20th century Quote by Richard Flanagan

Aborigines are not just the oldest race in Australia; they are the oldest race on the planet. They look like dinosaurs.

— Marina Abramovic

Unlike some mainland black groups, Tasmanian Aborigines now have no traditional tribal culture left. It was taken from them with great violence and great…

— Richard Flanagan

“Australian aborigines, surprisingly, turn out to be a race unlike any other. They and their relatives in New Guinea have no trace in their…

— Nicholas Wade

There's something about Australia that feels prehistoric.

— Carrie Coon

If Australia is The Lucky Country, the Aborigines must be the unluckiest people in the world.

— Frank Hardy

We moved, and there was a golden era in the '40s when we were so conscious of who we were as Australians.

— Graeme Murphy

I went to England in the '70s, and I was in my early 20s. There was still a residue of that era of being…

— Geoffrey Rush

My grandparents would never admit to being Tasmanian, but I think it's really great and funny. But I guess, in the past, Tasmanians just…

— Jessie Cave

“The enigma that had bothered me in Sydney was beginning to resolve itself. If Australians allowed themselves to be represented worldwide as a nation…

— Ted Simon

Aborigines, n.: Persons of little worth found cumbering the soil of a newly discovered country. They soon cease to cumber; they fertilize.

— Ambrose Bierce

Nothing seemed to offer more striking proof to the late Victorian mind of the infernal truth of social Darwinism than the supposed demise of…

— Richard Flanagan

“The Australian aborigines, reckoned to be among the most primitive of races upon evidence that is far from conclusive, have a region that is…

— Olaf Ruhen