Cathy Freeman, an Australian runner of Aboriginal descent, wins the women’s 400–meter race at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.
Credit: © Tony Feder, Getty Images

On your mark, get set, make history! In 2000, Australian track star Cathy Freeman became the first Aboriginal athlete to win an individual gold medal when she finished first in the 400-meter race at the Summer Olympic Games in Sydney. Freeman also was chosen to light the Olympic torch at the opening ceremony. Freeman ran a successful career and then used her platform to work for equality for Aboriginal peoples.

Catherine Astrid Salome Freeman was born in Mackay, Queensland, on Feb. 16, 1973. She began running at a young age, running her first race when she was only 8 years old. In 1990, Freeman became the first Aboriginal athlete to win gold at the Commonwealth Games at the age of 16. Freeman became a controversial figure within Australia when she carried both the Australian and Aboriginal flags as she ran a lap of honor following her victories in the 200-meter and 400-meter finals at the Commonwealth Games in 1994.

The Commonwealth Games are a sports competition for members of the Commonwealth of Nations. The Commonwealth of Nations is an association of independent countries and other political units, most of which formerly lived under British law and government. Like the Olympic Games, the Commonwealth Games are held every four years. Athletes compete in such events as badminton, boxing, cycling, field hockey, lawn bowls, rugby sevens, squash, swimming and diving, track and field, and weightlifting.

The Aboriginal Peoples of Australia are the first people who lived in Australia and their descendants. Australia’s Aboriginal peoples include peoples of mainland Australia, Tasmania, and some other nearby islands. Historically, European colonizers controlled many aspects of life in Australia. As a result, Aboriginal people were denied the right to land, citizenship, and equal opportunities. In the mid and late 1990’s, government policy changes began opening doors for Aboriginal people. When Freeman was running as a national icon, Aboriginal people were still fighting for equal rights in Australia.

She was named Young Australian of the Year in 1990 and Australian of the Year in 1998, the only person to win both titles. Freeman won the silver medal for the 400-meter run at the 1996 Olympic Games, and she won the world title in the event in 1997 and 1999. In 2003, Freeman announced her retirement from athletic competition. In 2007, she founded the Cathy Freeman Foundation, which aims to close the educational gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children.

Australian Aboriginal Flag
Credit: © myphotobank.com.au/Shutterstock

On July 11, 2022, the New South Wales (NSW) state government announced the Aboriginal flag will fly permanently on the Sydney Harbor Bridge after a five-year campaign by advocates. The Sydney Harbour Bridge is Australia’s most famous bridge, and one of the longest single-span bridges in the world. Including its approach spans, it is 3,770 feet (1,149) meters long. It stretches across Sydney Harbour from Dawes Point in the south to Milsons Point in the north. The new addition will fly next to the Australian flag. The Aboriginal flag is the flag of the Aboriginal people of Australia. The Aboriginal people are descendants of the first inhabitants of the continent.

Sydney Harbour
© Ingus Kruklitis, Shutterstock

The lower half of the Aboriginal flag is red, representing the earth. The upper half of the flag is black, symbolizing Aboriginal people walking on the land. A yellow circle at the flag’s center stands for the sun, the giver of life and the protector. Aboriginal art commonly used the colors red and yellow. Artists traditionally made the colors from ochre, a type of clay.

Harold Thomas, an Aboriginal artist, designed the Aboriginal flag in 1971. Thomas created the flag as a symbol of national identity and unity for Australia’s Aboriginal peoples. The flag was first flown at Victoria Square in the city of Adelaide during National Aborigines Day on July 12, 1971.

In 1972, a group of Aboriginal protesters set up an Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra, Australia’s capital. The protesters wanted recognition of Aboriginal land rights. The protesters chose Thomas’s flag design as one of the flags to fly over the Tent Embassy. The flag’s acceptance among Aboriginal groups soon grew. The Australian government officially recognized the Aboriginal flag as a flag of Australia in 1995.

