A Simplified Diagram of Aboriginal Family Relationships
Aboriginal relationships are extremely complex and are designed to ensure that there is no intermarrying of close relatives and that all people are responsible for providing for and teaching specific members of their own and any other clan they interact with. A person is born into one of the eight groups in the diagram, based on their mother's group (e.g. a mother from the top group gives birth to children who will be in the 4th group, a woman from the 4th has children who will be in the 2nd group, etc.) The Law regarding taboos and responsibilities applies to anyone in each group, regardless of actual kinship. Any woman from the same group as your real mother is also your mother, etc.
Aboriginal settlers arrived on the continent from Southeast Asia about 40,000 years before the first Europeans began exploration in the 17th century. No formal territorial claims were made until 1770, when Capt. James COOK took possession in the name... ... read more 
