Well it does have an impact on our society still. You'd be blind to not notice.
Did you see the opening ceremony for the Olympics?
Did you see Australia?
Do you know of Cathy Freeman, David Gulpilil, Noel Pearson, Lionel Rose, Neville Bonner, Aden Ridgeway, Ernie Dingo, etc, etc, etc.?
Are you aware of Australian Aborigines?
Do you recognise them as indigenous to Australia?
Do you recognise they were here before European settlement and that they are still here?
Do you deny that Aborigines had an impact on the development of the Australian culture, language and character?
Do you know what a boomerang is? A didgeridoo? A billabong? A kangaroo? Humpy? Corroboree?
Do you know what "gone walkabout" means?
Where is the opera house?
Whats woomera?
Heard of native title or mabo?
Can you recognise Aboriginal Artwork?
Quote:Aboriginal words have always had a very prominent use in Australian English. For example, Australia’s unofficial national anthem, Waltzing Matilda, uses Aboriginal words like coolibah, jumbuck and billabong. Likewise, most of rural Australia has been given Aboriginal names like Wagga Wagga, Joondalup, Bondi, Yakadanda.
Perhaps the lazy way that Australians are perceived to speak is a result of using the Aboriginal words. The Aboriginal words generally end with a vowel sound, which is quite smooth and pleasant on the ear. It is possible that the use of the diminuitive, such as shortening words like journalist to journo, was a way of smoothing over the rough edges of British English in order to gain more consistency with the smoother Aboriginal English.
http://www.convictcreations.com/culture/aborigines.html
Quote:Aboriginal identities
As the colony expanded out from Sydney, the Europeans came into conflict with Aborigines over land. Although tribal identities remained, the Europeans started to take the place of rival tribes as the principle enemy.
Although there was hostility, there was also friendship. Some Aborigines left their tribes and formed good relations with the native born. They worked as droving hands and sang songs with the other drovers. Aside from being admired for their lyrical ability, they were admired for their bush skills. In a sense, their knowledge of the land had them admired as the protypical bushman.
Reflecting the admiration for the Aborigines is the use of Aboriginal place names for rural Australia.
Quote:The Aboriginal Victim
By the end of World War II, Aboriginal tribal identities had eroded to the extent that white people stopped seeing differences between Aboriginal tribes and instead began viewing them as a homogenous out-group. Names for individual tribes faded away and instead Aborigines, the generic word for an indigenous population, came into use by default.
Aborigines also stopped thinking in cultural terms and instead began to think of themselves in racial terms. Blacks were part of their in-group while all whites were the out-group invaders. Asians were in an undefined category.
Aborigines developed a strong identification with black power movements from America. They assimilated rap music, and the baggy style of clothes. Oddly, many Aborigines became Rastarian; except they dropped the green from the colour coding. (Rastafarism is a pseudo-Christian based religion developed by the descendents of slaves wanting to show pride in their African heritage. Its name comes from Prince Rastafari of Ethiopia.)
Perhaps assessments of Aborigines also went downhill in mainstream society. When the bush was held up as the "true Australia" the Aborigines were celebrated as the prototypical bushmen. As the bush lost its iconic status, so too did the Aborigines that lived in it.
Expression - Aboriginal flag, protest marches, music, Aboriginal tent embassy, defiance of white authority
"Our world was shattered by the violence of the Invasion which began when the First Fleet of British Boat people arrived in 1788. Our people were decimated, as the invaders stole our country, imposed their own laws and systems of government on our peoples, forcing our people into concentration camps called "missions". " Aboriginal activist