This special article has been contributed by Dr D. R. Horton, General Editor, Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. Aboriginal culture and history have both been characterised as on the one hand showing great continuities through time and space, and on the other as showing great change through time and great diversity across space. Both characterisations are true, both have been the subject of caricatures of Aboriginal society by whites, and both have influenced the politics of Aboriginal Australia.
Aboriginal people take great pride in their personal and group identity.
Differentiation of almost every aspect of culture and society has been used at some time, somewhere, to form a mark of identity. In spite of the diversity however, no matter where Aboriginal people come from in Australia they are recognised, and recognise each other, as being one people. Aboriginal people have been in Australia for more than 50,000 year. Whereas the Palaeolithic people had eventually developed agriculture, pottery, metals and the wheel, on their way to civilisation, Aboriginal people, it was said, were like fossils, remaining unchanged for thousands of years. Archaeological work in Australia has led to the gradual discovery that Aboriginal people had indeed, as they said, been here a very long time.