AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINALS
"ABORIGINAL SETTLEMENT"
Opinions about Aboriginal settlement of Australia in general, and of Northern Australia in particular, are currently in a state of flux. Because Australia had no primate stock, people must have migrated to the continent from elsewhere.
Until recently, the oldest firm date for Aboriginal occupation of Australia - obtained at a site on the Swan River, W.A. - was 38000 BP (before the present). The earliest dates from the Northern Territory were from Kakadu National Park in the Top End and from the Cleland Hills in the arid centre, and were in the area of 20000 BP to 25000 BP.
However, findings published in May 1990 by Drs. Mike Smith and Rhys Jones of the Australian National University show that these dates were far to conservative. Their work in Kakadu National Park has provided occupation dates at least 50000 BP; they suggest that initial occupation of the Australian continent occurred in the period of 50-60000 BP. These revised dates have resulted from improved dating techniques. Until recently carbon dating was the main method used, but this of limited use for dating beyond 25000 years.
A new technique, thermo-luminence, now allows dating of artifacts found in the lower levels of archaeology digs. While the timing and nature of the Aboriginal occupation of northern Australia is still debated, there is growing preference among prehistorians for what is termed the "porous northern perimeter" model. According to this model, occupation occurred as a result of steady migration rather than sudden waves.
T here is also evidence that environments that are extremely arid today - such as Central Australia - were far moister 20000 years ago, making them far more suitable for human occupation.
At the time of European contact there were about 126 "tribal" groups having all or most of their territories in the Northern Territory, with an estimated population of 35000. These people were hunter-gathers who lived in small family groups of 15-30, called bands. Bands were the basic residential and economic unit. Groups of bands formed larger social units that anthropologists have called "communities", "tribes" or "culture blocs", depending on whether a political, linguistic or religious perspective is taken.
People within such social networks frequently co-operated to exploit abundant resources during good seasons or to share scarce resources during drought or flood. The links between greater groups were based on kinship and marriage ties, common ceremonial affiliation and shared ownership of, or responsibility for, sacred sites and objects.
The geographic distribution, density and mobility of the Aboriginal population were closely related to the availability of water, food and other resources. The greater part of the population clustered along rich coastal environments and their associated river systems. Generally the size of the bands did not vary as much as the extent of the tract of land (called the range) needed by each group for it's survival.
The traditional territory of 250 Iwaidja of Cobourg Peninsula occupied only 260 sq. km. In resource-rich coastal regions such as this, population density could be as high as one person per square kilometer. On the other hand in the desert regions population density could be as low as 1 person per 100 square kilometers reflected Aboriginal adaptation to a far harsher environment. The Warlbiri, for example, inhabited an area of nearly 40000 sq. km, while the Wangkanguru even successfully adapted to the Simpson Desert. In arid regions large territories allowed groups to survive by foraging in a seasonal and systematic manner over vast areas. At contact there was no single, homogeneous Aboriginal society. Groups differed in aspects of their cultural and social organisation, and. in the Northern Territory alone, over 100 different languages were spoken, as unlike one other as French or Russian.
In some areas of Central Australia, one language (such as Warlbiri or Pitjanjatara) was spoken by many hundreds of people over a great area. In other areas, such as Central Arnham Land where the township of Maningrida is now located, as many as ten distinct languages were spoken within a relatively small region. The existence of widespread social networks meant that people had to be multilingual to communicate. Likewise, music and dance, kinship systems, art forms and ceremonies differed dramatically between regions.
Yet these differences were probably less important than the underlying similarities which brought groups together for ceremonies, for trade, to intermarry, and which allowed the maintenance of myths, and of song lines and exchange cycles that extended over hundreds of kilometers. Even today regional variations tend to emphasise their own distinctness and identity.
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