Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (Australia)
The original inhabitants of Australia, whose existence there is thought to go back some 40,000 years. They were semi-nomadic hunters whose value systems included common use, and a spiritual appreciation, of the land. Their population is estimated to have been between 300,000 and 700,000 before White settlement began in 1788. By the early twentieth century this figure had diminished to less than 50,000, and was declining further owing to loss of land, adoption of European habits such as drinking alcohol, diseases against which they had not developed immunity (smallpox, influenza, etc.), and a declining birth rate. Violence between ...