The Diversity of Nations across Australia:
As stated in Volume 2 of The Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia, Australia is a continent with great geographic and climatic variation. It is in this environment that Aboriginal people have lived with regional differences in culture, language and society. This evolution of regional differences has not occurred through an adaptation to the environment, but rather the interplay of historical and cultural factors over centuries.
In Australia there are 18 regions, all of which encompass the presence of a diversity of Nations. The regions include: the Kimberly Region, North Region, Fitzmaurice Region, Arnhem Region, West Cape Region, East Cape Region, Torres Strait Region, Gulf Region, Rainforest Region, Northeast Region, Eyre Region, Desert Region, Northwest Region, Southwest Region, Spencer Region, Riverine Region, Tasmania Region, and Southeast Region.
The Kimberly Region
The Kimberly Region is located on the north-western corner of Australia. The region is rugged with tropical summer rains, high summer temperatures and woodland vegetation, bordered on the south by desert. Linguistically there are roughly 27 languages, in 5 distinct language groups. The Kimberly is one of the major rock art regions of Australia, and has formed a major trading focus with pearl shell. In the 1920s, there was the Forrest River massacre, and from the 1950s onwards there was major disruptions cause by agricultural and mining industries. This country was observed by Europeans early on, although due to the rugged terrain it was one of the last regions to be colonised.
The North Region
The North Region is a low-lying tropical region, with strong summer rainfall, warm temperatures, open eucalypt forests, slow moving rivers and mangrove swamps – it is a region of change due to the rising and falling of seas. Changes in this region have been recorded through art, where the painting of passing people, dancing, hunting, and an incorporation of outsiders has been evident. Buffalo have had a major impact on the region, as a result of the activities of the animals and the hunting that occurred through them. It is noted that there is geographical variation in the east and west of the North Region. The social organisations of people in the west were found to identify with language groups, while people in the east use clan membership as principle in their organisations.
The Fitzmaurice Region
The Fitzmaurice Region is a low-lying region with coastal swamps, black soil plains, patches of dense jungle, open forest, grassland, large rivers, rugged sandstone ridges and limestone ranges. Evidently there are natural resources coming from the river country, a sharp contrast to the
desert-like nature of the inland country and ranges. Here the people’s exploits include productions of stone arrangements and tools, as well as rock art and galleries filled with colourful paintings and pecked engravings. It has been noted that in the past the Fitzmaurice Region traded its stone arrangements for pearl from the Kimberly Region. Although from the late 1800s European and Chinese Miners and farmers moved inland to try several agricultural enterprises. By the late 1930s most Aboriginal natives to the region were attached to farms, stations or army bases, while children were removed under the Assimilation Policy.
The Arnhem Region
The Arnhem Region is a tropical region, with mostly dry woodland, divided between coast and inland. This country has a rich artistic and religious heritage, being one of the last regions to be affected by Europeans, and one of the first to have contact with the outside – Macassans. In 1931 the region was declared unsuited to European activities, although was affected by the Macassans, miners and missionaries in the coastal areas – the coast acted as a point of contact. Consequently, Christianity had a great impact; people were distant to the wider Australian economy, but received income from mining
royalties, bark painting and tourism.
The West Cape Region
The West Cape Region there was a central lake into which rivers ran, other rivers flowed from what has become New Guinea – these rivers made it easy for people to move and interchange between people of the western Cape, Arnhem Land, the Gulf Region and New Guinea. When sea levels rose, the contact between the West Cape Region and the Gulf Region were severed, but that created opportunity for travel by sea. In this region the shorelines are flat with low sand dunes and grassy plains; gradually there are hills covered in woodland. It is noted that the north of the region has links with the Torres Strait Region, and the south of the region has links with the Gulf Region.
The East Cape Region
The East Cape Region has rich environment, with distinctive styles of rock art featuring simple figurative paintings. This region is significantly material in culture with elements such as outrigger canoes and harpoons, as well as music, mythology and ritual – aspects derived from the Torres Strait. The East Cape York differs from the West through its stronger links with the Torres Strait, this is emphasised through their use of marine resources, patterns of land ownership and initiation.
The Torres Strait Region
The Torres Strait Region in characterised by over 100 islands in the seas between Cape York and Papua New Guinea. Each of these islands provided opportunity for hunting, fishing, picking coconuts, cutting wood etc., only 20 of these islands provide enough water for human life to live there permanently. The population of the island was around 4-5 thousand when Europeans arrived in the second half of the 19th century. The eastern Islanders grew yams, bananas, coconuts and other fruits and vegetables in the fertile volcanic soil. The central Islanders lived as fisherman and traders, as a result of the inability of the sandbanks to allow for growth of other resources. The western Islanders lived in rocky islands where they were able to provide abundant sources of wild vegetable foods, specialising in the hunting of turtle and dugong – plentiful in this area. Worship took the form of singing and dancing, where people imported birds of paradise and elements such as feathers for decoration of themselves on special occasions.
