For a long time I wondered why, given that the Australian Aborigines are purportedly the oldest civilization on earth (45 000 – 65 000 years old), there was not much evidence of buildings or technology among their culture.
I had believed the lie that they were simple, primitive hunter-gatherers and therefore did not need or create technology. That never sat well with me, bearing in mind the many creative and intelligent Aboriginal people in the public eye and others I had met.
“History is written by victors” is a quote that is often bandied about (once attributed to Winston Churchill, but that’s doubtful). It basically means that the victors will always portray themselves in a favourable light and gloss over any mistakes, atrocities and such like they may have committed.
The more I read, the more I suspect this is true about the European historical accounts of the Aboriginal people.
Culture and country
Aboriginal people believed that land is held in common and the people were temporal custodians. In this way they adhered to God’s original injunction to Adam.
Pascoe (see ref below) calls this dynamic a “jigsawed mutualism”. People had rights and responsibilities for their particular pieces of the jigsaw, but they were constrained to operate so that it added to rather than detracted from other communities. This also preserved the integrity of the land.
There was a big picture perspective: people knew to be good custodians of their bit of land, so that there was no disadvantage to communities they may never meet further down river, or across the range. There were connections that extended beyond their limited knowledge – such as is evident in the songlines that cover the country.
Studies of language, which is connected to spiritual and social change, have shown that there was great social stability within and among the communities across Australia.
There is no evidence of battles and conflict between tribes in the early settler journals, or in any art forms. Even Captain Charles Sturt (1795 – 1869) comments that the most unfavourable interactions occurred when there was contact with Europeans. Weapons and tools are loaded with spiritual obligation. Their use was not indiscriminate.
None of this is acknowledged in the history books.
Agriculture
Journal and diary accounts from the first explorers in Australia such as Major Thomas Mitchell (1792 – 1855) and Captain Sturt describe a beautiful land with rich soil which was cultivated and the grain harvested.
But even they did not look beyond the superficial in their observations. They noted evidence of agriculture, such as terraced hillsides to prevent erosion, but did not recognize it for what it was.
The Victorian Alps originally had fields of yam daisies that were cultivated and harvested. With the Europeans came sheep, which ate the yams to the ground so they couldn’t regenerate. So the fields were lost forever and the Europeans didn’t even notice.
Sturt saw evidence of grain harvest (from grasses such as Themeda species as well as native millet – Panicum species) and storage; in fact the grain belt that is surmised before Europeans is about twice the size of the current area and encompasses much of what is now desert. Baked clay vessels and skin bags were used for storage. A range of tools had been developed but again, not recognized by Europeans.
Aquaculture and engineering
Permanent housing was a feature of pre-European Aboriginals. Many explorers in Arnhem Land noted large buildings that were waterproof, and even different structures for different seasons.
The fish traps at Brewarrina have been recognized as advanced technology which trapped enough fish to feed from, but allowed enough to go upstream and continue breeding. The Aboriginal people here knew sustainable practices well before it became a buzz word in our society. Dams, irrigation systems and well trenches are features that have been discovered and documented.
Killer whales were engaged to help herd bigger whales at Eden to be harvested by the Yuin people. Ocean and waterway canoes were in common use.
Assumptions and prejudices
Writings by women such as Dame Mary Gilmore describing dam building, irrigation and harvest were dismissed because she was a woman and a poet!
Cooking abalone is an example of European prejudice: it is disgusting when boiled the English way. But they didn’t bother to ask how the Aboriginals cooked it: when sliced finely, seared and cooked in the shell, it is delicious.
Evidence of permanent settlement was glossed over. If it was acknowledged that Aboriginal people had permanent structures to live in, it meant they had a legal claim to the land around them. This was inconvenient to the Europeans whose rationale was that you can’t dispossess hunter-gatherers so it’s all right for us to take over the land.
Even in 1990 the Victorian Archeological Society declared that particular stone arrangements couldn’t possibly be deliberate house sites, despite drawings and descriptions of such houses by early settlers!
Underestimation of Indigenous achievement was a deliberate tactic of British colonialism to allow them to take dominion over land. References to violence committed on the Aboriginals are conveniently deleted, for example when Governor Burke ordered that a reference to Aboriginals being shot near Mount Dispersion in 1836 be deleted from the record in the Gazette.
There is great injustice here – what happened to the original acknowledgement that this was the “Great South Land of the Holy Spirit”?
Reference:
Pascoe, B 2014 Dark Emu: black seeds agriculture or accident? Magabala Books Aboriginal Corporation, Broome, Western Australia
Aira Chilcott is a retired secondary school teacher with lots of science and theology under her belt. Aira is a panellist for Young Writers and indulges in reading, bushwalking, volunteering at a nature reserve and learning to play clarinet. Aira is married to Bill and they have three adult sons.
Aira Chilcott's previous articles may be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/aira-chilcott.html
Aira Chilcott is a retired secondary school teacher with lots of science andtheology under her belt. Aira is an editor for PSI and indulges inreading, bushwalking and volunteering at a nature reserve. Aira’s husband Bill passed away in 2022 and she is left with three wonderful adult sons and one grandson.
Aira Chilcott's previous articles may be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/aira-chilcott.html
