Accepted opinion is that the Aboriginal people inhabited Australia 40 000 to 45 000 years ago, long before the Europeans arrived. For 20 000 years, the Aboriginal people had absolutely no contact with other civilisations. They were isolated from the rest of the world. From the outset, the Europeans disrespected the Aboriginals, dispossessing their land, dislocating them, and massacring them. The Europeans has three main objectives, colonise, civilise and Christianise. This is exactly what they did. Due to their (the Europeans) blind ignorance of the Aboriginal culture this led to inevitable conflict and bloodshed.
Aboriginals believed in the Dreamtime, the time of creation. The Dreamtime is the origin of the universe, the workings of nature and the nature of humanity, the cycle of life and death. It is this religious experience and belief that binds Aboriginal people to the land and their source of life. Therefore it permeates all facets of Aboriginal life. Aboriginal religion revolves around living off the land. For this reason, when the land was dispossessed from the Aboriginal people, their culture disintegrated. No longer could rituals and traditions such as corroborees and initiations be practised and no longer could Sacred Sites be visited. .
In 1788, Captain Cook claimed the newfound land of Australia, and declared it "Terra Nullius"." This meant that the land belonged to no one and therefore give him the right to posses the land and establish a colony. When the Europeans regarded the Aboriginals as inferior, primitive and savage. The Aboriginals had no tangible proof of land ownership and their practises gave no indication of possession. They did not erect fences around property, construct dwellings or records of any kind denoting land ownership. Further, they did not have a written language, did not wear European clothing and did not speak English. The Europeans concluded that the Aboriginals culture place little or no value on material possessions.