The Gulf Region
The Gulf Region was one area in Australia most affected by the rising sea levels. Its southern margins were flat swampy plains covered in woodland, providing food sources for people living in the area. However in the last 16 000 years rising sea levels have covered the area quite quickly, due to its flat surface. This has caused a loss of land, but also problems such as a loss of productivity due to the constant changing conditions. It has been noted that there are trade links in this region with the Arnhem Region and down into the Lake Eyre Basin.
The Rainforest Region
The Rainforest Region is a mountainous tropic region on the northeast coast of Queensland – having the highest rainfall average in Australia. The region is inhabited by people who speak a distinctive language, although it is clearly related to those around them. The rainforest is resource rich, but requires particular tools for the retrieval of these resources; these include unique baskets, ropes for climbing trees, food graters and nut-cracking stones. The shields and bodies of the people were decorated in bright colours, and fights were resolved with hardwood ‘swords’.
The Northeast Region
The Northeast Region was a people of ranges and rivers, of tropic seas and islands. The people in this region spoke the Marric group of
languages, and were known as Murris (the word for Aboriginal people in those languages). On the coast people hunted dugong turtles with harpoons, they built fish traps and used large nets/ small hand-held nets – fishing was easy for the people in this region. Large nets were also used in the inland areas for emu and kangaroo – this was more difficult than on the coast. When Waterholes dried up people from inland went to the larger rivers or even to the coast, which was possible as a result of trade links –goods such as shells were traded, used as pendants found inland. The same thing occurred after the 1820s, although what was travelling inland was smallpox, then sheep and cattle, and then Native Police. The people of this area were destroyed; groups were reduced from thousands to hundreds, and by the end of the 19th century the towns were thriving but with little remains of the Murris People.
The Eyre Region
The Eyre Region covers the northeast of South Australia and the southwest of Queensland. This region is the driest part of Australia; it’s the only region without seasonal rainfall and one of the warmest regions. It encompasses a series of channels which once contained mighty rivers, although when there is heavy rainfall in Queensland’s west these rivers flow again. When water is present animal resources are present, and as it recedes the land becomes green with vegetation until it completely dries out again. The people of this region had a lifestyle representative of the changing environment. In good seasons large groups gathered to harvest food and hold ceremonies; in poor seasons people lived in smaller groups, making use of the resources they had – this ever changing environment meant that people were always travelling, making use of trade links when resources were rare.
The Desert Region
The Desert Region is low in rainfall, where when rivers contain water it is only brief. There are sandy areas and mountain ranges, which are watered and provide more resources although these are few and far between. Due to this fact population density in the past has varied to as low as 1 person per
200 square meters, and 1 person per 13 square meters in better parts of the ranges. It is evident here that the limited population is influenced by the rarity in food sources and lack of water in the majority of the region; featured in stories, songs and paintings of people and the waterholes.
The Northwest Region
The Northwest region is a region of many contrasting landscapes which takes in two major districts. In the west are the wide and low-lying coastal plains and inland are the low tablelands; there are also a series of elongated islands offshore. Art sites in this region include Gallery Hill, Skew Valley and Depuch Island. During the colonial period many people in this region were killed in massacres, e.g. the Flying Foam Passage in 1872, where 60 men, women and children were killed by settlers.
The Southwest Region
The Southwest Region is located in the southwest corner of Western Australia, home to people speaking various dialects of the Nyungar
language. The western coastal plain was a woodland area with various resources, facing the Indian Ocean. The ranges were forested with karri and jarrah trees, running from the coastline through the inland hills to the north; east of the inland hills was an area giving way to desert. The Southwest Region had rich aquatic resources, but did not use fishhooks or nets, rather spears and traps and avoided swimming in the areas. Similarly, much of their activity occurred in the woodland areas rather than the forest areas. The people of the Southwest Region adapted reasonably well to the cool winter climate; this is highlighted with their material culture, where cloaks were made from kangaroo skins stitched together. Initiation ceremonies are noted to have been significantly different here, in comparison to the desert regions.
