Post-Colonial Studies: The Key Concepts, 3rd Edition

POSTCOLONIAL STUDIES

The Key Concepts

 

ABORIGINAL/INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

Indigenous peoples are those ‘born in a place or region’ (OED). The term ‘aboriginal’ was coined as early as 1667 to describe the indigenous inhabitants of places encountered by European explorers, adventurers or seamen. While the terms ‘aboriginal’ and ‘aborigine’ have been used from time to time to describe the indigenous inhabitants of many settler colonies, they are now most frequently used as a shortened form of ‘Australian Aborigine’ to describe the indigenous inhabitants of Australia. The adjective ‘aboriginal’ has been more frequently used as the generic noun in recent times, the term ‘aborigine’ being considered by many to be too burdened with derogatory associations. ...