Week 6/7 | sarahancientworlds

Week 6/7:Aboriginal Archaeology

We acknowledge and pay our respects to the traditional owners and elders, both past and present

SONGLINES

Songlines can be traced across the sea, sky and land detailing the creations of certain environmental
landmarks, including waterholes. These are the stories of the creation ancestors passed down through
stories, songs, painting and dance. These songlines can lead a person across Australia, allowing for
Indigenous Australians to navigate across country. (1)
Songlines connect people and sacred sites, they are the tracks of indigenous ancestors who shaped the
land as they moved across country.
As well as being the tracks of ancestors, there are also tracks in the sky, we have learned that
constellations such as orion and the Pleiades were told as a young man/ group of young men (orion)
chasing a group of sisters (pleiades).
Additionally across various Aboriginal cultures the milky way was referred to as the "Emu in the sky"
These astronomical traditions have also been found in art and artefacts, as well as oral traditions
- Stone alignments have been found with such accuracy that they could only be created with astrological measurement.
  - "Wurdi Youang stone ring in Victoria contains alignments to the position of the setting sun at the equinox and the solstices (Norris et al., 2013). Statistical tests show that these alignments are unlikely to have arisen by chance, and instead the builders of this stone arrangement appear to have deliberately aligned the site to astronomically significant positions." (pp. 2)

Dreaming

The Dreaming is a western term to describe Aboriginal Spirituality. The Dreaming includes cultural values, laws and knowldge all passed down through stories, song, painting, and dance. (1)

Indigenous Art

Rock Art

Initially it was believed the rock art of the Kimberley’s was dated at about 10,000 years old. However recent evidence indicates these paintings are from the ice age, 16,000 years ago.
To determine the date of these rock paintings can be incredibly difficult as carbon dating failed as the paintings do not contain any organic materials.
The technique of optically-simulated luminescence (OSL) has been used to date an ancient wasps nest that was on top of the art. The mud the wasps used was from the local riverbed and as a result researchers can date the sand using OSL by determining when the sand was last exposed to sunlight. Therefore, although this cannot give us a precise time the art was painted it does tell us the minimum date for how old the art is.
Importantly this study that was done involved 20 members of the local Aboriginal community allowing for collaboration and the voices of Indigenous Australians to be heard, rather than a group of people going in and disrespecting or destroying sites of significance.
This article is interesting as it explains that the age of certain things, such as art, are not important to Aboriginal Australians as it is all a part of the Indigenous culture and age does not play a significant role.
- It is interesting to note this because I think there is such a focus on seeing how old things are and establishing when certain art was painted.
- I think it is important to note that this culture is still alive today, so although we look at it as this ancient civilisation it is more than that so we must make sure we are respectful when studying its past because it is still very much a part of the present.

Dot painting

Dot painting as we know it today was only introduced in 1971 when Geoffrey Bardon was assigned as an art teacher to in Papunya, near Alice Springs. He noticed that when Aboriginal men told stories they would draw symbols in the sand. Bardon then encouraged students to paint murals based off these symbols as a way of telling stories. Soon after this, after sparking interest in the whole community, many of the men also began painting. This then was a way for students and men to paint their stories and sacred stories.
When this form of art went national, and then global, there was a problem as other people, including Westerners and Aboriginal people from different regions had access to these specific tribal stories. As these stories are not to be shared with just anyone artists abstracted their designs in a way of concealing the sacred meanings of the paintings.
This raises ethical questions of the sharing and owning of dot paintings if they hold such sacred importance.
- is it ethical that these sacred stories, traditions and culture have

Ghost Nets

"We are Saltwater People, and GhostNets Australia allows our communities to work together to get rid of marine debris in our sea country." Djawa Yunupingu, Dhimurru.

Abandoned nets, also known as 'ghost nets' are a major problem in Sea Countries of Northern Australia. They move with the currents and tides, trapping and killing fish and birds as well as larger animals including dolphins, sharks, and turtles. (1)
Aboriginal communities in the Gulf of Carpentaria and Torres Strait are coming up with different ways to deal with this problems. These communities are removing these nets from beaches through Caring for Country and Ranger programs. In more recent years artists have taken these nets and created sculptures paying homage to totems and cultural stories, whilst highlighting the problem of ghost nets.(1)
This project has combined Indigenous culture with the current environmental issues of society currently. This is an example of how the tradition and significance of art and storytelling can adapt to different contexts.
Although this is slightly distant from looking at Aboriginal Archaeology but i found it really interesting to see how the culture and art traditions have evolved with time, just as they did with style in rock artworks.

Archaeological Peel

An archaeological peel is a vertical section of earth that shows the different layers of soil and what was
contained in each layer. (1)
Archaeological peels are significant as they can provide archaeologists with a history of a site
In this specific peel found at Balmoral Beach we can see remains of snapper, bream, leather jacket,
Sydney rock oyster, possum, and swamp wallaby. (1)
Therefore this indicates the importance of this area as a camp and significance to indigenous Australians.

Mega Fauna

It was also amazing to see all the extinct animals in the surviving Australia gallery, specifically all the
megafauna that existed. Australian animals are already unique so it is almost mind-blowing to see how
different animals were 1 million years ago.
One specific animal was the Diprotodon, or enormous wombat as it is commonly referred as. Not only was
the marsupial massive it has been linked to “The bunyip” a legendary creature that lurked at lakes and
dragged passers-by into its lair. There have even been incidences of Indigenous Australians claiming the
bones of the Diprotodon as belonging to the bunyip.
- Therefore, a link between archaeological evidence and The Dreaming can be seen.
Another megafauna, although not as big as other species, was the Tasmanian tiger (Thylacine) which
survived long enough on Tasmania to experience the full wrath of humanity. I particularly like the closing
line of this article and thought it was fitting to include:
- “It is a reminder that, while we may lack scimitar-like teeth, crushing beaks or horned heads, it is
  humans that are the most lethal of all megafauna.” This is more than just a warning about humans
  ability to destroy animals but also reflects the European settlers attempts of destroy the indigenous
  culture and how without preservation we could lose the rich history that is Australia.

What caused the extinction of the mega fauna?

An initial hypothesis for the extinction of megafauna was directly linked to the arrival of indigenous Australians. Tim Flannery (Palaeontologist) suggested that when humans arrived 50,000 years ago, they used weapons and fire to hunt these animals and dramatically disrupted the land and ecosystem.
- This theory was highly controversial as he had no direct evidence supporting his claims he could not so boldly suggest the one reasons for the extinction of so many species was down to the arrival of humans
Although there was this initial suggestion that the extermination of several species of megafauna was a result of the introduction of humans, it was not the case – especially as a majority of the animals were already extinct by the arrival of Indigenous Australians. Although some human intervention could have contributed to the extinction of these animals, it is evident that the change and deterioration in climate would have directly affected the animals existing at the time.
- However we can definitely say that the extinction of the Tasmanian tiger as a direct consequence of human actions.

Australian Museum

I found the First Australians exhibition really interesting, however it did leave me wanting to know more. It's clear it is an exhibition that provides people with some general knowledge of the history, however I did often find myself asking questions and wanting to know more about certain things, which I have been able to do some research on for this assignment. Looking throughout the exhibit I did have several questions about the ethics of display as it is a culture that is still very much alive today so I think that makes it more complicated in the way things are to be presented and what should be allowed to be displayed. Overall I do think I learnt a lot from it, especially looking at the ways the culture it still practices today and the way the culture has adapted to today's society, especially in relation to art.

Bibliography