history+-+abbo

ABORIGINES HISTORY:
The first Aborigines probably came to Australia about 40 - 60 000 years ago. They came across the Indian Ocean, from South - East Asia. The Aborigines got their name from the word “aboriginal”, which means the same as “earliest known” or “the first”. And by the name we can see that the aborigines were the first people in Australia. About 300 000 – 1000 000 aborigines lived in Australia before the Europeans came to Australia.

It was in the 18th century 12 British ships came from England. James Cook discovered Australia and suggested that Britain’s worst prisoners a  nd officers came from England and took over the country. They made Australia into a penal colony and the A

[[image:aborigines_people.jpg align="right"]]
borigines was killed or taken to prisoners. The reason why this happened is because James Cook suggested using the new discovered land as a place where some of the prisoners could do their time. Most of the Aborigines were killed by the affection the  Europeans came with.

During the 1900, Aborigines worked as stockmen on sheep stations and cattle stations. In this period they got to vote. Not all Aborigines voted, only those who "merged" into normal society did. In Olympic games in 1992 Cathy Freeman became the first Aboriginal to represent her country in track and field. Two years later she made her international breakthrough by winning the 400 meters at the Commonwealth Games. However, her victory on the track was overshadowed by the fact that she ran a lap of honour carrying both the aboriginal and Australian flags which was a demonstration of her cultural identity//.// Cathy Freeman was openly used by her country as a symbol of the reconciliation between the modern generation of Australia and indigenous people, who were so brutally treated in the past.

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