Technology+and+adaptions

toc

=Technology & Adaptions to the Environment=

The Land and its resources
Australia is mostly covered in flat plains, desert and rock combinations. In the early mornings, the temperature is extremely hot and can get to 110 degrees, but in the night, it can get as cold as 0 degrees. Australia is made up of two islands, the mainland and the smaller island of Tasmania, which lies to the south. These two land is was once joined together but split apart thousands of years ago. Today's Australia is divided into seven large states and one small territory.

Finding Water
In this hot weather, the most important survival skill for the aborigines was the ability to find water. Because of the dry weather, there are only a few rivers and lakes that survived in this hot climate. Sometimes the aborigines would lie down on the sand and listen for the sound of water underground. Their sense are very strong, that many native people were able to find water with a faint smell of odor in the air. the aborigines soon realized that certain plants contain water in their roots, so they used this water very carefully. The aborigines also discovered a kind of frog that contains water in its body. They quickly learned this skill and was able to find these creatures deep beneath the dry, thick sands.

The aborigines invented the boomerang, a great weapon that really improved their hunting. Some boomerang's return the throwers while others do not. The returning type of the throwing is usually used in traditional native sports and games. Cultures in India and Egypt also used the same type of weapon, but only the Australian Aborigines had one that returns to the throwers. The boomerang is used to kill large animals, when it is killing flocks of bird of schools of fish it can catch very easily. The Woomera and Shield The other weapons that the aborigines used is called the woomera, it is a spear thrower and the aborigines had a great success at hunting. By using this this device, the Aborigines could throw their spears with greater force for longer distance and with increased accuracy. Their are another type of spear, this spear is called the" barbed death spear." This spear is made out of rough stone with a groove inside, because of the angle of the spear, when the spear entered an animal of a human being it could not be pulled out and causes a lot loss of blood.
 * Weapons**

Music
The aborigines are very musical people. //This is a picture of an aborigines man playing the didgeridoo//. The natives use a variables of instruments to do their ceremonies. The most frequency instrument that the aborigines use is the didgeridoo. The word" didgeridoo" is an aboriginal term that means"drone pipe". Made from hollow bamboo or other tree branch. It makes a haunting sound and similar to a foghorn. There are other instruments too, these can be really simple, like the clapping of hands or more complicated, such as the instrument called the //kulup.// The //kulup// is a hand shaker filled with seeds. It is made of wood that has been tied together with special twine. When it is shaken, it makes a sound similar to that of Native American rattles.

Art
====== The Rock Art Tradition In many thousands of years ago, the rock art tradition had been created. The Aborigines have created some of the most beautiful art in the world. These art have been found in caves and rocks throughhout the continent. Some of this rock art dates back over fifty thousand years. With no written language, rock art has been the Aborigines way of recording their history.

Ocher For centuries Aborignes have used ocher to make paint. Ocher is a colored rock that when crushed to a fine powder and mixed with water, makes various colors of paint. Ocher has also been used as medicine and it has a valuable trading with other tribes. In additons to rock art paintings, the various shades of ocher and paint were also used for body decorations and for making designes on weapons and other tools. Brushes for painting were generally made by crushing the end of a greed stick and using the crushed end as bristles. Kinds of Rock Art Archaeologists and art historians have identified several styles of rock art painting. One of the earliest known forms of painting is know as the " naturalist" style. One of the most unusual styles of rock art is called "X-ray painting". Found mainly in the western part of fo Arnhem Land, these drawings show not only the bodies of people and animals, but their skeletons and internal organs as well.

Bark Painting and Bakertry Bark painting were first used as decorations. The stringybark tree, a kind of gum tree, is one source of the bark used in making these paintings. Another is the messmate tree of northern Queensland. In both cases, the bark is cut from the living tree during the wet season at a time the sap is flowing freely. The sap's presence allows the bark to come away cleanly and easliy from the tree. The bark is then straightnened by placing it ober an open fire. It does not burn because of the moisture still contained within it. Once the bark has been dred, it makes a wonderful medium for painting. This style of art is still widely practice throughout Australia today. Aborigines women were responsible foe making the baskets and other container used inn food gathering. Many of the baskets and bags were woven from bark, while other contained human hair, palm fronds, and grasses. Bush twine was used to hold them together, and they wre often colored with dyes made from roots and other natural substances. Aborigineal baskets were frequently decorated with feathers, shells, and other objects.

[[image:file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/user/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-3.jpg]]
=Annotated Bibliography = Sharp, Anne W. __Indigenous Peoples of the World- Australia__. San Diego, California: Lucent Books, 2003. 6-112.  This book is really useful by it shows a lot of information of how the aborigines play music, how to hunt and make their weapons, how to they make a living of and lots of other information. Some parts are wordy, but others are not.

Wardrop, Martin. "Aboriginal Painting Gallery." __Aboriginal Art Online__. 2004. Aboriginal Art Online. 28 Nov. 2008 . This website is really useful by the explanation of the art gallery and the land and its resources. You should really visit this website. Some parts were really wordy, but some are really useful.

Wardrop, Martin. "Art, Land and the Dreaming." __Aboriginal Art Online__. 2004. Aboriginal Art Online. 28 Nov. 2008 . Although this is the same website as the last one, but there are different information about different things, some of the information show the climate and the weather of Australia.

Telford, Hans W. "Australian Aboriginal Music." __Traditional Instruments__. Traditional Instruments. 28 Nov. 2008 . This website is really useful by it shows what do the aborigines play on ceremonies and also the instrument they play in their spare time.

"The arts." __Commonwealth of Australia__. 2004. Commonwealth of Australia. 28 Nov. 2008 <http://online.culturegrams.com/world/world_country_sections.php?contid=8&wmn=oceania&cid=1 This website shows how the aborigines do art and contribute art, this is a great website.