The Spencer Region
The Spencer Region, as identified in the Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia, is known as the region of contradictions. The people in this region showed uniformity in their languages, the decoration of their skin, and many ceremonies and Dreamings were common to all. With this understanding, it is evident that the geographic proximately of this region is relatively close, allowing for easy contact and communication, and similarity in the people’s missionary histories. Although the area was small, the region still offered considerable variety; people in the south had access to resources of the sea, people in the north lived in the desert, and the region was split in half by the Mount Lofty and Flinders ranges, showing a difference in initiation ceremonies between the east and west of the region.
The Riverine Region
The Riverine Region is said to represent a great amphitheatre. Rain falls in the arc of the mountains in southern Queensland, coming down to western Victoria. There were freshwater lakes fed by rivers, and higher rainfall in the mountains, influencing fertile soils in the slopes and plains. Food and water resources allowed human populations to grow, where the presence of rivers and the open terrain influenced easy communication despite various cultural, social and linguistic features around the region. In the 1950s this region was one where the Aboriginal Protection Boards ran riot, people of the region survived and cultural revival will ensure survival in the future.
The Tasmania Region
The Tasmania Region is one of two regions not connected to the other countries (i.e. the Torres Strait). This occurred as a result of the rising seas, isolating the region totally from the rest of Australia for nearly 8 000 years. The Tasmania Region is divided geographically into four – the east, the mountains, the west coast, and the offshore islands. The east and west of the region were inhabited by people, but differences have been identified in language, culture and economy. The mountains were inhabited at some stage but not permanently, similar to the notion that the offshore islands have not been inhabited permanently either – although these areas provided resources such as seals and sea birds for the people. The Tasmania Region was rich in food, and there were extensive trade routes and large ceremonial gatherings, although language and culture is different to those from mainland Australia.
The Southeast Region
The Southeast Region is on the coast and the mountains. This region experiences high rainfall, and short but permanent rivers. The resources here are rich and reliable; therefore there was a high population density in this region and a relatively sedentary lifestyle. Movement and alliances occurred along the coast and between coast and inland, with an emphasis on maintaining relationships rather than for economic reasons. Within this Region is the Eora Nation (this is the nation we identify ourselves with, and pay respect to in our everyday lives). The Eora Nation is identified in the present day as Sydney, neighbouring the people of the Kuring-Gai, Thurawal and Dharug Nations. People of the Eora Nation were people of the Harbour and beaches; women fished from canoes with a hook and line, men fished from rocks with multi-pronged spears. Lobster was caught with small hoop nets, and shelf-fish were prised from rocks or dug from the sand and mud.
To have a closer look at the Regions and Nations of Australia, take a look at the ABCs interactive map below.
http://www.abc.net.au/indigenous/map/
In Australia there are 18 regions, all of which encompass the presence of a diversity of Nations. The regions include: the Kimberly Region, North Region, Fitzmaurice Region, Arnhem Region, West Cape Region, East Cape Region, Torres Strait Region, Gulf Region, Rainforest Region, Northeast Region, Eyre Region, Desert Region, Northwest Region, Southwest Region, Spencer Region, Riverine Region, Tasmania Region, and Southeast Region.
The Kimberly Region
The Kimberly Region is located on the north-western corner of Australia. The region is rugged with tropical summer rains, high summer temperatures and woodland vegetation, bordered on the south by desert. Linguistically there are roughly 27 languages, in 5 distinct language groups. The Kimberly is one of the major rock art regions of Australia, and has formed a major trading focus with pearl shell. In the 1920s, there was the Forrest River massacre, and from the 1950s onwards there was major disruptions cause by agricultural and mining industries. This country was observed by Europeans early on, although due to the rugged terrain it was one of the last regions to be colonised.
The North Region
The North Region is a low-lying tropical region, with strong summer rainfall, warm temperatures, open eucalypt forests, slow moving rivers and mangrove swamps – it is a region of change due to the rising and falling of seas. Changes in this region have been recorded through art, where the painting of passing people, dancing, hunting, and an incorporation of outsiders has been evident. Buffalo have had a major impact on the region, as a result of the activities of the animals and the hunting that occurred through them. It is noted that there is geographical variation in the east and west of the North Region. The social organisations of people in the west were found to identify with language groups, while people in the east use clan membership as principle in their organisations.
The Fitzmaurice Region
The Fitzmaurice Region is a low-lying region with coastal swamps, black soil plains, patches of dense jungle, open forest, grassland, large rivers, rugged sandstone ridges and limestone ranges. Evidently there are natural resources coming from the river country, a sharp contrast to the
desert-like nature of the inland country and ranges. Here the people’s exploits include productions of stone arrangements and tools, as well as rock art and galleries filled with colourful paintings and pecked engravings. It has been noted that in the past the Fitzmaurice Region traded its stone arrangements for pearl from the Kimberly Region. Although from the late 1800s European and Chinese Miners and farmers moved inland to try several agricultural enterprises. By the late 1930s most Aboriginal natives to the region were attached to farms, stations or army bases, while children were removed under the Assimilation Policy.
