Aborigines of Australia

"Aborigines of Australia: Original Peoples" by Richard Robyn Holder. Rourke Publications, Inc. FL 1987, ISBN 0-086625-262-2, HC 48 pgs. 6 Chapters and 3 pgs of Glossary & Index. 10" x 8". Plethora of color photographs. This book was written to provide a good overview of the Aborigines of Australia with readership gauged for teens and children. This large-format book is replete with one of more color photographs on every page, and it encompasses the story of the Aborigines from origins some 1,000 years ago, their migration from Asia and settlements throughout Australia of some many hundreds of different tribes all speaking different tongue and only in recent times having a written language. There is a succinct discussion of their Religion: "Dreaming or Dreamtime" that explores their creation or origin and their worldly views given to them by Ancestral Beings. Their lands are sacred, kinship well-structured with defined social order for children and adults. Of interest is their treatment by the migrant Australians who a various times took over their lands, used them akin to slaves, kept them in reservations and attempted to force religion upon them. And only more recently did they seriously bring about reclaim of identity by self-determination. For many years they were kept on Aboriginal Reservations. Attempts to have them assimilated into the mainstream failed. The missionaries also failed in their attempt to make Christians of them. The Aborigines (traditional) were finally given inalienable rights to lands in portions of north coastal Australia, its central core and a small patch on the Southern coast only after passage of the 1976 Land Rights Act. Ayers Rock, incidentally, is one of their sacred sites. Currently they have access to legal and medical services and Land Council. The long-term outlook for this Race of peoples, however, appears dim. For those who have seen or plan to see the movie "Australia", this book is a great start. finis

I find this book both pictorially good and written well it is imformative and intresting it compells you to learn more about the indigenous peoples of australia Angie L