Australia’s first people—known as Aboriginal Australians—have lived on the continent for over 65,000 years. Diverse and culturally distinctive, they are represented by more than 250 distinct language groups spread throughout Australia. About 3 percent of Australia’s population has Aboriginal heritage.

It is generally held that Australian Aboriginal peoples originally came from Asia via insular Southeast Asia (now Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, East Timor, Indonesia, and the Philippines) and have been in Australia for at least 45,000–50,000 years.

Survey of the history, society, and culture of the Australian Aboriginal peoples, who are one of the two distinct Indigenous cultural groups of Australia. It is generally held that they originally came from Asia via insular Southeast Asia and have been in Australia for at least 45,000–50,000 years.

Australia’s Indigenous peoples are two distinct cultural groups made up of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. But there is great diversity within these two broadly described groups exemplified by the over 250 different language groups spread across the nation.