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Exploring Australia

Creation and Discovery

Y ou would need to walk for more than five miles (nine km) to travel around the massive rock known as Uluru. A rchaeological evidence tells us that the ancestors of modern Aborigines arrived in Australia at least 50,000 years ago. Archaeologists have examined Aboriginal bones, stone tools, campsites and homes and have even found the fossilized remains of food that ancient Aborigines ate. But, unlike the scientists, traditional Aborigines believe that they have lived in Australia since the beginning of time. Aborigines call the beginning of time and the events which shaped their world the Dreamtime. Creation Aboriginal history has been passed on from generation to generation by word of mouth. This is called oral history. Ancient Aboriginal societies did not write down stories, but remembered them in songs and in paintings on bark, rock or human bodies. In Aboriginal Australia, every group had its own long and complicated creation history related to its land. Aboriginal history is closely tied to religious beliefs about the creation of the land during the Dreamtime.

T his Aboriginal rock carving from Ewaninga near Alice Springs is a record of Aboriginal history. Aboriginal rock carvings can be found all over Australia.

T his is an Aboriginal axe-head made from flint.

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