Reference to Australia’s First Peoples needs careful and respectful consideration. Australia is home to 2 groups of Indigenous peoples: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Within each group are many nations with different preferences. It is best practice to check with the people to find out what their preferred term is.

The collective term Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander persons or peoples is recommended by several resources as an inclusive term. Indigenous Australians is a term that is intended to be inclusive, but is not always well liked by Indigenous people themselves and should therefore be used with caution.

When used to refer to the peoples of Australia, Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Indigenous should all have initial capitals. Do not use initial capitals for indigenous when referring to indigenous peoples from other countries. Do not use the acronyms ATSI or TSI to refer to people.

It is preferable to talk about Aboriginal people rather than Aborigines and avoid the Aborigines, our Aborigines or our Islanders, which are patronising. Use non-Indigenous Australians to describe Australians who are not Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people, or all Australians to include everybody.

The terms First Peoples and First Nations are used by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples – for instance, the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples or the First Nations Australia Writers’ Network. Note that the term First Nations is used for indigenous people in North America and therefore should be used with caution if there is a chance of confusion. First Peoples is a safer term.

Wherever possible, use specific nationality names:

Many Torres Strait Islander people prefer to use the name of their island to identify themselves to outsiders – for example, Saibai man or Meriam (Murray Islander).

There are also local terms for Aboriginal people from different parts of Australia:

Take great care with these terms. It is not appropriate to assume that Koori, widely accepted in the southeast of the country, can be used to describe someone in Broome or Darwin. And you would not automatically call an Aboriginal person living in Queensland a Murri if the community they relate to comes from elsewhere.

People might also call themselves saltwater people if they live on the coast, or freshwater, desert or spinifex people if they live on that country. Many people identify themselves by their language group – for example, Gurindji man or Gubbi woman.

Aboriginal people use a variety of terms to describe themselves, such as mob, community and nation, and they may talk about their country as their homelands, or refer to living on Country. Generally, a word like mob would only be used by non-Indigenous Australians if they knew, and lived or worked among, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people. It is usually fine for anyone to use the terms community and nation. However, First Nations Australians are very culturally varied, so it is best not to make assumptions; if in doubt, ask.

Take care with terms such as tribe and clan. Tribe tends to have a negative connotation in Australia, although the term has been used by some Aboriginal groups in arguing their land claims. Likewise, some groups – for example, the Gumatj people in the Northern Territory – talk about clans in relationship to themselves.

Some Indigenous people describe themselves with pride as black, a term that was especially prevalent in the 1970s black rights movement, but it can be understood as a term of abuse when used by non-Aboriginal people. Terms such as primitive, native and prehistoric – labels used by some academic disciplines (more so in other countries) – are pejorative when used in Australia.

Best practice is always to find out what individuals prefer to be called, rather than making assumptions.

See Different approaches to history and historical evidence for more suggestions for writing about indigenous peoples and cultures.