• Seasonal gatherings allowed groups to trade goods, share food, and strengthen relationships. • They developed and traded tools like grinding stones and blades, showing their creativity and adaptability. 2.9 How was land managed? • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples managed the land sustainably, using practices like firestick farming to promote growth and protect ecosystems. • Farming and aquaculture, including fish traps like those at Brewarrina and Lake Condah, supported food production and community sustainability. • Communities adapted to diverse landscapes and climates, blending farming, fishing and spiritual practices to maintain harmony with the land. 2.10 How do we care for Country and Place? • Caring for Country and Place involves studying Deep Time through archaeological sites like Lake Mungo while respecting their spiritual and cultural significance. • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ heritage includes artefacts, rock art, and remains, which connect communities to ancestors and culture. • Heritage sites like Budj Bim and Willandra Lakes are protected through collaboration with traditional custodians, promoting cultural preservation and environmental care. 2.11 How is the connection to culture and Country continuing? • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples maintain their connection to Country through cultural practices, artefacts and oral traditions, demonstrating a living culture. • Discoveries like Mungo Man reveal the Deep Time history of ceremonial burials and the longevity of Aboriginal culture, the oldest continuous culture in the world. • The concept of Deep Time highlights ongoing connections between past and present, integrating oral traditions, archaeology and natural landscapes. 2.12 Inquiry: Should we return ancestral remains from museums? • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples advocate for the return of ancestral remains from museums to honour spiritual, cultural and ceremonial connections. • The slow progress in returning remains, like Mungo III, highlights the need for respectful collaboration between museums and traditional custodians. • Campaigns for repatriation focus on education, raising awareness, and promoting respectful relationships to ensure ancestral remains are returned to Country. 2.13.2 Key terms aquaculture the rearing of aquatic animals, or the cultivation of aquatic plants for food. Aquaculture was a major part of the pre-European settlement economies of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. cassowary a large flightless bird related to the emu with a bare head and neck conservation to prevent waste or destruction dialects different forms of a language DNA The material in all living things that carries genetic information dugong a sea animal, sometimes called a sea cow, found mainly on the coasts bordering the Indian Ocean ecosystem a community of organisms, plants or animals and the environment they exist in foraged to search for provisions or food intensification the action of making or becoming something greater midden A mound of material, such as shells and bones, marking the place where people once lived. Pleistocene A period of Earth’s history from about 2.6 million to 11 700 years ago, known for ice ages and early human development rites of passage ceremonial events that mark transitions in a person’s life, for example some ceremonies apply to young people between 10 and 16 years, representing a point of transition from childhood to adulthood sago a starch food obtained from palm used to produce a flour
TOPIC2 Deep Time to modern era 69
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