The Arnhem Region
The Arnhem Region is a tropical region, with mostly dry woodland, divided between coast and inland. This country has a rich artistic and religious heritage, being one of the last regions to be affected by Europeans, and one of the first to have contact with the outside – Macassans. In 1931 the region was declared unsuited to European activities, although was affected by the Macassans, miners and missionaries in the coastal areas – the coast acted as a point of contact. Consequently, Christianity had a great impact; people were distant to the wider Australian economy, but received income from mining
royalties, bark painting and tourism.
The West Cape Region
The West Cape Region there was a central lake into which rivers ran, other rivers flowed from what has become New Guinea – these rivers made it easy for people to move and interchange between people of the western Cape, Arnhem Land, the Gulf Region and New Guinea. When sea levels rose, the contact between the West Cape Region and the Gulf Region were severed, but that created opportunity for travel by sea. In this region the shorelines are flat with low sand dunes and grassy plains; gradually there are hills covered in woodland. It is noted that the north of the region has links with the Torres Strait Region, and the south of the region has links with the Gulf Region.
The East Cape Region
The East Cape Region has rich environment, with distinctive styles of rock art featuring simple figurative paintings. This region is significantly material in culture with elements such as outrigger canoes and harpoons, as well as music, mythology and ritual – aspects derived from the Torres Strait. The East Cape York differs from the West through its stronger links with the Torres Strait, this is emphasised through their use of marine resources, patterns of land ownership and initiation.
The Torres Strait Region
The Torres Strait Region in characterised by over 100 islands in the seas between Cape York and Papua New Guinea. Each of these islands provided opportunity for hunting, fishing, picking coconuts, cutting wood etc., only 20 of these islands provide enough water for human life to live there permanently. The population of the island was around 4-5 thousand when Europeans arrived in the second half of the 19th century. The eastern Islanders grew yams, bananas, coconuts and other fruits and vegetables in the fertile volcanic soil. The central Islanders lived as fisherman and traders, as a result of the inability of the sandbanks to allow for growth of other resources. The western Islanders lived in rocky islands where they were able to provide abundant sources of wild vegetable foods, specialising in the hunting of turtle and dugong – plentiful in this area. Worship took the form of singing and dancing, where people imported birds of paradise and elements such as feathers for decoration of themselves on special occasions.
The Gulf Region
The Gulf Region was one area in Australia most affected by the rising sea levels. Its southern margins were flat swampy plains covered in woodland, providing food sources for people living in the area. However in the last 16 000 years rising sea levels have covered the area quite quickly, due to its flat surface. This has caused a loss of land, but also problems such as a loss of productivity due to the constant changing conditions. It has been noted that there are trade links in this region with the Arnhem Region and down into the Lake Eyre Basin.
The Rainforest Region
The Rainforest Region is a mountainous tropic region on the northeast coast of Queensland – having the highest rainfall average in Australia. The region is inhabited by people who speak a distinctive language, although it is clearly related to those around them. The rainforest is resource rich, but requires particular tools for the retrieval of these resources; these include unique baskets, ropes for climbing trees, food graters and nut-cracking stones. The shields and bodies of the people were decorated in bright colours, and fights were resolved with hardwood ‘swords’.
The Northeast Region
The Northeast Region was a people of ranges and rivers, of tropic seas and islands. The people in this region spoke the Marric group of
languages, and were known as Murris (the word for Aboriginal people in those languages). On the coast people hunted dugong turtles with harpoons, they built fish traps and used large nets/ small hand-held nets – fishing was easy for the people in this region. Large nets were also used in the inland areas for emu and kangaroo – this was more difficult than on the coast. When Waterholes dried up people from inland went to the larger rivers or even to the coast, which was possible as a result of trade links –goods such as shells were traded, used as pendants found inland. The same thing occurred after the 1820s, although what was travelling inland was smallpox, then sheep and cattle, and then Native Police. The people of this area were destroyed; groups were reduced from thousands to hundreds, and by the end of the 19th century the towns were thriving but with little remains of the Murris People.
The Eyre Region
The Eyre Region covers the northeast of South Australia and the southwest of Queensland. This region is the driest part of Australia; it’s the only region without seasonal rainfall and one of the warmest regions. It encompasses a series of channels which once contained mighty rivers, although when there is heavy rainfall in Queensland’s west these rivers flow again. When water is present animal resources are present, and as it recedes the land becomes green with vegetation until it completely dries out again. The people of this region had a lifestyle representative of the changing environment. In good seasons large groups gathered to harvest food and hold ceremonies; in poor seasons people lived in smaller groups, making use of the resources they had – this ever changing environment meant that people were always travelling, making use of trade links when resources were rare.
