Aboriginal Australians

Aboriginal Australians are legally defined as people who are members "of the
Aboriginal race of Australia" (indigenous to mainland Australia or to the island of Tasmania).
The category "Aboriginal Australia" was coined by the British after they began
colonising Australia in 1788, to refer collectively to all people they found already inhabiting the
continent, and later to the descendants of any of those people.
Scholars had disagreed whether their closest kin outside Australia were certain South
Asian groups or African groups. The latter would imply a migration pattern in which their
ancestors passed through South Asia to Australia without intermingling genetically with other
populations along the way. A 2009 genetic study in India found similarities among Indian archaic
populations and Aboriginal people, indicating a Southern migration route, with expanding
populations from Southeast Asia migrating to Indonesia and Australia.
Dispersing across the Australian continent over time, the ancient people expanded and
differentiated into distinct groups, each with its own language and culture. More than 400
distinct Australian Aboriginal peoples have been identified, distinguished by names designating
their ancestral languages, dialects, or distinctive speech patterns. Historically, these groups lived
in three main cultural areas, the Northern, Southern, and Central cultural areas. The Northern and
Southern areas, having richer natural marine and woodland resources, were more densely
populated than the Central area.