People ask: "How on earth do you know that ....?"

Um, I can read. I do um, research. I listen to aboriginal people, for like, um, decades. I ask questions. I have a good memory. You know, stuff like.

As to 'evidence,' I don't need to prove a damned thing here to anyone. If you're not interested in doing your own research and study then that's your problem what you believe and think. Not mine.

How many aboriginal nations are there in Australia?

Aboriginal people inhabited the whole of Australia and Torres Strait Islanders lived on the islands between Australia and Papua New Guinea, in what is now called the Torres Strait. There were over 500 different clan groups or 'nations' around the continent, many with distinctive cultures, beliefs and languages.
Our people | australia.gov.au
www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/our-country/our-people

http://aiatsis.gov.au/research

http://nationalunitygovernment.org/pdf/aboriginal-australia-map.pdf

https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/selfdetermination/aboriginal-nations-declaring-independence#toc1

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Map_of_New_South_Wales_as_occupied_by_the_native_tribes.jpg

http://www.indigenousinstyle.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/aus_map_covered_text_lined.jpg

http://www.abc.net.au/indigenous/map/

It's not very hard to find stuff ... but you'll never never know if you never never go.

http://scholar.lmgtfy.com/?q=australian+aboriginal+studies+Torres+anthropology+archeology+history

First Australians chronicles the birth of contemporary Australia as never told before, from the perspective of its first people. First Australians explores what unfolds when the oldest living culture in the world is overrun by the world's greatest empire.
http://www.sbs.com.au/firstaustralians/

This series is an introduction to Aboriginal culture and society for upper primary and lower Secondary school students.
http://www.abc.net.au/tveducation/nations/

I had a brother-in-law called Paddy, and he didn't know nuffin' about Irish history. Being Irish didn't make him an expert on nuffin' except for drinkin' Guinness, his favourite past-time lol

Oh boy, it's not like I am really smart or better than anyone else here, you know. I just know what I know. I can't unknow it, so sorry. :-)

I'm not here to argue or debate or to prove anything. Make up your own minds.
-

Dear Thomas,

«'Chewing gum and walking'»

Rather, chewing a very old gum that has already completely softened to the point of shapelessness; along with not-as-old gum that still has a few solid spots of resistance here and there.

What sense is there in having those who have been oppressed by the regime for only 100's of years, be privileged above those who have been oppressed by the same for 1000's of years? If they alone are to be set free, then who will remember the others? Where is your compassion for the "white" oppressed?

We now have urban aboriginals which themselves have willingly joined the ranks of our oppressors (Stockholm syndrome?) to become part of the Australian regime - so many aboriginals are now on its payroll on fat government posts, shamelessly living off our stolen tax-money and a few even made it to its top to become legislators over us, aboriginal and non-aboriginal alike.

If you want special freedoms for aboriginals, then let everyone be allowed to declare themselves "aboriginal" without discrimination based on colour and ancestry!

«This nation is built on the notion of...»

Alas, you too acknowledge the concept of "nation" and feel part of it.

This nation of yours has not invented young and old age and frailty, all perfectly natural, but it has created sickness, brokenness, lostness, disadvantage and especially heaps of loneliness. As for education, it renders people "uneducated" by constantly raising the bar - what need have you for the kind of "education" that they offer if you are to live freely in the bush anyway?

I'll just address one issue. The claim that aboriginal culture is the longest living surviving culture today.
Both my sons went through full initiation in the bush. For all boys and young men, initiiation is followed by annual ceremonial events, carried out at the time a new group of boys is being initiated. The post initiates are taught about the old ways,the continuing laws and culture and all their obligations and rights within that system. It's an ongoing educational process that takes about 6 or 7 years until they reach their final stage and are declared men, and allowed to marry.
My sons attended the annual educational sessions and ceremonies for a few years but by mid teens had stopped going. As adults they attended only a few and when I asked why the lack of interest they said that the law was broken, the elders were frequently too drunk to remember what they were supposed to be teaching so just made stuff up. Every year the law was changing.
So, even if we accept that technology is going to be absorbed into aboriginal life, we also have to accept that the spiritual aspect of the culture, the ancient laws thousands of years old have been lost and will never be regained.
The culture that was living 200 years ago is well and truly dead.

Big Nana, hi. re "the longest living surviving culture today." Yes, I hear you and what you say is no doubt true. Sad but true.

When I say things like that I mean it in a grand historical sense globally compared with all other cultures ever known, emphasis on the longest ever up to the modern time, not 'today' as in right now.

From what I know you'd only need to go back 50 years or before WW2 when many of the traditions and law were still alive.

Save what good parts of value your people can Big Nana. 2,000 years after the Greeks were gone what was saved in knowledge/wisdom became really useful again.

A while ago there was some carbon dating done on art works and/or middens that indicated aboriginals here 90,000 years ago. But as a one off it was scientifically hard to be certain. There are also several sites with rock art works that have been documented really well over several decades and their locations not publicly disclosed.

"If you have story, heart, speak for it, stand for it."

(can't recall who said that, but he was an elder and wise.)

To Alan B.

The idea that different groups of human beings, who have evolved separately and in isolation to conform to particular and very different environments, must therefore be equal in every way, including physical abilities, mental abilities and personalities, appears to me to be quite absurd. In physical abilities alone, black people's skin is more evolved to survive in sunny climates, while white people's skin is more evolved to give a survival advantage in cold climates. But I am sure that people like yourself would even deny that if you could get away with it.

I think that races have different levels of intelligence, and different types of intelligences, and that seems to have been proven by the excellent scientific work by cognitive metricians summarised brilliantly in the book "The Bell Curve." It can be also be discerned through open and impartial observation. If you have any scientific evidence, or even a good argument, supporting your position (which seems to be that races are equal in every way) then please feel free to submit it.

On the subject of white supremacy, I have good reason to believe that Asians are in general, smarter than whites. Therefore, I must be an Asian supremacist.

As a young trendy lefty, I was forced to choose between two racist and classist arguments. The first racist argument was, that all races are equal, except the white race, which is the most evil race that has ever existed, and which is responsible for the dysfunctions of every other race. Added to that argument, was the one that said that "classes" of people do not exist, and that everybody in society is equal.

The second racist argument was, that people are different. Races are generally different, in physical abilities, mental abilities, and personalities. And within races, "classes" of people do exist, because differing levels of intelligence, and differing types of intelligences, creates different types of skill specialisation, and different types of status, according to the needs of any society for any particular type of skill.

I think that the second argument is far more credible.

The longest living culture is African. There are artefacts etc dating back 100 000s of years, and rock paintings in France pre date anything found in Aus.