The Desert Region
The Desert Region is low in rainfall, where when rivers contain water it is only brief. There are sandy areas and mountain ranges, which are watered and provide more resources although these are few and far between. Due to this fact population density in the past has varied to as low as 1 person per
200 square meters, and 1 person per 13 square meters in better parts of the ranges. It is evident here that the limited population is influenced by the rarity in food sources and lack of water in the majority of the region; featured in stories, songs and paintings of people and the waterholes.
The Northwest Region
The Northwest region is a region of many contrasting landscapes which takes in two major districts. In the west are the wide and low-lying coastal plains and inland are the low tablelands; there are also a series of elongated islands offshore. Art sites in this region include Gallery Hill, Skew Valley and Depuch Island. During the colonial period many people in this region were killed in massacres, e.g. the Flying Foam Passage in 1872, where 60 men, women and children were killed by settlers.
The Southwest Region
The Southwest Region is located in the southwest corner of Western Australia, home to people speaking various dialects of the Nyungar
language. The western coastal plain was a woodland area with various resources, facing the Indian Ocean. The ranges were forested with karri and jarrah trees, running from the coastline through the inland hills to the north; east of the inland hills was an area giving way to desert. The Southwest Region had rich aquatic resources, but did not use fishhooks or nets, rather spears and traps and avoided swimming in the areas. Similarly, much of their activity occurred in the woodland areas rather than the forest areas. The people of the Southwest Region adapted reasonably well to the cool winter climate; this is highlighted with their material culture, where cloaks were made from kangaroo skins stitched together. Initiation ceremonies are noted to have been significantly different here, in comparison to the desert regions.
The Spencer Region
The Spencer Region, as identified in the Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia, is known as the region of contradictions. The people in this region showed uniformity in their languages, the decoration of their skin, and many ceremonies and Dreamings were common to all. With this understanding, it is evident that the geographic proximately of this region is relatively close, allowing for easy contact and communication, and similarity in the people’s missionary histories. Although the area was small, the region still offered considerable variety; people in the south had access to resources of the sea, people in the north lived in the desert, and the region was split in half by the Mount Lofty and Flinders ranges, showing a difference in initiation ceremonies between the east and west of the region.
The Riverine Region
The Riverine Region is said to represent a great amphitheatre. Rain falls in the arc of the mountains in southern Queensland, coming down to western Victoria. There were freshwater lakes fed by rivers, and higher rainfall in the mountains, influencing fertile soils in the slopes and plains. Food and water resources allowed human populations to grow, where the presence of rivers and the open terrain influenced easy communication despite various cultural, social and linguistic features around the region. In the 1950s this region was one where the Aboriginal Protection Boards ran riot, people of the region survived and cultural revival will ensure survival in the future.
The Tasmania Region
The Tasmania Region is one of two regions not connected to the other countries (i.e. the Torres Strait). This occurred as a result of the rising seas, isolating the region totally from the rest of Australia for nearly 8 000 years. The Tasmania Region is divided geographically into four – the east, the mountains, the west coast, and the offshore islands. The east and west of the region were inhabited by people, but differences have been identified in language, culture and economy. The mountains were inhabited at some stage but not permanently, similar to the notion that the offshore islands have not been inhabited permanently either – although these areas provided resources such as seals and sea birds for the people. The Tasmania Region was rich in food, and there were extensive trade routes and large ceremonial gatherings, although language and culture is different to those from mainland Australia.
The Southeast Region
The Southeast Region is on the coast and the mountains. This region experiences high rainfall, and short but permanent rivers. The resources here are rich and reliable; therefore there was a high population density in this region and a relatively sedentary lifestyle. Movement and alliances occurred along the coast and between coast and inland, with an emphasis on maintaining relationships rather than for economic reasons. Within this Region is the Eora Nation (this is the nation we identify ourselves with, and pay respect to in our everyday lives). The Eora Nation is identified in the present day as Sydney, neighbouring the people of the Kuring-Gai, Thurawal and Dharug Nations. People of the Eora Nation were people of the Harbour and beaches; women fished from canoes with a hook and line, men fished from rocks with multi-pronged spears. Lobster was caught with small hoop nets, and shelf-fish were prised from rocks or dug from the sand and mud.
To have a closer look at the Regions and Nations of Australia, take a look at the ABCs interactive map below.
http://www.abc.net.au/indigenous/map/