Aboriginal Australia

The word "aboriginal" means "the first" or "earliest known". The word was first used in Italy and Greece to describe people who lived there, natives or old inhabitants, not newcomers, or invaders.

Whatever their early history, Aboriginals had settled throughout the entire continent many thousands of years before the white man came and had evolved a way of living that was in harmony with the environment, and that satisfied their needs. Because Australia was isolated from the rest of the world, Aboriginals had little contact with outside groups from whom to "borrow" techniques, to trade goods, to acquire crop seeds, or animals, as was happening in the North of the world. It was only for a few centuries prior to white settlement that visitors came from islands to the north. However, the Aboriginals adjusted to the environment, learned to understand it and gained the maximum from it.

Your task is to find out something about Aboriginal History by completing all or some of the activities from the alphabetical list of words.

You will need to download the template, save it (file name = your name and class), complete it as you go and then print it out when you finish for marking.

1. Open the Task Sheet and read through all the tasks. Save a copy of it - you'll be filling in the answers as you go so it's important you save it somewhere you can easily access it again and again.

2. Scroll down this page. At the bottom of this page you will find links for each part of the task. 'Click' on each word to find the information you will need to complete the tasks.

3. You will have some class time to work through this webquest. You can also access it from home using Moodle.

Links