Indigenous Australians: Living and progressing in the new millennium. | Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago. The Torres Strait Islanders are indigenous to the Torres Strait Islands, which are at the northern-most tip of Queensland near Papua New Guinea. The term "Aboriginal" has traditionally been applied to indigenous inhabitants of mainland Australia, Tasmania, and some of the other adjacent islands.

The purposes of this site is to be an independent voice discussing issues that Indigenous peoples of Australia face.

Indigenous Australian’s represent approximately 2.5% of the total population. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture is the oldest continuous culture in the the world. The current estimates indicate that we have inhabited Australia and surrounding smaller islands for at least 50,000 years.

Our culture was changed forever in 1788 when the British colonised Australia and used the term “terra nullius”

“Terra nullius ( /?t?r? n??la?.?s/) is a Latin expression deriving from Roman law meaning “land belonging to no one” (or “no man’s land”),[1] which is used in international law to describe territory which has never been subject to the sovereignty of any state, or over which any prior sovereign has expressly or implicitly relinquished sovereignty. Sovereignty over territory which is terra nullius may be acquired through occupation,[2] though in some cases doing so would violate an international law or treaty.”

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_nullius

The Australian Federal Government collects data on Aboriginal people via a nation census.

INDIGENOUS POPULATION

Census Counts

“The number of people identified as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin in the 2006 Census was 455,028 representing 2.3% of the total Australian population, as counted in the Census. This is an increase of 11% since the 2001 Census, compared with an increase of 3.8% in the non-Indigenous population over the same period. Over the past 20 years, the Census count of Indigenous people has doubled from 227,593 in 1986. Much of the growth in the Indigenous population can be explained by natural increase (births minus deaths). Other non-demographic factors, such as improvements in Census collection methods and people identified as being of Indigenous origin for the first time in the Census, also contribute to the growth.
Among people identified as Indigenous in 2006, 90% were of Aboriginal origin only, 6% were of Torres Strait Islander origin only and 4% were of both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin.”

Source: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/B7164C771F4A35D7CA2578DB00283CB1?opendocument

The issues that Australian Indigenous people face include:

Lower levels of formal education
Higher levels of unemployment
Lower socioeconomic status
Poorer health determinants e.g. heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease
Shorter life expectancy
Increased rates of incarceration in jail
Endemic discrimination, racism and stigma