The Deep Past of Pre-Colonial Australia

Abstract

Human occupation of Australia dates back to at least 65,000 years. Aboriginal ontologies incorporate deep memories of this past, at times accompanied by a conviction that Aboriginal people have always been there. This poses a problem for historians and archaeologists: how to construct meaningful histories that extend across such a long duration of space and time. While earlier generations of scholars interpreted pre-colonial Aboriginal history as static and unchanging, marked by isolation and cultural conservatism, recent historical scholarship presents Australia's deep past as dynamic and often at the cutting-edge of human technological innovation. This historiographical shift places Aboriginal people at the centre of pre-colonial history by incorporating Aboriginal oral histories and material culture, as well as ethnographic and anthropological accounts. This review considers some of the debates within this expansive and expanding field, focusing in particular on questions relating to Aboriginal agriculture and land management and connections between Aboriginal communities and their Southeast Asian neighbours. At the same time, the study of Australia's deep past has become a venue for confronting colonial legacies, while also providing a new disciplinary approach to the question of reconciliation and the future of Aboriginal sovereignty in Australia.

‘Right‐way’ science: reflections on co‐developing Indigenous and Western cross‐cultural knowledge to support Indigenous cultural fire management

“…In the last few years, increasing resources have been published to guide researchers through appropriate processes to engage in ethical, productive and mutually beneficial research with Indigenous partners. As post‐colonial nation‐states, such as Australia, mature and recognise their deep past, and cultural landscapes created by Indigenous peoples (Mawson 2020), the advantages of engaging in a plurality of knowledge will become increasingly evident. The benefits of right‐way research extend well beyond the collection of data, and can contribute to ecological, cultural and social justice, restoration and resilience.…”

“…In southeast Australia, many Indigenous communities aspire to re-establish and grow cultural fire management (The Victorian Traditional Owner Cultural Fire Knowledge Group 2019), but various socio-economic and political barriers have prevented widespread application of cultural burning (Maclean & Robinson 2018;Smith, et al 2018;McKemey 2020). The impacts of the southeast Australian 'Black Summer' (2019-20) bushfires (wildfires) magnified public and government interest in Indigenous cultural fire management (Mawson 2020), with governmentdriven bushfire inquiries recommending increased government commitment to Aboriginal land management and cultural burning programmes, and further research (Binskin & Bennett 2020;Owens & O'Kane 2020). Increasingly, advocates are arguing that to adequately address the potential for Indigenous fire management to inform policy and practice, scientific approaches must be decolonised and shift from post-hoc engagement with Indigenous people and perspectives to one of collaboration between Indigenous communities and scientists (Fletcher, et al 2021;McKemey, Neale, et al 2021;Robinson, et al 2021).…”

“…2018; McKemey 2020). The impacts of the southeast Australian ‘Black Summer’ (2019–20) bushfires (wildfires) magnified public and government interest in Indigenous cultural fire management (Mawson 2020), with government‐driven bushfire inquiries recommending increased government commitment to Aboriginal land management and cultural burning programmes, and further research (Binskin & Bennett 2020; Owens & O’Kane 2020). Increasingly, advocates are arguing that to adequately address the potential for Indigenous fire management to inform policy and practice, scientific approaches must be decolonised and shift from post‐hoc engagement with Indigenous people and perspectives to one of collaboration between Indigenous communities and scientists (Fletcher, et al .…”

Yarning about e-mental health tools: First Nations Australian youth perspectives of well-being and e-health

“…Yarning, understood as a technique aiming to form trusting, reciprocal relationships, allows the researcher and participant to share knowledge through storytelling of memories, experiences, and perspectives (Shay et al, 2021). With over 150 First Nations language groups still spoken today (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2021), it is important to acknowledge Australia’s First Nations communities are vastly diverse and each comprise their own languages, cultural structures, and belief systems (Leong et al, 2019; Mawson, 2021). The current study was undertaken by a Warumungu (a First Nations people, Northern Territory, Australia) woman with participants, herein referred to as knowledge-holders (Murrup-Stewart et al, 2021), from a range of First Nations communities.…”

Bandits, heroes and villains: A view from a settler colony

“…A common refrain was that the country was so young that it ‘had no history’. Again, this logic obscured the deep time history of Aboriginal Australia—the history of the oldest living culture in the world (Mawson, 2021; Veracini, 2007). Aboriginal history was not ‘discovered’ in the academy until the 1970s (Veracini, 2006).…”