actually hereâs a bunch of aboriginal stuff for yâall to learn
donât climb uluru (itâs sacred and incredibly disrespectful)
do NOT play the didgeridoo/yirdaki if youâre white/not aboriginal (ESPECIALLY if youâre a woman - women arenât allowed to play the yirdaki in our culture due to the belief they will become sick/pregnant/infertile (it varies depending on nation)) the ONLY exception to this is if youâre invited in by the community
if youâre going to buy a boomerang, get one from the community and also know that not all boomerangs come back! and not all nations use them either! same goes for art/other cultural stuff
there are AT LEAST 250 nations with ~300 languages and ~700 dialects. donât be ignorant and ask someone if they âspeak aboriginalâ
usually when we speak about our language/country, however, we just call them âlanguageâ/âcountryâ (e.g. âi speak languageâ/âout on countryâ)
DONâT EVER ask âhow muchâ or âwhat percentageâ indigenous someone is - itâs incredibly offensive considering the australian governmentâs policy of kidnapping lightskinned indigenous kids from their families to âbring them up whiteâ and âbetter the bloodlineâ. due to this + centuries of colonisation we can look like anything and weâre all STILL aboriginal. obviously there are still things such as white passing privilege but in an aboriginal context, there is a lot more nuance due to the stolen generations and extra sensitivity must be taken when discussing these topics
additionally aboriginal people are NOT the only indigenous australians, there are also the torres strait islanders who live in the torres strait islands in queensland. iâm not torres strait islander so i donât have much to say here (feel free to add on if you are though)
in a lot of our cultures, we are not allowed to say the names of the dead or view photos/listen to recordings of them, as we believe it disturbs their spirit. if you come across content featuring a deceased aboriginal person, it is very appreciated if you warn us that they are deceased. people who are not indigenous donât have to follow this tradition but itâs appreciated if you do
certain terms are seen as offensive by some, such as âaborigineâ, so itâs best not to use them. we also have a series of regional terms such as koori/goori/murri/palawa/nyoongar etc.
contrary to popular belief, we werenât all nomadic peoples - thereâs fishtraps + evidence of agricultural and villages of thousands of people all over australia, as well as possibly the OLDEST astronomical observatory in the WORLD (wurdi youang)
donât fucking appropriate the dreamtime (looking @ you white hippies/alternate lifestyles) - while we share some of these stories, a lot of these are exclusive and only for us and yâall are more than likely to bastardise the shit out of them. just donât touch them.
anyway thereâs a lot more i could add to this but this post is already really long so just send me questions/stuff if you want more thanks
and this always was, and always will be, aboriginal land