1. Having existed from the beginning; in an earliest or original stage or state; SYN. primal, primeval, primaeval, primordial.
2. Characteristic of or relating to people inhabiting a region from the beginning

Of or pertaining to members of the indigenous people of Australia

Aborigine, often capitalized.

A dark-skinned member of a race of people living in Australia when Europeans arrived

Art of the Australian Aborigines. Traditionally almost entirely religious and ceremonial, it was directed toward portraying stories of the Dreamtime, a creation mythology reflecting the Aboriginal hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Perishable materials were used, as in bark painting and carved trees and logs, and few early works of this type survive. A great deal of rock art remains intact, however, and forms one of the richest continuing traditions in the world. Abstract patterns and stylized figures predominate. Ground and body painting were also practiced, chiefly as part of secret initiation rites.
Rock engravings are found throughout the continent. The earliest, such as those in Koonalda Cave, South Australia, and at the Early Man site on Cape York Peninsula, northern Queensland, are characterized by stylized designs of circles, animal tracks, and meandering patterns, and are between 15,000 and 20,000 years old. In the Hawkesbury River region of New South Wales large figures of animals, birds, fish, and spirit beings have been engraved into the sandstone. Cave walls were painted using natural ochres of red and yellow, white pipeclay, and charcoal. Such paintings include the vast galleries in the Laura district of Cape York, which feature the sticklike Quinkan spirit figures; in the Kimberleys, the Wandjina figures, towering red and white creatures with halolike headdresses; and in Arnhem Land in Northern Territory, the remarkable “x-ray” figures—animals and humans with inner organs depicted. Stencils, frequently of hands, are found in all rock-painting areas and were produced by placing an object against the rock wall and then blowing a mouthful of paint over it. Trees and logs carved for ceremonial purposes include the burial poles made by the Tiwi people of Bathurst and Melville Islands, which are painted in complex designs using black, white, red, and yellow, and the carved trees of the Darling Basin region of New South Wales, which were used in initiation ceremonies and burial rites. In central Australia, churinga, oral plaques of wood or stone, were incised or painted with highly stylized images of totem figures.

The Austronesian languages spoken by Australian aborigines

Quality of being aboriginal

From the beginning