Culture Corner
文化广角
Australia Aborigines - the Native Australians
澳大利亚土著人—澳大利亚原住民
Aborigines probably came to Australia from Indonesia 50,000 years ago.
土著人很可能是五万年前从印度尼西亚迁来澳大利亚的。
The oldest bone found in Australia was at Lake Mungo in New South Wales.
在新南威尔士洲的芒戈湖发现了澳大利亚最早的人骨。
Scientists believe it is 38,000 years old and it carried some ceremonial paint.
科学家认为它已经有38,000年历史了,而且上面有为祭祀涂抹的颜料。
Aborigines were nomads.
土著人是游牧民族。
Originally, they didn't have a sense of land ownership,
起初,他们对土地所有权没有认识,
although Aboriginal children were taught from an early age that
尽管土著儿童从小被这样教育着:
they belonged to the land and must respect tribal boundaries.
他们属于这片土地,他们必须尊重部落边界。
Tribes returned to particular places to bury their dead.
各个部落返回特定的区域埋葬部落中的死者。
Some places, like Uluru, were sacred because they were associated with the "Dreamtime",
有些地方—像乌鲁鲁—曾是神圣的,因为他们与“梦想时代”相联系,
the time when the Earth was formed and cycles of life and nature began.
那时地球正在形成,且生命和自然的周期刚刚开始。
Aboriginal legends, songs and dances tell of powerful spirits who created the land and people during the Dreamtime.
土著的传说、歌曲和舞蹈讲述创造土地的强大神灵以及梦想时代的人们的故事。
There was no written Aboriginal language and, in fact,
土著语言没有书面文字,事实上,
most of the 600 tribes spoke different dialects and rarely met except on ceremonial occasions.
600多个部落中的大部分部落都说着不同的方言,除了遇到庆典,部落之间很少见面。