Settlement Guide: Australia's First Peoples

Australia's First Peoples are the world's oldest living civilization dating back some 50,000 years according to a recent genetic study by an international team of academics. Indigenous Australians are people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent, together they form 3.3% per cent of the national population, based on the 2016 Census. The 1788 European settlement resulted in a series of discriminatory policies against the traditional owners of the land with devastating effects on their civil rights and the survival of traditions, culture and languages. The 2016 Australian Reconciliation Barometer shows that only 34 percent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians believe that non-Aboriginal Australians have trust in them.

Credit: Amy Chie-Yu Wang