SETTLEMENT GUIDE: AUSTRALIA'S FIRST PEOPLES

8th – 15th July is NAIDOC Week across Australia. This year NAIDOC celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who have made, and continue to make an invaluable contribution to Australia. Australia’s First Peoples are the world’s oldest living civilization dating back some 50,000 years according to a recent genetic study by an international team of academics. Yet, many Australians know little about the history of our First Peoples. The 2014 Australian Reconciliation Barometer shows only 30 per cent of Australians consider themselves knowledgeable of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and histories. Indigenous Australians are people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent, together they form three per cent of the national population, based on the 2011 Census. The 1788 European settlement resulted in a series of discriminatory policies against the traditional owners of the land with devastating effects on their civil rights and the survival of traditions, culture and languages...