Indigenous Australian culture, or Aboriginal culture, was nearly extinguished during the time of British colonization. However, there has been a concerted effort to keep the traditions, language, and culture alive. When my lower elementary classes began studying Oceania, I saw this as a perfect time to look more into the traditional games of Australia. I found so much more than I thought I would! There is an amazing resource called Yulunga Traditional Indigenous Games from Sport Australia. They have a digital card set that has so many games that not only looked fun to play but also connected to the culture of the people by replicating techniques used for hunting and gathering. Even though I was supposed to teach about all of Oceania, I spent almost two months on Aboriginal games alone!
Aboriginal culture could be as old as 70,000 years, but most estimates put it around 50,000 to 60,000 years ago. There is some evidence of ochre used for art dating back 60,000 years ago, and there is solid evidence of cremation dating back 40,000 years ago, which suggests highly developed and complex social behavior. This easily makes Australia’s Indigenous people the world’s oldest living culture. When people started migrating to Australia, the sea level was not as high as it is now and there were several land bridges that could have been used. However, there is no doubt original settlers of Australia also had to have expertise in sea navigation and astronomy. Aboriginal peoples originally came from Asia through Southeast Asia, but there is debate on whether there was direct African and Indian migration, and whether it happened all at once or it happened in waves.
When the term Aborigine is used, it describes the collection of all Indigenous Australian people, but depending on the region they are from, they could be very different from each other. When the British arrived in Australia in 1788, Aboriginal people occupied the whole country and successfully adapted to a wide array of ecology and climates throughout the continent. The type of land that an Aboriginal group lived on gave them identity. They would self-describe themselves as “saltwater people” from the coasts, “freshwater people” from river areas, or “desert people” from the central arid regions. Australia has almost every biome you could think of, from snow-covered mountains to humid rainforests and arid deserts. Boundaries were clearly understood between aboriginal groups, but culturally they were bound to welcome one another and provide safe passage, which was understood as “welcome to country.” There was plenty of cultural diffusion, and most Aborigines were fluent in several out of the 250 languages spoken in the continent.
They believe ancestral spirits from the Earth itself created everything and are ever present, which directly connects humans to the Earth itself. This connection fostered a sense of stewardship with the land they lived on. In fact, they believed their actions controlled the fertility of plants and animals in the area, and that their sacred rituals and care replenished the Earth. The idea of being so intimately connected to the land has been lost in current Western cultures. Nowadays a person views themself as independent from their environment, but that was not always the case. Lots of people’s last names originate from an area where their ancestors used to live on. Where someone was from was so significant it became their family’s name that could last thousands of years. That is not so important anymore as our mobility has increased. However, Aborigines never lost that sense of importance with their environment, and it would be a wise thing for the rest of the world to remember as well.
Another core belief of Aborigines is what is called “Dreamtime.” Aborigines used common understandings of time like sun up and sun down, as well as seasons and changes in constellations. However, Dreamtime also explains the connection between the ancient past (creation), the present, and the future, and with the creation spirits, it is all interconnected. As things died, they would return back to the creative spirits, who would continually release this energy back to Earth as long as humans were good stewards of the Earth. The spirit realm was ever present, and all the Aborigines had to do to find its proof was admire the beautiful countryside. When one dreamt or was in an altered state of consciousness, one could interact with the spirit realm, and potentially draw power from the creative spirits. A child’s spirit came from the Dreaming realm, which connected all people from the same source. Birth and death were all part of an open-ended continuum that was not opposites. This resembles the idea of Yin and Yang, especially in the detail there is a white dot in the black portion and a black dot in the white portion. For Aborigines, there was always a little death in life and a little life in death.
One of the greatest strengths of the Aboriginal people is their ability to see the world holistically. Aborigines saw themselves as storytellers, so any artistic expression was actually just another form of telling a story. Several times a year large gatherings of Aborigines would gather together to share food and trade art, sing songs, perform rituals, and play games, all of which had educational and storytelling purposes According to Inga Clendinnen, “Detailed observations of nature were elevated into drama by the development of multiple and multi-level narratives: narratives which made the intricate relationships between these observed phenomena memorable.” In the same vein, a children’s game was not just a game played for fun, it also was a lesson that taught valuable skills and ideas. Because the game was fun, it would be played over and over again naturally without prompting from adults, facilitating the necessary practice time it takes to become an expert at the required skills needed for hunting and gathering.
