About Australia (Aboriginal People)
The future
Improvements in health and education have led to a revival of interest in their own culture for many Aboriginal people. Languages that have fallen into disuse are being relearned. Ceremonies and art forms that have been forgotten are being revived through research and reconstruction. Links with land and family that have been torn apart are being reforged. The benefits of this revitalization flow on to visitors to Aboriginal Australia. Aboriginal tour companies are introducing visitors to the ancient law, cultural history and culinary possibilities of the land.  011966.jpg (322769 bytes)

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Aboriginal dance theatres are staging new productions of great originality and imagination, and are reinterpreting ancient dance forms for modern audiences. Aboriginal authors and poets are publishing major new works that present unique and indigenous viewpoints. Aboriginal painters and sculptors, using a mix of traditional and modern techniques and forms, are producing vivid and exciting works of art. Aboriginal national parks are introducing visitors to an ancient and alternative view of the natural landscape. There has never been a time when these most ancient of cultures have been more accessible to visitors.

Despite this, Aboriginal people remain at a considerable disadvantage, exacerbated by the halving of the Aboriginal welfare budget by the incumbent Liberal government in 1996, and the uncertainty caused by the Mabo and Wik decisions which potentially put over three-quarters of the country (including virtually all of Western Australia) under land claim. In early 1999 the Australian government was censured twice about its Aboriginal policies by key international bodies. 

The World Heritage Committee of UNESCO threatened to place Kakadu National Park on the World Heritage Under Threat list if the government proceeds with plans to open a second uranium mine within the park against the wishes of the traditional owners of the land. The government’s Wik legislation, which attempts to effectively extinguish Native Title on pastoral leases, received sharp criticism from the United Nations Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which judge that the provisions of the legislation are inconsistent with the International Convention to which Australia is a signatory.

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