The New South Wales government announced a plan this year that would cost two years and millions of Australian dollars to affix the flag. Many people criticized the costly plan. Officials decided to replace the New South Wales flag with the Aboriginal flag in order to avoid the cost of constructing and installing a six-story flagpole. The money will now go towards initiatives for Aboriginal people.

From the time of the European colonization of Australia until the mid-1900’s, the government took control of many aspects of Aboriginal life. Government policies denied Aboriginal individuals many of the basic human and citizen’s rights that other Australians took for granted. Since the mid-1900’s, government policy has changed. Aboriginal people have received Australian citizenship, gained land rights, and reclaimed some of the land that they lost.

Today, there are more than 700,000 Aboriginal people in Australia—some 3 percent of Australia’s total population. Aboriginal languages, art, religion, ritual, and other aspects of their traditional life are gaining increasing acceptance and support within Australia and abroad. Despite these gains, however, the Aboriginal peoples of Australia still face many difficulties. They are underprivileged economically, socially, and politically. They face more problems than white Australians face in such areas as health, education, and employment.

The Aboriginal track star Cathy Freeman gained international recognition after she was chosen to light the flame at the opening ceremonies of the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney. At the 2000 Summer Olympic Games, Freeman won the gold medal in the 400-meter race. She followed her Olympic victory by taking a lap of honor with the Australian and Aboriginal flags entwined. Now, the Aboriginal flag will fly next to the Australian flag 22 years after Freeman’s victory lap.

New Zealand Filmmaker Taika Waititi
Credit: © Xavier Collin, Image Press Agency/Alamy Images

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. All month long, Behind the Headlines will celebrate the accomplishments and heritage of Asians and Pacific Islanders.

Taika Waititi is a New Zealand filmmaker known for his comedies. In 2020, he became the first person of Māori ancestry to win an Academy Award for best adapted screenplay. He won for the motion picture Jojo Rabbit (2019), based on the novel Caging Skies (2008) by Christine Leunens. He was also the first Indigenous (native) writer to be nominated for an Academy Award for a screenplay. Jojo Rabbit tells the story of a German boy whose mother is hiding a Jewish girl in their home during World War II (1939-1945). The boy struggles with his beliefs in Nazism and anti-Semitism (prejudice against Jews). He confronts these ideas in part in the form of his imaginary friend, a buffoonish Adolf Hitler, played by Waititi in the film.

Taika Cohen was born on Aug. 16, 1975, in Raukokore, on the North Island of New Zealand. For his professional career, he later adopted the surname of his father, the Māori artist Taika Waititi, who also went by Tiger. Taika means tiger in the Māori language. The young Taika grew up in Wellington with his mother, the educator Robin Cohen. He graduated from Victoria University of Wellington in 1997 with a degree in theater and arts. At the school, he formed a comedy duo called The Humourbeasts with the comic musician Jemaine Clement. Waititi later directed and wrote a few episodes of the television series “The Flight of the Conchords” (2007-2009) in which Clement co-starred with Bret McKenzie.

Waititi made his screen acting debut in the motion picture Scarfies (1999). He showed his first short film, John & Pogo (2002), at the New Zealand International Film Festival. His next short film, Two Cars, One Night (2003), was nominated for an Academy Award. Waititi’s first feature-length film was Eagle vs. Shark (2007). Both Eagle vs. Shark and his second feature film, Boy (2010), premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Boy is a comedy-drama about the reunion of a Māori son with his father, played by Waititi. Waititi wrote and directed Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016). It surpassed Boy as the highest-grossing New Zealand-made film of all time.

Waititi and Clement co-wrote, co-directed, and starred in the short film What We Do in the Shadows: Interviews with Some Vampires (2005). It was expanded into a mockumentary (satirical documentary) film What We Do in the Shadows (2014), followed by a television series of the same name starting in 2019.

Waititi directed the Marvel Studios film Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and its sequel Thor: Love and Thunder (2022), which he also cowrote. He provided the voice for the rocklike warrior Korg in these and other Marvel Studios productions. Waititi has also worked on projects set in the “Star Wars” universe. Starting in 2022, he produced the comedy series “Our Flag Means Death.” The show follows Stede Bonnet, an aristocrat turned pirate who sailed with the famous Blackbeard, played by Waititi.

