Stan Grant is a Wiradjuri elder of Australia's second-largest Aboriginal community. Grant is one of only a handful of people who still speak the tribal language, also called Wiradjuri. The language nearly died out in the 20th century, when Aboriginals could be jailed for speaking their native tongue in public.
Stan Grant is a Wiradjuri elder of Australia's second-largest Aboriginal community. Grant is one of only a handful of people who still speak the tribal language, also called Wiradjuri. The language nearly died out in the 20th century, when Aboriginals could be jailed for speaking their native tongue in public.
Photograph by Adam Ferguson, The New York Times/Redux

Aboriginal Australians

Aboriginal Australians could be the oldest population of humans living outside of Africa, where one theory says they migrated from in boats 70,000 years ago.

Australia’s first people—known as Aboriginal Australians—have lived on the continent for over 50,000 years. Today, there are 250 distinct language groups spread throughout Australia. Aboriginal Australians are split into two groups: Aboriginal peoples, who are related to those who already inhabited Australia when Britain began colonizing the island in 1788, and Torres Strait Islander peoples, who descend from residents of the Torres Strait Islands, a group of islands that is part of modern-day Queensland, Australia.

All Aboriginal Australians are related to groups indigenous to Australia. However, the use of the term indigenous is controversial, since it can be claimed by people who descend from people who weren’t the original inhabitants of the island. Legally, “Aboriginal Australian” is recognized

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