Peoples who have the knowledge of culture and traditions. Devastatingly, the consequences of colonisation are that some of these stories have been lost.
The evidence of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ history and culture Archaeologists now work directly with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Peoples. The knowledge of traditional custodians is respected, and is now studied along with the archaeological and written evidence to build our knowledge of Deep Time history. Oral history, for example, was not recognised by earlier twentieth- century historians but is now regarded as a very important source of information. The significance of the Mungo remains The discovery of Mungo Woman (Mungo I) and Mungo Man (Mungo III) are of world archaeological importance because: • They are at least 40 000 years old, making them among the oldest human remains to be found outside Africa. • They are the oldest examples of ceremonial burials and cremation, revealing ancient rituals and spiritual beliefs. The remains of Mungo Man and Woman show the continuing connection between Deep Time history and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples today. They prove that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples of Australia are the custodians of the longest continuous culture in the world. In 2017 the remains of 108 Aboriginal people, including Mungo Man, were returned to Mungo National Park for reburial by the traditional custodians of Country. Mungo Man’s remains had been in museum storage since 1974. The return of human remains finally demonstrates a respect for the rights and the knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
SkillBuilder discussion Continuity and change 1. How does the discovery challenge previous understandings or timelines of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander settlement in Australia? 2. What significant
SOURCE3 Newspaper article, ‘Australian dig finds evidence of Aboriginal habitation up to 80 000 years ago’
A groundbreaking archaeological discovery in Australia’s north has extended the known length of time Aboriginal people have inhabited the continent to at least 65 000 years. The findings on about 11 000 artefacts from Kakadu National Park prove Indigenous people have been in Australia for far longer than the much-contested estimates of between 47 000 and 60 000 years, the researchers said. Some of the artefacts were potentially as old as 80 000 years.
implications does the discovery of Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ habitation dating back 80 000 years have for our understanding of human history in Australia? 3. How do researchers think Australia’s landscape looked when people first lived there, compared to how it looks today?
The new research upends decades-old estimates about the human colonisation of the continent, their interaction with megafauna, and the dispersal of modern humans from Africa and across south Asia. ‘People got here much earlier than we thought, which means of course they must also have left Africa much earlier to have travelled on their long journey through Asia and south-east Asia to Australia,’ said the lead author, Associate Prof Chris Clarkson, from the University of Queensland. ‘It also means the time of overlap with the megafauna, for instance, is much longer than originally thought — maybe as much as 20 000 or 25 000 years. It puts to rest the idea that Aboriginal people wiped out the megafauna very quickly.’
TOPIC2 Deep Time to modern era 63
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