Australian Aboriginal athlete and political figure Nova Peris
© Tony Feder, Getty Images

Australia is famous for its unique culture, metropolitan cities, and unusual wildlife, among other things. Each week, this seasonal feature will spotlight one of Australia’s many wonders.

The Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, are still fresh in our memories. But Australia made history at another Olympics, when an Aboriginal athlete first won Olympic gold.

Nova Peris is an Australian Aboriginal athlete and political figure. As a member of the winning Australian women’s field hockey team at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games, Peris was the first Aboriginal Australian to win an Olympic gold medal.

In 1997, Peris was named Young Australian of the Year. This annual award is given to a young Australian citizen by the National Australia Day Council, a government organization. Also in 1997, she received the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM), awarded by the government for service worthy of particular recognition.

Nova Maree Peris was born on Feb. 25, 1971, in Darwin, Northern Territory. She played on the Australian field hockey team that won the Champions Trophy in 1993 and 1995. The Champions Trophy is awarded to the winning team in a major international field hockey tournament. She also played on the Australian team that won the 1994 World Cup, an international tournament held every four years.

After the 1996 Olympic victory, Peris switched to track and field. She won the 200-meter race and was a member of the winning 4×100-meter relay at the Commonwealth Games in 1998. At the 2000 Summer Olympic Games, Peris competed in the 400-meter run, reaching the semifinals. She also ran on the Australian 4×400 meter relay team that finished fifth in the finals.

In 2013, Peris became the first Aboriginal Australian woman elected to the federal Parliament. She was elected as a member of the Australian Labor Party to represent the Northern Territory. She served until 2016. Peris’s autobiography, Nova: My Story, was published in 2003.

October 25, 2019

Today, October 25, is the last day that people will be able to climb Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, a giant outcrop of rock in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in Australia’s Northern Territory. A ban on climbing Uluru, which is considered sacred by the local Anangu Australian Aboriginal group, begins tomorrow. The date of the ban marks the 34th anniversary of the return of Uluru to its traditional Anangu owners in 1985. The Anangu people have looked after the land surrounding Uluru for tens of thousands of years.

Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, is a place of spiritual significance for its traditional owners, the Anangu Australian Aboriginal group. Credit: © Stanislav Fosenbauer, Shutterstock

More than 250,000 people visit Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park each year, and climbing the giant outcrop of rock has long been a popular activity. The Anangu people consider the ascent disrespectful, however, and have lobbied for a climbing ban for years. Since 1992, signs at the park have asked people to respect the site as sacred and to not climb the rock. The number of climbers has dropped in recent years, but many people continued to climb Uluru—an action made easier by a chain to grip while making the sometimes perilous ascent. In the end, the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park board decided to enforce a climbing ban, remove the chain, and leave Uluru at peace.

A ban on climbing Uluru, long a major tourist attraction, will go into effect tomorrow, Oct. 26, 2019. Credit: © Steve Vidler, SuperStock

Uluru rises abruptly 1,100 feet (335 meters) above the sand dune plains, about 280 miles (450 kilometers) southwest of Alice Springs. The rock is more than 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) long and 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) wide. It measures 5 miles (8 kilometers) around its base. The rock’s coarse sandstone glows red during sunrise and sunset. Uluru consists of beds of arkose (sandstone containing feldspar minerals) that date back to the Cambrian Period, which lasted from about 540 million to 485 million years ago. Similar rock lies at shallow depths under the sand plain surrounding Uluru. The erosion that formed Uluru probably started in the Cretaceous Period, from about 145 million to 65 million years ago.

Uluru has many sacred sites and caves decorated with rock art. The first European to see Uluru was the English explorer Ernest Giles in 1872. The explorer William Gosse visited the rock in 1873. He named it Ayers Rock after Sir Henry Ayers, who was then the premier of South Australia. In 1873, Gosse became the first European to climb Uluru. The Anangu people do not climb the rock because of its spiritual significance.

