What does indigenous Australian mean?

Answer 1

From Wiki.

Indigenous peoples are any Ethnic_groupwho inhabit a geographic region with which they have the earliest known historical connection.Answers.comHowever, several widely accepted formulations, which define the term indigenous peoples in stricter terms, have been put forward by prominent and internationally recognized organizations, such as the United_Nations, the International_Labour_Organizationand the World_Bank. Indigenous peoples in this article is used in such a narrower sense.

Its gets even more complicated.

Throughout the 1970s a lot of Commonwealth legislation defined an 'Aboriginal' as 'a person who is a member of the Aboriginal race of Australia.'(6) Though possibly an improvement on 'blood' quantum definitions, the utility of this definition can still be questioned, not least of all on the grounds that there is no such thing as an Aboriginal race. Most scientists long ago stopped using the word 'race'.(7) Darwin wanted to replace typological thinking with the concept of populations and in the Descent of Man(1874) devoted several chapters to refuting the notion that races were separate species. For the modern anthropologist a 'human tree' can do no more than show the frequency (not exclusiveness) of genetic traits in sample populations and more meaningful divisions of humankind are suggested by region, culture, religion and kinship.(8)

In the 1980s a new definition was proposed in the Constitutional Section of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs' Report on a review of the administration of the working definition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (Canberra, 1981). The section offered the following definition:

An Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander is a person of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent who identifies as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and is accepted as such by the community in which he (she) lives.

This three-part definition (descent, self-identification and community recognition) was soon adopted by Federal Government departments as their 'working definition' for determining eligibility to some services and benefits. The definition also found its way into State legislation (e.g. in the NSW Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983: where 'Aboriginal means a person who: (a) is a member of the Aboriginal race of Australia, (b) identifies as an Aboriginal, and (c) is accepted by the Aboriginal community as an Aboriginal') and was accepted by the High Court as giving meaning to the expression 'Aboriginal race' within s. 51 (xxvi) of the Constitution (Justice Deane in Commonwealth v. Tasmania1983). It was also used by the Federal Court when, in a first instance decision, it found that the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody had no jurisdiction to inquire into the death of Darren Wouters as the community did not identify him as Aboriginal nor did he identify himself as Aboriginal (although the Full Federal Court subsequently found in Attorney-General (Cwlth) v State of Queensland, July 1990, that the Royal Commission's letter patents were framed in such a way as to make Aboriginal descent a sufficient criterion).

http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/RN/2000-01/01RN18.htm

But when you check the dictionary

(Chambers)

adj: belonging naturally to or occurring naturally in a country or area; native

This entry comes from the latin indigena, original inhabitant

So it all comes down to the context of when the word is used. As someone once said to me when I questioned why I (a white chick) was not indigenous when my ancestors had been in OZ for 5 generations and I had no ties (real or otherwise) to any country but OZ. And had no experience of any country except OZ.

"I suppose it all depends on whether you consider rabbits are indigenous. Just because they have been here for hundreds of generations does not make them local".

Thinking can be so very "small town" don't you think?

Answer 2

Indigenous Australians are first people of Australia, also known as the Australian Aborigines.