actually hereβs a bunch of aboriginal stuff for yβall to learn
donβt climb uluru (itβs sacred and incredibly disrespectful)
do NOT play the didgeridoo/yirdaki if youβre white/not aboriginal (ESPECIALLY if youβre a woman - women arenβt 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 youβre invited in by the community
if youβre 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. donβt be ignorant and ask someone if theyΒ βspeak aboriginalβ
usually when we speak about our language/country, however, we just call them βlanguageβ/βcountryβ (e.g.Β βi speak languageβ/βout on countryβ)
DONβT EVER askΒ βhow muchβ orΒ βwhat percentageβ indigenous someone is - itβs incredibly offensive considering the australian governmentβs policy of kidnapping lightskinned indigenous kids from their families toΒ βbring them up whiteβ andΒ βbetter the bloodlineβ. due to this + centuries of colonisation we can look like anything and weβre 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. iβm not torres strait islander so i donβt 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 donβt have to follow this tradition but itβs appreciated if you do
certain terms are seen as offensive by some, such asΒ βaborigineβ, so itβs 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 werenβt all nomadic peoples - thereβs 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)
donβt 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 yβall are more than likely to bastardise the shit out of them. just donβt touch them.
anyway thereβs 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