In 1950, Uluru was officially made into a national park. The original name of the park was Ayers Rock National Park. In 1985, Australia’s government legally returned the land where Uluru stands to the Anangu. The Anangu then turned over the management of Uluru to the Australian government on a 99-year lease.

In 1993, Ayers Rock National Park was officially renamed Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Kata Tjuta, also known as the Olgas, is a group of large, rounded rock outcrops, 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of Uluru. In 1994, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park became a World Heritage Site because of its unique environmental and cultural importance.

July 26, 2019

Earlier this month in July, Budj Bim, an inactive volcano and cultural site in southeastern Australia, was named a World Heritage Site. Such sites are places of unique cultural or natural importance as designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Budj Bim, once known as Mount Eccles, is the first World Heritage Site listed exclusively for its value to Aboriginal culture. Aboriginal people maintained systems of aquaculture (the raising of water animals and plants) in the crater lakes of Budj Bim for thousands of years.

Lake Surprise fills one of the volcano craters at Budj Bim National Park in southeastern Australia. Credit: Peter (licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0)

Budj Bim means High Head in the language of the Gunditjmara people (also called the Dhauwurd Wurrung) of southwestern Victoria state. Budj Bim sits about 170 miles (270 kilometers) west of Melbourne. It is part of the 20,700-acre (8,370-hectare) Budj Bim National Park (formerly Mount Eccles National Park).

Gunditjmara tradition holds that Budj Bim is part of the body of an ancient creator being, who was revealed to Aboriginal people in an eruption around 30,000 years ago. The last known eruption of Budj Bim occurred about 8,000 years ago. Starting at least 6,600 years ago, the Gunditjmara people began creating a system of channels and dams to trap eels and other fish among the rock formations of Budj Bim. The result was an aquaculture system that provided plentiful food, and permanent Aboriginal settlements were established at nearby Lake Condah and Lake Gorrie. European settlers arrived in the area in the 1830’s.

Budj Bim—named Mount Eccles by European settlers—became a protected area in 1926 and a national park in 1960. Mount Eccles National Park was renamed Budj Bim National Park in 2017. The area is popular for camping, hiking, and picnicking.

January 22, 2018

Australia is a land with a great diversity (variety) of languages. There were likely more than 250 distinct indigenous (native) languages spoken by Aboriginal peoples in the 1780’s when Europeans began settling in Australia. There were no written records before Europeans arrived in Australia, so linguists—scholars who study languages—can only surmise the history of these languages by studying modern speakers. Linguists divide these 250 languages among 25 or more language families. By contrast, modern Europe has nearly as many languages, but most fall within just three main language families.

The Aboriginal flag features a black rectangle (representing Australia’s Aboriginal peoples) atop a red rectangle (representing the red soil of their traditional land). In the center of the flag is a yellow circle representing the sun, uniting the people with their land. Credit: © Harold Thomas. Used with permission.

Aboriginal Australian languages are clearly related to one another, but linguists do not relate them to any other languages in the world. One Australian language family is much larger than the others. The regions in which languages of the Pama-Nyungan family are spoken cover about 90 percent of Australia. Linguists generally place over 150 languages into this family. The Pama-Nyungan languages with the most speakers include Tiwi, Walmatjari, Warlpiri, Aranda, Mabuyag, and Western-Desert. Australia’s other language families are mostly very small. Some of them consist of only one or two languages. Nearly all have fewer than 1,000 speakers and many are in danger of becoming extinct.

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Aboriginal language groups today are concentrated in regions with dense populations. Aboriginal people of Australia spoke about 250 distinct languages—with about 600 dialects—at the time European settlers arrived in 1778. About 145 Aboriginal languages are spoken in Australia today. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Aboriginal languages had a grammatical structure and a rich and complex vocabulary. In addition to everyday vocabularies (usually about 10,000 words), many languages also included specialized words. Specialized language forms were used in songs and rituals, in jokes, and in conversation between certain people. Many words describe aspects of the Dreamtime, a fundamental spiritual concept that connects traditional beliefs and practices among Aboriginal people of Australia.

