Mungo Man Holds Secrets of First Australians

Elimatta asgmwp.net Summer 2017 Aboriginal Support Group – Manly Warringah Pittwater ICN8728 ASG acknowledges the Guringai People, the traditional owners of the lands and the waters of this area MUNGO MAN HOLDS SECRETS OF FIRST AUSTRALIANS ‘Investing in death’ At a time when Europe was The remains of the first known Australian, Mungo largely populated by Neanderthals Man, have begun their return to the Willandra area of New a much more sophisticated ancient South Wales, where they were discovered in 1974. They’ll be accompanied by the remains of around culture existed down under 100 other Aboriginal people who lived in the Willandra landscape during the last ice age. Their modern descendants, the Mutti Mutti, Paakantyi and Ngyampaa people, will receive the ancestral remains, and will ultimately decide their future. But the hope is that scientists will have some access to the returned remains, which still have much to tell us about the lives of early Aboriginal Australians. The MUNGO Discoveries For more than a century, non-indigenous people have collected the skeletal remains of Aboriginal Australians. This understandably created enormous resentment for many Aboriginal people who objected to the desecration of their grave sites. The removal of the remains from the Willandra was quite different, done to prevent the erosion and destruction of fragile human remains but also to make sense of their meaning. In 1967 Mungo Woman’s cremated remains were found buried in a small pit on the shores of Lake Mungo. Careful excavation by scientists from the Australian National University revealed they were the world’s oldest cremation, dated to some 42,000 years ago. Several years later, and only several hundred metres from where Mungo Woman was buried, Mungo Man was discovered adorned in ochre that is thought to have been obtained from about 200km away to the north. Continued on Page 2 The skeleton of aboriginal man which was found at Lake Mungo in 1974 – ANU research team released finding 05/1999 as result of modern dating techniques that showed indigenous Australians arrived on continent 20,000 years earlier than previously accepted. Source:News Limited Elimatta 1 ASGMWP Newsletter Summer 2017 Science works best when a variety of perspectives MUNGO MAN HOLDS SECRETS are collected by different scientists working on different OF FIRST AUSTRALIANS questions. Science has not truly had this opportunity with Mungo Man. Continued from Page 1 We are fortunate to be working at a time when Mungo Man provided a further glimpse into a past technology allows us to understand ancient human that all of a sudden appeared far more complex than remains in ways that couldn’t have been imagined, archaeologists across the world had previously thought even ten years ago. The collection of remains from the possible. A picture was emerging that at a time when Willandra Lakes was CT scanned only four years ago, Europe was largely populated by Neanderthals, a much providing a wealth of new data that can be used to more sophisticated ancient culture existed down under understand those populations. – full of symbolism with a thriving and complex belief Much to learn from further research system. The study of ancient DNA has finally progressed to The discoveries made possible by the initial research the point where we can potentially learn a great deal of of a young Jim Bowler rewrote our understanding of information from ancient skeletons. human history. While DNA from contemporary populations can Some have argued that 42 years of scientific access provide significant information, living people can never to the remains is long enough for research to learn replace the information we can recover from people that everything we can from the remains. lived 42,000 years ago. Isotopes are geochemical signatures that can reveal how people may have moved across the landscape, from one different geological catchment to another. This type of work was recently applied to questions in other parts of Australia, where research revealed the ancient megafauna were probably migratory animals. Further research may allow us to see how the ancient Australians interacted with the seasonal movement of the great megafauna herds and their migrations who we know now overlapped with people in the Willandra as recently as 32,000 years ago. Only three of the ancient remains from the Willandra have been reliably dated, and there are more than 100 other skeletons that have no direct age estimates associated with them. The early dates from Australia’s north raise the possibility that some of the ancient remains recovered from the Willandra system may be older than those of Mungo Man and Woman. This could further rewrite the Joan Bowler and Former ANU Professor Jim Bowler during the Smoking ceremony at the Australian National University in history of the peopling of Australia. Canberra