Talk:Aboriginal Australians

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This article is written in Australian English, which has its own spelling conventions (centre, colour, realise, program, travelled) and some terms may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

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Guideline for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples terminology

Be conscious of the unique, diverse and distinct identities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and understand the use of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is as a collective name.

Collective names used to describe Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples:
When writing about both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, use terms such as:

First Nations Australians
First Australians
Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples
First Peoples

Although "Indigenous Australians" is in common use, and is used to encompass both Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islander people, many First Nations Australians feel the term diminishes their identity and should be avoided; however, where the word "Indigenous" forms part of an acronym to describe entities, organisations, or government departments the use is acceptable.

When used, the words Indigenous, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, First Nations, First Peoples, and First Australians are capitalised.

Note: Never use the collective name "Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander" peoples as it misrepresents the identity of Torres Strait Islander peoples as not being the original inhabitants of islands in the Torres Strait.

Self-identifying terms:
Be specific where possible by using the name of the group or community with whom the people you are referring to identify.

Murri is usually used by Aboriginal people in and from Queensland and north-west New South Wales
Goori is usually used by Aboriginal people in and from northern New South Wales coastal regions
Koori is usually used by Aboriginal people in and from parts of New South Wales and Victoria

This is not an exhaustive list

Language that can be discriminatory or offensive and should be avoided:

shorthand terms like "Aborigines", "Islanders"
abbreviations like "ATSI", "A&TSI", "1st Nations"
using terms like "myth", "legend" or "folklore" when referring to the beliefs of First Nations peoples
terms like "part-aborigine", "full-blood", "half-caste", "quarter-caste", "octoroon", "mulatto", "hybrid"
terms like "tribe", "horde", "band", "clan", "moiety"

This is not an exhaustive list

Note: It is acceptable to use abbreviations in your communications when they form part of an acronym, a web address or an organisation (e.g. AIATSIS, NAIDOC, www.atsi.org.au). Using an acronym or abbreviation to describe a race of people can be offensive and discriminatory.

For further information, please refer to:

Australian Government Style Manual
Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
University of New South Wales
Griffith University

Terminology can change over time and, where possible, it is best practice to find out what the preferred term is from the respective Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander group or individual you are referring to. For further guidance, please see the Australian Government Style Guide

Dating migrations to Australia (2)

Latest comment: 9 months ago1 comment1 person in discussion

Following the brief comments by Aemilius Adolphin on my talk page regarding my recent addition of the new genomic study, suggesting slightly different wording, I'm just just bringing it to the talk page for the record. I now see that there has been previous extensive discussion about the topic, and I don't have the time nor brain to focus on this at the moment, so I'm happy to go with AA's suggestion of changing all the relevant articles on Australian/Indigenous history/prehistory to something like: "Archaeological evidence suggests that Aboriginal Australians first arrived in Australia 55,000-65,000 years ago, while genomic evidence indicates an arrival date of 47,000-60,000 years ago."

As a side note - we don't seem to have any citations from Billy Griffiths' excellent work Deep Time Dreaming, which, if I recall correctly, was quite convincing about dating Madjedbebe to 65,000 years.

Also, what about shuffling the lead slightly, to put para. 5 after para. 2? (Ideally, all of the citations should come out of the lead and into the body, per WP:LEADFOLLOWSBODY, but that will have to wait for another day.) Laterthanyouthink (talk) 00:11, 3 December 2025 (UTC)Reply

Aboriginal numbers

Latest comment: 12 days ago2 comments2 people in discussion

This article only mentions a figure of 314,500 for the aboriginal population when Europeans arrived to colonise in 1788. This seems rather dated. The current estimates based on archeological evidence by Australian government sources is 750,000. National Geographic suggests between 750,000 and over 1 million. Newer studies suggest the figure could be 3 million.

None of these are based on hard evidence and I'm hesitant to change the article having no other evidence. But shouldn't it be updated? Chris55 (talk) 18:28, 19 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

See now also Shepherd, Tory (15 September 2026). "Australia's Indigenous population estimated at 2.2m before 'demographic catastrophe' of colonisation". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 September 2026. Errantios (talk) 12:38, 15 September 2026 (UTC)Reply

to dream or not to dream

Latest comment: 1 month ago1 comment1 person in discussion

"Many Dreamtime stories are still believed by many Indigenous Australians to this day." That contradicts that "1% were affiliated to a traditional Aboriginal religion."

The second qoute is about statistics sourced by australian gouvernment. The first is a pop-cultural magazine, which says nothing about the amount of people believing in Dreamtime. (While it does state interesting ideas about dreamtime, like "For example, if a battle took place the blood from the wounds of the Warriors would seep into the land and become red ochre.", it is missing sources and scientific method and it does not say, what is written in wikepedia.) ~2026-45818-96 (talk) 08:58, 23 August 2026 (UTC)Reply