Many Aboriginal words are still used today to describe the unique landforms, places, animals, and plants of Australia. For example, the British explorer James Cook first heard the word kangaroo in what is now Queensland in 1770. The word then spread to all parts of Australia. Other Aboriginal words that have become common include billabong (a small pool or lake), cooee (come here), boomerang (a weapon), and the legendary creatures bunyip and yowie. Many towns and cities in Australia have Aboriginal names, including Woomera (spear-thrower), Cooma (big lake), and Dubbo (red earth). Australia’s capital city, Canberra, is said to get its name from a Ngunnawai word meaning meeting place.

The future of Aboriginal languages in Australia is uncertain. From 1870 until about 1970, thousands of Aboriginal children were separated from their families. These “stolen generations” were placed in institutions, missions, and foster homes where their native languages were forbidden. Today, this practice has ended, and several Aboriginal languages are spoken and taught in bilingual schools. Many Aboriginal people in Australia increasingly maintain significant elements of their traditional lifestyle—including their indigenous language. The Australian Institute for Aboriginal Studies and other organizations promote the study and preservation of many of these languages today. In 2015, the Noongar Recognition bill, which included a passage written in the Noongar Aboriginal language, was introduced into the parliament of Western Australia. The hope is that most Aboriginal languages will remain a vital aspect of Australian culture for generations to come.

January 5, 2018

Late last year, the oldest known human skeleton from Australia, known as Mungo Man, came home. The remains of Mungo Man, who lived more than 40,000 years ago, were transported in a special hearse that had been ritually cleansed with eucalyptus smoke back to his ancestral homeland in the Willandra region of New South Wales. Local representatives of the Mutthi Mutthi​, Paakantyi​, and Ngiyampaa​ peoples—the traditional owners of the Willandra region—were present to receive the casket, fashioned from 8,000-year-old wood, that held the remains. Mungo Man was later reburied in a private ceremony at an undisclosed location. The ceremony marked the end of a long campaign by indigenous Australians to return Mungo Man to his ancestral resting place.

Mungo Man was found in the deserts of what is now Mungo National Park in New South Wales, Australia. Credit: © Cornfield/Shutterstock

Since his discovery by archaeologists near the edge of Lake Mungo, one of a series of ancient lakes that dried up about 20,000 years ago in Willandra, Mungo Man had a pivotal role in the understanding of the human colonization of Australia. Mungo Man was discovered in 1974. He was the best-preserved of three human burials found at the site that archaeologists began investigating in the late 1960’s. Archaeologists determined from the near-complete skeleton that Mungo Man was about 50 years old when he died. His body had been carefully placed in a shallow grave in a complex funeral ritual. His hands were found interlocked over his torso and his face had been sprinkled with a dusting of a bright mineral called red ochre.

The ancient remains of Mungo Man. Credit: © University of Melbourne

Radiocarbon dating showed that Mungo man was buried about 42,000 years ago, making him the oldest human skeleton known from Australia. Archaeologists discovered stone tools and other artifacts near the burial site that were determined to be nearly 50,000 years old. This puts a firm minimum date for the earliest human arrivals in Australia. Scientists think that humans probably reached northern Australia from Asia even earlier than Mungo Man, but it took time, perhaps hundreds or even thousands of years, to migrate farther into the interior region of Lake Mungo.

Aboriginal people of the Willandra region were profoundly unhappy that their ancestor’s remains had been dug up and stored at the Australian National University in Canberra for study. For years, Aboriginal representatives have vied for the repatriation (return) of all ancestral remains and sacred objects. Their efforts have been helped by the Return of Indigenous Cultural Property Program of the Australia Department of Families, Housing, Community Services, and Indigenous Affairs. In 2015, the Australian National University relinquished the remains and apologized for their original excavation. The remains were kept in Canberra as repatriation plans were prepared. In November 2017, Mungo Man was repatriated along with the remains of more than 100 other ancient Aboriginal people recovered from archaeological and other investigations from the region. Aboriginal elders expressed a somber comfort knowing that their ancestor was home at last. As one elder said, “His spirit will be relieved.”