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Theme 3 - Aboriginal Society

Building on the discussions of Aboriginal thought systems in the second theme, the twelve articles in the third theme of ‘Aboriginal Society’, show how these concepts and principles apply in practice.


As is warned in the second article of this section, students may be put at risk of brain hemorrhage when reading these articles. This is particularly so in the third, fourth and fifth articles on totemic kinship. This is partly because the cyclical Aboriginal systems are so different to the linear systems of western thought.


However, gaining even a faint grasp of these concepts will hopefully enrich your practical understanding of the Aboriginal mindset, which is a key objective of this whole course.

THEME 3  - QUESTIONS FOR CONSIDERATION

  1. In Aboriginal society, are your granddaughters only girls or your nephews only boys?

  2. Whichever of the four Skin Group you belong to, is this also the group that includes your father’s father, your mother’s mother, your marital partner’s father’s mother, and their mother’s father?

  3. Should our education system be organized in age cohorts or ability cohorts? What are the advantages or disadvantages of each? 

  4. Is war part of human nature or just a product of economics?​

  5. Is the level of a civilization measured by the degree of technological advancement or by the degree of civil cohesion?

  6. Would the Kidney-Fat Man motivate you to be law abiding?

  7. Have the assumptions of Terra Nullius affected your own knowledge of Australian history?

AH 3.1

Australian sovereignty - past, present and future

The structure of traditional Aboriginal society is equated with the three levels of government in modern Australia, plus international diplomacy.

AH 3.2

What's in a name?

Just like nowadays we refer to South Australian’s as ‘Crow Eaters’ or Queenslanders as ‘Banana Benders’, so Aboriginal tribes also had joke names for each other.

AH 3.3

The complex world of Aboriginal kinship

The Aboriginal concepts behind the use of terms such as cousin, uncle aunt, niece, nephew, grandson and granddaughter are explained.

AH 3.4

Understanding totemic kinship

The basic traditional structure across Australia of two halves and four quarters, called skin groups, is explained.

AH 3.5

Kulin Nation Skin Groups

Using the available fragmentary evidence, the basic structure of Kulin Nation tribes in central Victoria is reconstructed.

AH 3.6

Growing up on a multilingual culture

In traditional Aboriginal society, each language was protected and every person was brought up to be proficient in several languages.

AH 3.7

The aboriginal education system

When compared to western education, Aboriginal education can be seen as having similar primary, secondary, tertiary and graduate stages, but there also was a stronger focus on maximising the individual abilities of each child.

AH 3.8

The training of Elders

The process for identifying gifted children and grooming them for leadership roles is explained.

AH 3.9

A government of professors

The traditional justice system is explained, within which civil and criminal matters were determined and any escalations in payback were ritually controlled.

AH 3.10

Law and order in traditional Aboriginal society

Techniques for identifying ancient Songlines in your local area are explained.

AH 3.11

Just imagine - a society without war

In traditional Aboriginal society, there were never any wars of conquest or invasion because there was no economic motive and payback was ritually controlled.

AH 3.12

The lingering infection of Terra Nullius

How the legal fiction of Terra Nullius still unconsciously affects Australian attitudes to Aboriginal history and heritage is discussed.

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