Lesson+one


 * What Was Life Like for Aboriginal People Before British Colonisation?**

- The Australian continent has always been multicultural. Before 1788, there were approximately 500 different language groups or nations. Current scientific understandings indicate that Aboriginal occupation dates back to between 50 000 and possibly 100 000 years before present (BP). Many Aboriginal people believe that they have always been here.

- Aboriginal people acquired an intimate knowledge of physical features of the land, animals, plants and people, and their interconnectedness. They managed the environment according to ancient laws and customs that are recorded in Dreaming stories. These stories describe ways of caring for the land as well as changes to the continent that have occurred over thousands of years, such as climatic and sea-level changes, volcanic eruptions and megafauna. Locally developed practices, such as construction of fish traps in rivers and the use of fire to increase new growth, increased biodiversity and maintained the food supply for small and sustainable populations of Aboriginal peoples throughout Australia.

Read the following, and answer the questions at the end:


 * The Eora:**

Eora is thought to be the name of the Aboriginal language group who lived in the area now called Sydney. The Eora people called Sydney Harbour Tuhbowgule and Botany Bay was called Kamay. The valley in which the colony was established was known as Warrane and belonged to the Cadigal clan. For several reasons, but mainly due to the drastic decline in the local Aboriginal population due to disease and dispossession, only a very limited vocabulary of the Eora was ever recorded. Despite this, words still remain that give detailed information about plant and animal life in the area, weather conditions and geographical features. There are still words for concepts and feelings such as love (ngubadi), trust (mari), anger (wurabata), frightened (bagarat), ashamed (wural), sympathy (mudjara), and passionate (yurura). Several Eora words have found their way into Australian English, eg dingo, gibba and woomera. The word for ship was the same as the word for island.

The area around what is now known as Sydney Harbour was food rich. The Eora lived well on fish and shellfish. There was also a wide variety of available animals, like yurungi (wild duck), mirral (crested pigeon), bunmarra (lizard) and bulada (snake), plants, like the midjuburi (lilly-pilly), guwigan (wild cherry) and midiny (yam), and honeybees and dangannuwa, a tasty worm found at the base of grass trees.

Men and boys fished with a variety of spears from the shores or from canoes, depending on the prey and the weather. Women fished with a line and hook and jagged for fish using oysters and shellfish as burly. The lines were made from the bark of the kurrajong tree, with a stone sinker and a shell hook. Both men and women used nuwi — light bark canoes. They fished during the day and at night, and would carry on board a small fire, which would repel insects, provide light and warmth, and could be used for cooking. They lived in huts made of branches and bark, or caves, and probably spent several months at one campsite. While they wore no clothing, they decorated their hair and adorned their bodies with head, neck and waist bands, body ochre and scarification.

Like other Aboriginal peoples, the Eora had developed a sophisticated and practical response to their environment so that they could sustain their small populations. Members of a clan were spiritually tied to a specific piece of land but were not restricted to it, and would travel for social and ceremonial reasons such as for initiation ceremonies or to a feast where a whale had beached itself.

The Eora had rituals for commemorating a person’s death, indicating their understanding of the concept of the human soul or spirit. Young people were buried, while older people were cremated. Personal items were buried or burned with the bodies, showing a belief in an afterlife.

Urban development has destroyed many of the Aboriginal sites in Sydney, yet some still remain on the harbour and ocean foreshores. Middens are special Aboriginal sites where discarded shells from eating areas have accumulated. They are important indicators of long-term Aboriginal occupation and land use. In early Sydney, middens from the Cooks River were used for landfill and road bases.

Evidence of the artistic expression of the Sydney people can still be found today. Representations of animals, fish and familiar objects were drawn with charcoal and ochre on the walls of rock shelters. Stencil art — produced by using hands or objects (such as boomerangs) as a stencil and blowing pigment around them — can also be found. They also engraved images in the soft sandstone of the area, including animals, weapons and gigantic Dreaming figures thought to be Duramulun and Biame.


 * Questions:**

Where in Australia is the Eora language region located?

Why is there very little information about the Eora language?

What did the Eora people eat?

What did the men and women fish with?

What was the fire in the canoe used for?

What are some spiritual practices did they preformed?

What evidence can be found that they lived here?

Have a go at this!
 * When finished:**
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