Naming

	By 1829 Australia had been settled for thousands of years by Aboriginal people, though they did not use that term which is a European creation (Latin : Ab origine = from the beginning)
	Aboriginal people lived in extended family groups occupying and using particular parts of the country. They spoke separate languages and often had different customs. Before the invasion there were about 200 distinctly different languages spoken in Australia. Although many languages have now vanished, in the Kimberley, Goldfields, Central Reserves and Western Desert people still speak their original tongues and have English as a second language.
	So far no link has been discovered between these Aboriginal languages and overseas languages.
	There was trade between the groups and some intermarriage. Baler shells and pearl shells from the Kimberley and red ochre mined at Wilgi Mia in the Murchison were traded across the continent.
	People in the desert areas moved vast distances in search of food and had to be extremely fit. In wetter parts of the country with more plants, fish and game, like the Kimberley coast, people stayed in one place for long periods. There is evidence from the Murray Valley and the Kimberley that some families lived in villages of stone houses. Other groups moved with the seasons, following food sources, or to attend "business" in another area.
	The people of the South West called themselves Barladong or Yuat or Biblemen. In the desert they were Pitjantjatjarra, Wongatha or Mardujarra; in the Pilbara they were Indjibandji or Gurama.
	The map below shows the approximate location of Aboriginal groups before Europeans arrived.


	Noongar (there are several ways of spelling this word) is now generally used for the people of the South West, Wongi for the people of the Goldfields, and Yamatji for those who live in the Murchison and Gascoyne.
	Aboriginal people didn't see themselves as black or different; they were only the users and occupiers of the land and its environment to which they belonged, not the other way around. European ideas of land as a commodity, something which could be owned, bought and sold, over-stocked and stripped of cover, mined and despoiled were un-natural and unacceptable.