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Ancient songlines criss-cross the continent and link people, places and practice. By singing the songlines, Elders evoke the ancient stories of Country.

Senior Gooniyandi Elder Mervyn Street shares his grandmother’s and mother's songline story that traverses Gooniyandi Country in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art is an expression of people’s identity, culture, spirituality and relationships to Country. It tells stories of ceremony and Creation and connects people to ancestors and kin. Learn about what you can do to support its ethical trade.

In Australia there are more than 250 Indigenous languages including 800 dialects. Each language is unique to a particular place and people.

Since colonisation, numerous government laws, policies and practices resulted in the forced removal of generations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families and communities across Australia.

Most people have heard of the Stolen Generations and its impacts. But few know about another equally insidious policy that has also inflicted harm across many generations. This policy was called Aboriginal Exemption.

For many Australians, heritage often means old buildings, our nation’s many national parks or the places that make Australia special. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, heritage is a part of your identity.

Thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have served in the Australian Defence Forces since the 1860s and possibly earlier. At least 1000 Indigenous Australians served in the First World War.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have been living sustainably off their waters for thousands of years. Fishing is both sustenance and cultural practice informed by ecological knowledge.

The didjeridu is for many Australians an iconic symbol of Aboriginal Australia. The first didjeridus were made from bamboo and are thought to have originated from the northwest region of the Northern Territory / Western Australian border.

Have you ever looked at the Australian $50 note and wondered about the dignified man that peers pensively into the distance? Why is he looking so thoughtful? What was so special about him that he has been immortalised on our currency?

William Ferguson founded the Aboriginal Progressive Association and led protests at the 1938 National Day of Mourning. He would become one of the most famous and important Aboriginal rights activists in Australian history.

Henry Gibson Dan or Seaman Dan as he was affectionately known, was the ripe age of seventy when he released his first album with music producer, Karl Neuenfeldt. Undoubtedly Australia’s oldest ‘gigging’ musician and recording artist, Seaman Dan continued to delight audiences well into his eighties.

On 27 May 1967, the majority of Australians voted 'Yes' to change the Constitution to remove two references that discriminated against Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander peoples. It was one of the most successful national campaigns in Australia’s history.

In 1965, a group of students from the University of Sydney drew national and international attention to the appalling living conditions of Aboriginal people and the racism that was rife in New South Wales country towns. Known as the Freedom Ride, this 15-day bus journey through regional New South Wales would become a defining moment in Australian activism.

Once an everyday item for Aboriginal people in south-eastern Australia, possum skin cloaks were worn for warmth, used as baby carriers, coverings at night, drums in ceremony and for burial.

The Sorry Books are a powerful record of the personal responses of Australians to the unfolding history of the Stolen Generations.

In the late 1920s, a lone Australian Aboriginal man stood outside Australia House in London protesting the treatment of Aboriginal people in Australia. His notebooks offer a glimpse into his life in London and reflect his views on the treatment of Aboriginal people in Australia.

Learn how the repatriation of sound recordings from the Waterman Collection held in the AIATSIS Collection inspired the creation of this classic song.