There were a wide variety of foodstuffs that Aboriginal people ate, but the Aborigines had to be observant of their surroundings. They were limited to the foods in their area, climate, and growing season. Aborigines utilized hunting and gathering techniques all the way into modern times, with a few agriculture practices as well. The Aborigines were so successful at hunting that there is speculation that all the megafauna of Australia were hunted to extinction. However, others argue climate change and fires (some controlled burnings, others wildfires) led to their extinction because Aborigines would not hunt animals to extinction based on their stewardship practices as well as the practicality that they would not want to snuff out a valuable food source. While they did not domesticate any food animals (except for a group that farmed eel), they did domesticate the dingo around 5,000 years ago (brought from Asia). However, because most Aborigines lived a semi-nomadic lifestyle (Torres Strait Aborigines did have permanent villages), being tethered to a certain area was not suitable when climates changed and animals migrate. One had to be an expert at understanding the topography and resource locations of huge areas of land. Knowing when certain plants grow and release fruit when to fish certain waterways, and when the best time to look for an animal, enabled Aboriginal people to survive for thousands of years without modern machinery. Knowledge of plant medicines and food preparations was passed down generation after generation. Different Aboriginal diets have been examined, and they were remarkably well balanced. Besides a long list of wild game that included a pig, kangaroo, snake, and emu meat, they also enjoyed various insects, taro, coconuts, fruits (like bananas in the Torres Strait), and berries.
Tools for hunting included spears and spear throwers (atlatl), as well as the famous boomerang, which came in a returning and non-returning fashion (throwing stick). With these tools, hunters used advanced tracking and stalking tactics, as well as the cover, freezing, and crawling maneuvers. Hunters were also privy to staying downwind and sometimes camouflaged themselves with mud or other material. Coastal living Aborigines used several fishing techniques, including using poisonous plants to incapacitate fish in pond farming, or harpooning large fish by diving with the harpoon to add force to the stab. Other tools had multiple functions (a walking stick could be a club used for self-defense) because Nomadic people tend not to collect lots of material possessions. While there was a division of labor, all adults were expected to have the full range of skills required for living.
By playing traditional Aboriginal games, you will help your students expand their knowledge of Aboriginal culture. They will get a healthy dose of empathy as they realize these games were vital for teaching skills required to live in some of the harshest climates on Earth. These games, invented thousands of years ago by their ancestors, are important to Indigenous peoples because it reconnects them with their culture. Many of these Aboriginal games are similar to many sports from around the world, which helps us realize that even though people can live thousands of miles apart, we are more similar than we are different.
Bibliography:
Korff, J. Traditional Aboriginal Games and Activities. (2019). Creative Minds. https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/sport/traditional-aboriginal-games-activities. Last retrieved April 10th, 2022.
Tonkinson, R., Berndt, R. (2018). Australian Aboriginal peoples. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Australian-Aboriginal. Last retrieved April 8th, 2022.
Aboriginal Australians. (2022). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aboriginal_Australians Last retrieved 4/10/22
Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures.(2022). Tourism Australia. https://www.australia.com/en-us/things-to-do/aboriginal-australia/culture.html Last retrieved April 10th, 2022.
History of Indigenous Australians. (2022). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Indigenous_Australians Last retrieved 4/10/22
Understanding Aboriginal Cultures. (2022). Tourism Australia. https://www.australia.com/en-us/things-to-do/aboriginal-australia/culture.html Last retrieved April 10th, 2022.
Prehistory of Australia. (2022). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistory_of_Australia Last retrieved 4/10/22
Yulunga Traditional Indigenous Games. (2020). Australian Sports Commission. https://www.sportaus.gov.au/yulunga?result_704748_result_page=1. Last retrieved 4/18/22