kinship

The term ‘kinship’ is used to describe family relations, the connections between people usually based on bloodlines or marriage. Kinship systems vary across cultures and within Australian Indigenous groups there are many similarities and differences.

Kinship is often represented using family trees – below is a very simple one showing a female and her siblings and parents, with the English terms provided.

More information is available online about kinship in Australian Indigenous groups, for example the University of Sydney has an excellent online course exploring these concepts at http://sydney.edu.au/kinship-module/