Dear Nathan,

Aborigines are Australians whose ancestors were the
first people to live in Australia. The word comes from
the Latin phrase "ab origine" meaning from the beginning.
When spelled with a small "a" the word "aborigine"
refers to any people whose ancestors were the first people
to live in a country.

Aborigines have lived in Australia for at least 50,000
years or longer. Most scientists believe that Aborigines
originated in Southeastern Asia. When Europeans began to
settle in Australia in 1788 there were at least 300,000
Aborigines living on the continent. It was their land.
Their country.

The religious beliefs of the Aboriginal people stressed
their position in the environment. While many other
religions focus their attention on their churches or temples
the Aborigines believed that it was the plants, the
animals, and nature around them that held the secrets of
the gods. They believed that most of the features of the
landscape had been made by legendary ancestors.

They believed in reincarnation and they believed that
the spirits of the dead would return to the tribal lands,
and live on in plants or animals. If an Aboriginal died
outside the tribal lands, it was thought that the dead
person's spirit would not find its way home, and that
the homeless spirit would die, deserting the creatures it
was to protect.

Just as the Bible relates the Christian legend of how the
earth, and life on this earth started, so in Aboriginal
legends of the Dreamtime, all the mysteries of nature are
explained.

Aborigines were nomadic hunters and food-gatherers, who
travelled within their tribal territory, taking enough from
the land to survive. When the food supply seemed to be
running out, they moved on. They did not exhaust the
natural resources, as present day Australians do.

Because the Aborigines were nomads they has no visual proof
of their land ownership. So the Europeans thought that as
the Aborigines were not working the land
(not in the European tradition of farming)
they should make way for the
"superior" race. Resistance took place. We all know the sad
history that followed

cont'd ...

Aborigines are now getting some of their ancestral lands
back. Inthose areas where mining and other development took
place, they were displaced by companies which promised to pay
them compensation for their lost lands. In some cases,
these arrangements have been fair, but in others the
Aborigines did not get a fair deal.

Although it now generally accepted that the Aboriginal people
have some rights to their lands, there remains the question
of just how much and which land.

As Kath Walker wrote:

"Though baptized and blessed and bibled,
We are still tabood and libelled.
You devout salvation sellers,
Make us equal not fringe dwellers."

Just to add some backing to what I originally posted.

Five parts of what our sate parasites are doing to the country!

Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebP43RlZW3Q

psychopaths the lot of them!

I'm all for having our National Day on 1st January.

Because:"Before 1901, Australia was not a nation. At that time, the continent consisted of six British colonies which were partly self-governing, but subject to the law-making power of the British Parliament. Each colony had its own government and laws, including its own railway system, postage stamps and tariffs (taxes). This caused a lot of problems and people began to think about the benefits of uniting as one nation, under a federal system of governance."

See: http://www.peo.gov.au/students/fact_sheets/federation.html

January 1st is the anniversary of the founding of the Nation, the 31st is the anniversary of the founding of the Colony of New South Wales.
The British didn't claim the whole continent and in fact the French claimed the west but never bothered to found a settlement, otherwise, mes amis, all that iron ore royalty might have been filling the coffers of Paris and not those of Perth and Canberra.

I remember hearing the mad read head say that comment, or was it Rudd.

I also remember thinking they were kidding themselves, because apart from loosing land for farming, we were also facing theprospect of not being able to pay the costs associated with food farming.

I also made a comment about China's interest in our farming land, saying that at least they recognized that the dam and would be there, but we (Aussies) COUKD not afford the costs, but China, bringing their own people in could.

As you rightly say, RM, they are psychopaths, or dreamers at the very least.

I have read that DNA testing was done quite some time ago & it was apparently found that the was a strong link between some Bangladeshis & australian Aboriginals. It is not impossible that the Aboriginal people were colonialists of some kind themselves. I think everyone would agree that the australian Aboriginals have been here longer thatn any other & they are the indigenous of this continent. As who to owns this continent is a totally separate & different story altogether.
The Aboriginal people would not even have had a name for the continent as a whole as they would not have had the slightest concept of another world other than theirs. So, in my way of thinking and, please feel free to contractict/prove me wrong the owners are those who made it a Nation. One thing is for sure Cook was not the first outsider to view the shores of this continent, he was however the first to claim it be that right or wrong in hindsight.