FORMALLY CONSIDERED FOR UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE
The archaeological history of the Aboriginal peoples of Australia is a truly remarkable story that very few Australians are aware of ... Perhaps the most deceptive myth perpetuated about Aboriginal society is the idea it was 'primitive', 'stone age', 'nomadic', or 'unevolved'. This type of thinking feeds racist stereotypes and discriminatory attitudes which continue to marginalise and disassociate Aboriginal Australians from the national identity.
Capitalism could not flourish without crushing the resistance of people who wanted to live differently ... wage labour and the drive to accumulate capital were incompatible with Aboriginal society. That incompatibility was the basis of the genocide. Across a vast stretch of northern Australia, extending at least from Borroloola to the Kimberley, Aborigines tell the tale of a murderous white man. He stands for whites in general, and is seen as an invader. As quoted in a paper by anthropologist Deborah Bird Rose; "shooting all the people [and] getting ready for the country, trying to take it away".
Wes Judd Australian Geographic 27 September 2013
Population numbers plummeted due to harsh conditions at the peak of the last Ice Age, says a new study.
'Conspiracy Of Silence' - Blood baths of the past by Dr T Bottoms
Captain James Cook Journal - 30 April 1770
As Soon as the Wooders and Waterers were come on board to Dinner 10 or 12 of the Natives came to the watering place, and took away their Canoes that lay there, but did not offer to touch any one of our Casks that had been left ashore; and in the afternoon 16 or 18 of them came boldly up to within 100 yards of our people at the watering place, and there made a stand.
Mr. Hicks, who was the Officer ashore, did all in his power to intice them to him by offering them presents; but it was to no purpose, all they seem'd to want was for us to be gone. After staying a Short time they went away. They were all Arm'd with Darts and wooden Swords; the darts have each 4 prongs, and pointed with fish bones. Those we have seen seem to be intended more for striking fish than offensive Weapons; neither are they poisoned, as we at first thought.
Far from being hunters and gatherers, the first Australians may have managed the biggest
farming estate on Earth, writes Tony Stephens.
The still common assumption is that Aboriginal Australians in 1788 were simple hunter-gatherers who relied on chance for survival and moulded their lives to the country where they lived. Historian Bill Gammage might have driven the last nail into the coffin of this notion.
Gammage draws striking conclusions from more than a decade's research.
Stanford University Report, July 12, 2012
Western Australia's Martu people set small fires as a matter of course while hunting lizards. But the technique may also buffer the landscape against two extremes – overgrown brush and widespread lightning fires – that hurt Australia's endangered small mammals.
BY MAX MCCLURE