with Historic Ancestral Remains discovered at Lake Who knows what will be possible as science Mungo in the 1960s and early 1970s have been returned to continues to progress? It is impossible to predict what elders from the Willandra Lakes area of Western New South else we may be able to learn from Mungo Man and Wales in the first step of their journey home. the other individuals from the Willandra as technology Source: News Corp Australia advances. Limited research on the remains Will the story continue? While it is true that Mungo Man was excavated The discovery of Mungo Man and Mungo Woman in 1975 and has been in Canberra ever since, the sent shock waves through archaeology. Ancient burials perception that scientists have been undertaking research with such sophisticated funerary rituals were unexpected on his remains since this time is not accurate. in Pleistocene Australia. In reality, very few scientists, probably fewer than ten, The discovery forced a greater appreciation of the have been privileged with the opportunity to study the culture of the First Australians and was one of the man remains. Very little work has been published, which is reasons that the Willandra Lakes area was given World unfortunate considering the importance of these remains Heritage status in 1981. to human history. Those of us interested in the origins of the First Before 2005 only a few papers from a couple of Australians hope that the long overdue repatriation of different authors were published, dealing mainly with Mungo Man will not mark the end of scientific work on his dating and comparisons with other fossil human remains. remains. None of these provided an actual description of the Continued on Page 5 skeletal remains of Mungo Man. Elimatta 2 ASGMWP Newsletter Pemulwuy Australia’s first Indigenous political activist Pemulwuy was an Eora man born c1750 in Main Image: “Pimbloy: Native of New Holland in a canoe of that the area of Botany Bay in New South Wales. country”, engraving, on sheet, 20.8 x 26.0 cm. By Samuel John He is noted for his resistance to the European Neele (1758-1824) - State Library of Victoria. settlement of Australia which began with the Inset: Historical bronze portrait of Pemulwuy - University of QLD. arrival of the First Fleet in 1788. According to Watkin Tench: About one o’clock, the Pemulwuy (aka Pimbloy, Pemulvoy, Pemulwoy, sergeant was awakened by a rustling noise in the bushes Bimblewove, Bumbleway) was a member of the Bidjigal near him, and supposing it to proceed from a kangaroo, people, who were the original inhabitants of Toongabbie called to his comrades, who instantly jumped up. On and Parramatta in Sydney. He lived near Botany Bay. looking about more narrowly, they saw two natives with Pemulwuy became a kadaicha man of his tribe. Pemulwuy spears in their hands, creeping towards them, and three would hunt meat and provide it to the food-challenged others a little farther behind. As this naturally created new colony in exchange for goods. However, in 1790 alarm, McIntyre said, “don’t be afraid, I know them,” and Pemulwuy began a twelve-year guerrilla war against the immediately laying down his gun, stepped forward, and British, which continued until his assassination. spoke to them in their own language. The Indians, finding When Pemulwuy grew into manhood he became they were discovered, kept slowly retreating, and McIntyre Bembul Wuyan, which represents the earth and the crow. accompanied them about a hundred yards, talking According to historian Richard Green “he wasn’t very familiarly all the while. One of them now jumped on a fallen impressed with the mix of cultures. He preferred that we tree and, without giving the least warning of his intention, stayed within our own peoples.” Another name for him launched his spear at McIntyre and lodged it in his left side. was Butu Wargun which means crow. The person who committed this wanton act was described Origin of Conflict: Spearing of McIntyre as a young man with a speck or blemish on his left eye. On 9 December 1790, a shooting party left for Botany That he had been lately among us was evident from his Bay, including a sergeant of marines and three convicts, being newly shaved. including Governor Phillip’s gamekeeper John McIntyre. Continued on Page 4 Summer 2017 3 Elimatta Pemulwuy After a few hours’ rest on the riverbank Tench abandoned Australia’s first Indigenous political activist the expedition, and the bedraggled marines again made their way back to Sydney Cove. Continued from Page 3 The expeditions having failed, it was decided to The group was pursued by the settlers with muskets, instead avenge McIntyre by strictly punishing any but they escaped. Aboriginal considered to have transgressed against the McIntyre was taken back to the settlement, gravely settlement’s laws. In late December a marine detachment wounded.

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