History

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]

Sydney's current city is probably the largest urban system ever built from, and upon, an existing city framework and it was built in an unholy silence. - What if our present historical city was not the first urban structure to occupy the coastal region extending from Port Stephens to Kiama? What would this primordial city reveal, what lessons of history could we learn; just what of this first, pre-invasion Sydney was admitted, and what was denied in the making of our second metropolis? [node:read-more:link]

Some people know about the South Sea Islander slaves but most are ignorant that many thousands of First Nations people were also used as slaves right across Australia, in settlement, on pastures and in industries. Even First Nation children were used in most industries and often kidnapped by 'blackbirders' - the children received no wages and had no opportunity to attend school. The adults often died of slavery or abuse. Here is an article by Alecia Simmonds, Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia. [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]