take someone property ... You can't steal another man's wife, you can't steal other man's canoe or cut other person's sugar bag.
Denny Bowenda, Aurukun, 1999
At the High Court of Australia
Thirty-five legal counsel took part in The Wik Peoples v the State of Queensland and Others in 1996. This was the largest number of counsel ever to appear before the High Court in a single case.
Gladys danced to celebrate
Gladys Tybingoompa's Victory Dance, High Court of Australia, December 1996 Photo: Richard Briggs. Printed with permission of the Canberra Times
The High Court ruled that pastoral leases did not necessarily extinguish native title. A year later, Gladys was back in Canberra fighting the federal government's ten point plan. This was introduced as legislation to override native title rights.
The decision was handed down and I danced with victory. That decision was overruled. When it's the highest court in our land, in Australia, and please, the Prime Minister John Howard override it himself! And that's where the people, all of Australia, wanted to help by Sea of Hands.
Gladys Tybingoompa, Aurukun, 1999
Sea of Hands
The Sea of Hands is an initiative of Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR). It was first displayed at Parliament House in Canberra in October 1997. Since then it has toured nationally.
