Gladys Elphick (1904-1988) Elphick is also known for being the founding president of the South Australian Council of Aboriginal Women, having co-founded the South Australian Aboriginal Medical Service, and having helped set up Adelaide's Aboriginal Community Centre, together with the College of Aboriginal Education.
1. Shirley Colleen Smith (1924-1998) Shirley Smith, better known as Mum Shirl, was a prominent Wiradjuri woman, social worker and humanitarian.
One of the most recognisable Indigenous Australians, Ernie Dingo grew up in remote Mullewa, WA, and is a descendant of the Yamatji people of the state. The actor, presenter and writer appeared in the popular films Crocodile Dundee II, Blackfellas and Bran Neu Dae.
Bennelong. Bennelong, born c1764 of the Wangal people, is one of the most notable Aboriginal people in the early history of Australia. Also known as Wolarwaree, Ogultroyee and Vogeltroya, he was one of the first to live with the settlers, to be 'civilised' into the European way of life and to enjoy its 'benefits'.
A dedicated pillar of her community, the NSW Aboriginal Woman of the Year is a role model who promotes economic, cultural and/or social wellbeing of Aboriginal people in NSW. See below to read about the 2023 winner Lynda Edwards and finalists for the 2023 NSW Aboriginal Woman of the Year.
Narromine's Lynda Edwards is "incredibly honoured" to have been named 2023 NSW Premier's Woman of the Year and NSW Aboriginal Woman of the Year for her First Nations financial advocacy work.
Elaine George ( c. 1976) is an Australian fashion model of Aboriginal descent. She was the first Aboriginal model to appear on the cover of Vogue magazine (Australian edition, September 1993).
Aboriginal peoples
Genetic studies appear to support an arrival date of 50–70,000 years ago. The earliest anatomically modern human remains found in Australia (and outside of Africa) are those of Mungo Man; they have been dated at 42,000 years old.
Australia's oldest Aboriginal man, Ngarla elder Stephen Stewart, has lived a 'wild', remarkable life.
The researchers found that Aboriginal Australians diverged from Papuans some 37,000 years ago, before the Australian land mass separated from New Guinea roughly 10,000 years ago. The groups traveled into Australia from mainland Asia, becoming the ancestors to a large population of modern-day Australians.
Yunupingu, Yolŋu leader and campaigner for Indigenous rights, dies aged 74. The revered Yolŋu elder Yunupingu has died in his homelands after a lifetime fighting for the rights of his Gumatj clan, his country and all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Acclaimed Aboriginal singer and songwriter Archie Roach has died at age 66 after a long battle with a illness. Sons, Amos and Eban Roach said they were heartbroken to announce the death of their father. "We thank all the staff who have cared for Archie over the past month," they said.
Nich Richie, @NichRichie
With Aboriginal current affairs, gender and gaming at the core of the content they produce, Nich is a must-follow for their commentary on popular culture and social issues like neurodivergence and racism in Australia.
The Seven Sisters are ancestral beings, they were sky people who descended on the earth and were then pursued by a group of men. For the men it had been the first time they ever laid eyes on women and they were taken by desire. The women had managed to escape by beating them with their digging sticks.
They were placed in over 480 institutions, adopted or fostered by non-Indigenous people and often subjected to abuse. The children were denied all access to their culture, they were not allowed to speak their language and they were punished if they did. The impacts of this are still being felt today.
It is true that there has been, historically, a small number of claims that there were people in Australia before Australian Aborigines, but these claims have all been refuted and are no longer widely debated. The overwhelming weight of evidence supports the idea that Aboriginal people were the first Australians.
The extensive study of Aboriginal people's DNA dates their origins to more than 50,000 years ago and shows that their ancestors were probably the first humans to journey across Asia and cross an ocean. The findings also show that these Aboriginal ancestors remained almost entirely isolated until around 4,000 years ago.
The Tasmanians were a distinct people, isolated from Australia and the rest of the world for 12,000 years. In 1803, British colonisation began and in 1876, Truganini died. She was the last full-blood and tribal Tasmanian Aboriginal.
There is no one Aboriginal word that all Aborigines use for Australia; however, today they call Australia, ""Australia"" because that is what it is called today. There are more than 250 aboriginal tribes in Australia. Most of them didn't have a word for ""Australia""; they just named places around them.
While Indigenous Australians have inhabited the continent for tens of thousands of years, and traded with nearby islanders, the first documented landing on Australia by a European was in 1606. The Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon landed on the western side of Cape York Peninsula and charted about 300 km of coastline.
After Dutch navigators charted the northern, western and southern coasts of Australia during the 17th Century this newly found continent became known as 'New Holland'. It was the English explorer Matthew Flinders who suggested the name we use today.
It's estimated that as many as 1 in 3 Indigenous children were taken between 1910 and the 1970s, affecting most Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Australia.
The Bringing Them Home report (produced by the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families in 1987), says that "at least 100,000" children were removed from their parents.
Why were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children taken from their families? The forcible removal of First Nations children from their families was based on assimilation policies, which claimed that the lives of First Nations people would be improved if they became part of white society.