Hey there! I’m from Aotearoa and have moved to Australia, and am trying to get to understand the culture of this beautiful land and I keep coming across the term “mob” to describe a person’s community/tribe/what we would call whakapapa or iwi. I’m really keen to learn where and why the the term “mob” was taken on board, especially due to its English meaning being a negative descriptor for a group of people, and it being an English word. I’m wondering whether it has been taken onboard as a sense of pride, as a sort of reclamation of a derogatory word, or whether it has been given to aboriginal communities and simply taken on board over time? I can’t seem to find any history on the term and where it came from anywhere and, from an outsiders perspective looking in it seems a confusing name for a positive thing (community and sense of belonging). I’d love to hear from someone that can guide me on this!

I am working on visualising Australian bushfire data as a part of academic coursework and have been considering a less technical, more cultural representation of the data.

Would a depiction of the Australian map with a colour palette inspired by the Aboriginal ochre art, with dotwork for borders and regions (choosing neutral/commonly used symbols, based on information available online/ at the library) be an appropriation? In the accompanying write-up, I intend to focus on the damage to indigenous art sites as a result of the bushfires in recent times.

The work is internal and will not be published or sold. I do not mean to be disrespectful and never intend to trivialise the symbolism, and spirituality of the art. I am working against rather strict timelines and I will not be able to work with Aboriginal artists, but would have to go with online resources on the art and its symbolism.

Thank you for your time.

I juat stumbled across this website while looking looking for metal bands, what a gem of a find

https://archive.firstnationsmedia.org.au/

Our Archives, Our Stories is a platform for Australian First Nations community media organisations to archive and share their unique and signficant audiovisual collections. The hub is built on the Mukurtu content management system and managed by First Nations Media Australia.

How do you worship? I've read that opals and shells were given to 'rainbow serpent' deities and of course there's initiation rights, but I've come across sparse information overall

I'm an Australian with Aboriginal (Awabakal) heritage & also Native American (Cherokee), however I was unfortuently not raised with any culture, so I've been on an exploration of learning my own heritage & have a deep passion for it & in whichever way helping all Indigenous.... I have an understanding of colonisation & the dark history, but I'm more interested in learning about culture, stories, as well as Indigenous connection to the land & stars. I've almost finished reading "The Pleiadian Agenda" by Barbara hand clow & I resonate with her messages 😌 However I find it to be so much information I'll need to re-read it again. Prior to her book I was only reading self help books, so as much as I love learning & information I also would love to get lost in some story telling, so give me all your favorites authors, even from other Indigenous cultures are welcome :) ✨ Thank you

Hey you mob. I'm a Kuku-yalanji Murri, raised on Yidinji country, living on Whadjuk Noongar Boodja. We always messed around with making didjes growing up, but never really gave much thought to them. From what I understand, they're not my mob's culture, or the culture of Noongars or Koori mob. They originate from a particular mob from Arnhem land. They're also, traditionally, strictly men's business. I went out with a Bardi blakfella a few weeks back and we got some wood from an Uncle to turn into yidaki. When we were working on them, the topic came up of how strictly to adhere to the traditional customs. My friend is of the belief that: on Arnhem land, 100%, girls and women should not even touch them - that's the custom, that's how it is. But here in Noongar Country, where it's not part of the local culture, and it's not part of either of our culture, it doesn't matter as much. My main internal conflict on this comes from whether I should hide the yidaki from my daughter or have it out where she's bound to be curious and want to touch it. What do you mob believe? Do you follow other mob's cultural protocols out of respect?

Hi All,

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Thanks for your help!

SPOILERS ALERT.

Here are my impressions as a non-Aboriginal and non-Australian.

Just saw it last night. It's a fantastic piece of arthouse cinema and with some amazing editing and detailed depictions of [so-called] Australia's desert flora and fauna. The exact location of where specifically the desert scenes are set is unknown and I was left wondering whether it was the Kimberly or somewhere on Anangu Country within the borders of South Australia, Western Australia and Northern Territory. Given the depiction of an abandoned mining settlement, it's probably somewhere in Western Australia, as I am aware a lot of mining occurs in that state.

I do have an issue with the way the Aboriginal boy is portrayed though - the mob he belongs to and the language he speaks isn't made known, which obviously isn't helped by the lack of subtitles. It's probable the Aboriginal actor was speaking his own mob's language and it's likely the painting scene might provide clues. I wasn't sure what to think of his suicide later on the film, whether it's an allusion to suicide in Aboriginal communities and how it affects both Aboriginal and white settler communities in different ways. I wasn't sure what to also think of the Aboriginal boy's 'mating ceremony' for courting the white teenage girl (again, there is no mob-specific cultural context provided). I got the initial impression it might have been a Welcome to Country ceremony and he was formally welcoming both white kids onto his country. I did sense there was implicit sexual tension between him and the white girl though based on visuals (like that of the gum tree climbing scene). There seems to be some subtle allusions to the Australian Frontier Wars: when the white boy hands the Aboriginal boy a toy British soldier and the Aboriginal boy chucks it away, as well as the scene where the Aboriginal boy gets nearly run over by a couple of white hunters in a pickup truck. The most interesting aspect of the Aboriginal boy's relationship with white kids is how him and the young white boy develop a system non-verbal hand signals to communicate, while him and the older white girl do not (which is why they develop no rapport). This reminds me of the Seneca YouTuber Twin Rabbit mentioning in passing in his video essay on Native American 'hand talk' that Aboriginal Australians had their own 'lingua franca' system of 'hand-talk'. I have yet to hear/read any verification from Aboriginal elders and mobs about this though. There are brief depictions of other Aboriginal people: there is a (naked) Aboriginal mob interacting with the charred remains of the white kids' father's VW Beatle, as well as a group of (clothed) Aboriginal people making kitschy souvenir art for a white couple's business. Again, their exact mob and language isn't specified. As far as the exploration themes of settler colonialism and cultural tensions between white settler and Aboriginal peoples go, I think The Last Wave does a better job at exploring it. These are my initial impressions, which might change over time.

Has Aboriginal responses to the film being overwhelming negative, positive or ambivalent? I am presuming a lot of mobs take issue with the lack of mob-specific cultural context of the boy. There are other criticisms of the film that I am aware of which aren't specific to its depiction of Aboriginal people but rather the gratuitous male gaze depictions of the white teenage girl's body.

Side note: is it customary to mention the actor's name since he passed away relatively recently? I understand there are very specific restrictions and protocols that most mobs have on mentioning the dead.

I am currently working on a project that aims to highlight the healthcare challenges faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Australia, focusing on the impact of historical and systemic inequities. Is there anyone available for interview?