I'm familiar with the meaning of aborigine (a person, animal, or plant that has been in a country or region from earliest times) and I sometimes see Native Americans or First Nations referred to as aboriginal. What I'm wondering is why Australian aborigines seem to be the only native people (at least in my experience) referred to as Aborigines consistently. Is there a linguistic or historical reason for the use of the term primarily for them? Thanks for any information!
A timely question, given we're just closing up NAIDOC week (National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee).
I'll take a crack at this, even though I'm not a genuine historian (though I've worked in Aboriginal issues in Australia for some time). So... mods, if this isn't up to standards, please delete this.
In short, Australian aboriginal people are not referred to as Aborigines. Certainly not in any official context or by anyone from a recent generation. Aboriginal perhaps, and indigenous certainly, but aborigine has long since fallen out of common use.
Australia generally uses the term "aboriginal and torres strait islander peoples", to refer to a broad range of groups that can be thought of as 'pre-colonial' inhabitants of Australia. Even when they are grouped together, there is almost always an emphasis on the plurality of the groups concerned - they are a spread of discrete indigenous peoples, not one collective indigenous people. And generally among Australians there is some understanding of who the local people are in any given locality. And in most official ceremonies, the MC will make an acknowledgement of the local group whose country the meeting is being held on.
For instance, in Perth, the local indigenous people are the Whadjuk Noongars. To the north, it's the Yued Noongars, and to the east its the Ballardong Noongars. In Canberra, it is the Ngunnawal people. Spelling obviously varies, I've used some common Anglicizations.
We have a very large number of peoples which cannot be lumped together as "aborigines". The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies has a great map showing the locations of the different peoples: http://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/articles/aboriginal-australia-map
Each group is unique. Individual peoples are generally proud of their heritage and keen to share their culture. If you're interested, here are some starting points: http://www.noongarculture.org.au/ (Noongar, South-western Australia)
http://mgcorp.com.au/ (Miriuwung Gajerrong, Kimberley region, north-western Australia)
http://ymac.org.au/ (Ymatji Marlpa people, Pilbara region, north-western Australia)
http://www.mossmangorge.com.au/the-environment/culture (Kuku Yalanji, Northeast Australia)
AIATSIS is a great place to start looking for academic-quality information, and there is a very large wealth of information available online, particularly in anthropological journals.