For thousands of years, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples occupied the Australian continent with very different boundaries than today, centred on intimate cultural relationships with the land and sea.
The AIATSIS map of Indigenous Australia is an attempt to represent all the language, tribal or nation groups of Indigenous Australia. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups were included on the map based on the published resources available between 1988 and 1994 which determine the cultural, language and trade boundaries and relationships between groups.
Aboriginal Australia
This map attempts to represent the language, social or nation groups of Aboriginal Australia. It shows only the general locations of larger groupings of people which may include clans, dialects or individual languages in a group. It used published resources from 1988-1994 and is not intended to be exact, nor the boundaries fixed. It is not suitable for native title or other land claims. David R Horton (creator), © AIATSIS, 1996. No reproduction without permission. To purchase a print version visit: www.aiatsis.ashop.com.au/