Ancient sites

Forrest offered a capped payment to the Yindjibarndi of $4 million for access to their sacred land. After negotiating for six months, which is all that is required under the act, Fortescue was able to get its mining lease from the National Native Title Tribunal. Last month, the dispute returned to haunt Forrest when a Federal Court judge made a series of extraordinary findings about Fortescue's conduct in the native title claim lodged by Woodley and the Yindjibarndi over a stretch of land that includes the now-built Solomon mine. Included on this page is article, audio report and copy of the court report. [node:read-more:link]

A new genetic study is threatening to transform theories about who the original Native Americans were after finding certain tribes in the Amazon are related to Aborigines in Australia. Researchers believe these stories could constitute some of the oldest accurate oral histories in the world, passing through some 300 generations. Traditional stories passed down through generations by Australian Aborigines may be among the oldest accurate oral histories in the world. 'About 2 per cent of the ancestry of Amazonians today comes from this Australasian lineage that's not present in the same way elsewhere in the Americas.' [node:read-more:link]

Researchers established that Lake Mungo's high water mark was five metres higher than previously realised, and results of an international study has revealed that the iconic lake situated 90 kilometres north-east of Mildura, was actually a mega-lake, almost 20 per cent bigger than thought before. "Traces of people's activities are actually embedded in sediment, so that tells us that people were relying on watercraft to get around to exploit what was on the island in terms of animals to hunt," said La Trobe University archaeologist Nicola Stern. [node:read-more:link]

Kitty Wallaby's life was linked with the Dreamtime, and her people, the Gunditjmara in Western Victoria, built sprawling villages of stone houses and an aquaculture system that pre-dated Egypt's pyramids and Stonehenge. When Kitty told the invading pastoralists that is was her country, they were not interested in listening or understanding. [node:read-more:link]

The first proof that humans lived in Western Australia's Mid West at the same time as humans in the Pilbara and South West regions has been found in a cave 50 kilometres north-west of Cue.
Previously, archaeologists had no established evidence that humans occupied the Mid West region more than 10,000 years ago. But charcoal associated with stone artefacts excavated in the Yalibirri Mindi rock shelter in the Weld Range have been shown to belong to ancestors of the Wajarri native title claimants living 30,000 years ago. [node:read-more:link]

The loss of Australian First Nation languages could obstruct access to unique scientific information regarding Australia's ancient geological history, according to a BBC reported.

Ancient legends on the continent passed down over millennia appear to verify recent scientific discoveries regarding Australia's ancient past. For example, cave art suggests an ancient knowledge of the heavens including beliefs in visits by ancient astronauts and a previously untapped record of natural history [node:read-more:link]

While undergoing conservation work on existing Aboriginal rock images in the Grampians, rangers stumbled upon two new previously unknown and unrecorded sites, conserving them will be the challenge. At one site a mixture of ochre and emu egg has been used across the top of a hand to create a stencil. While a series of figures and lines appear on a rock at another site. These were recently discovered by rangers in the Grampians while working in the fire affected areas. "The more we look the more we find," said Chief Ranger David Roberts. [node:read-more:link]

Should First Nations culture be preserved primarily in institutions, as too many paternal white politicians insist? Or is it best lived and nurtured in traditional lifestyles in home countries across the continent? It's been less than a century since the world's leading collectors began acknowledging First Nations art as more than mere ethnographic artefact.Since then, the most enlightened, from Hong Kong to London, New York to Paris, have understood that when you purchase a piece of First Nations art you become its custodian - not its owner. [node:read-more:link]