Australian Aboriginal Proverbs, Sayings, and Quotes

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“Traveler, there are no paths. Paths are made by walking.”
– Australian Aboriginal Proverb

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“Those who lose dreaming are lost.”
– Australian Aboriginal Proverb

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“We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home.”
– Australian Aboriginal Proverb

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“The more you know, the less you need.”
– Australian Aboriginal Saying

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“May as well be here, we are as where we are.”
– Australian Aboriginal Saying

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“Keep your eyes on the sun, and you will not see the shadows.”
– Australian Aboriginal Saying

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“The land owns us.”
– Australian Aboriginal Saying

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Australian Aboriginal Quotes

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“Here in Australia, we’re fortunate enough to have one of the richest and oldest continuing cultures in the world. This is something we should all be proud of and celebrate.”
– Tom Calma

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“Our spirituality is oneness and an interconnectedness with all that lives and breathes, even with all that does not live or breathe.”
– Mudrooroo

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“We cultivated our land, but in a way different from the white man. We endeavored to live with the land; they seemed to live off it. I was taught to preserve, never to destroy.”
– Tom Dystra

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“The land is my backbone… I only stand straight, happy, proud, and not ashamed about my color because I still have land… I think of land as the history of my nation.”
– Galarrwuy Yunipingu

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“We have our eye on the same destination – a sustainable future where Indigenous people are recognized for their wisdom and honored for their culture – there is no problem taking a different path to reach that place.”
– Kirstie Parker

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“The land is my mother. Like a human mother, the land gives us protection, enjoyment, and provides our needs – economic, social, and religious. We have a human relationship with the land: Mother, daughter, son. When the land is taken from us or destroyed, we feel hurt because we belong to the land, and we are part of it.”
– Djinyini Gondarra

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Uluru – The center of Australia

Words use in Aboriginal Culture

Before colonization, Australia was home to more than 250 languages and 600 dialects with a rich Aboriginal culture.

Billabong – a watercourse which runs only after it rains.
Boorie – a boy child.
Bunji – Aboriginal slang for mate or friend
Corroboree – an assembly of a sacred or festive character
Cooee – Meaning come here. It is a prolonged clear call, used most frequently in the bush to attract attention.
Deadly – in Aboriginal slang, deadly means awesome or great
Migaloo – a Ghost or spirit
Mob – Aboriginal culture, mob refers to kin or family
Tidda – means sister or female friends.
Yowie – used to describe a much-feared super-natural being
Coolamon – a multi-purpose curved wooden tray can be used for carrying infants, food, digging, and for burning leaves during smoking or cleansing ceremonies

Major Aboriginal Group Names

Koori – Aboriginal people from the South East of the Australian mainland
Noongar – Aboriginal people from the South West of the Australian mainland
Murri – Aboriginal people from Queensland & Far Northern NSW
Palawa – Aboriginal people of Tasmania
Yolngu – Indigenous groups in Northern Australia

Aboriginal Australians

The term “Aboriginal Australians” refers to the people who are members of the several hundred Indigenous peoples of Australia. The category “Aboriginal Australia” was coined by the British after they began colonizing Australia in 1788.

The term was used to refer collectively to all the people they found already inhabiting the continent, and later to the descendants of any of those people.

The Constitution of Australia, in its original form as of 1901, referred to Aboriginals twice, but without definition.

Before the British colonization of Australia, there existed several hundred groupings of Indigenous peoples of Australia with their own defined territory.

Within each region or country, people lived in clan groups: extended families defined by various forms of Australian Aboriginal kinship. Inter-clan contact was frequent, as was inter-country communication, but there were strict protocols around this contact.

The Australian Aboriginal languages, before colonization, consisting of over 300 languages belonging to an estimated twenty-eight language families.

Today, the most significant single language group of Aboriginal people live in the area around Uluru (Ayers Rock) and south into South Australia.

The second-largest Aboriginal distinct community lives in and around Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.

Australia

Country: Australia
Political Capital: Canberra
Largest City: Sydney
Language: Australian English
Demonyms: Australian, Aussie
Population 25 million

Virtual Tour of Aboriginal Artifacts and Stories

Australian Aboriginal English

Australian Aboriginal English is used by a large section of the Indigenous Australian population. It is made up of a number of varieties that developed differently in different parts of Australia.

There are generally distinctive features of accent, grammar, words, and meanings, as well as language use.

Speakers tend to change between different forms of Australian Aboriginal English depending on whom they are speaking to.

Aboriginal English

A Tour of Australian Museums

Museums in Australia

Museums in Sydney

Museums in Melbourne

Museums in Canberra

Museums in Brisbane

Museums in Perth

Museums in Adelaide

Museums in Hobart
- Museum of Old and New Art (MONA)
- Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery

Museums in Darwin

Explore Quotes

Australia

I’m Aboriginal, But I’m Not…

My stolen childhood, and a life to rebuild

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“Traveler, there are no paths. Paths are made by walking.”
– Aboriginal Proverb

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Photo Credit: By Graeme Churchard from Bristol (51.4414, -2.5242), UK (On the Barnett River, Mount Elizabeth Station) [CC BY 2.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons; Graeme Churchard from Bristol (51.4414, -2.5242), UK / CC BY (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)