Antinuclear

Sophisticated Farmers and Land Managers – Australian Aborigines across the continent

“Most other civilisations had various levels of dissent from time to time but here it seems there was a consensus on how to manage the land and the people.”

Mr Pascoe says he has received many calls from Aboriginal people recalling cultivation activities and stories. He expects further research will substantiate his claims.

Australian Aborigines Were Sophisticated Farmers and Land Managers ‘Hunter and gatherer’ label is a misnomer, say academics By Shar Adams, Epoch Times | May 21, 2014 SYDNEY–Australian Aborigines, among the oldest continual inhabitants of their land in the world, have long been depicted as hunters and gatherers. Mounting evidence, however, suggests they were not primitives but sophisticated cultivators and land managers.

Researcher and author Bruce Pascoe, a Bunurong man from south eastern Australia, searched the accounts of early explorers and settlers for evidence of cultivation and was astounded at what he found.

“I came across repeated references to people building dams and wells, planting, irrigating and harvesting seed, and manipulating the landscape,” he said.

One of the most vivid accounts was from explorer Charles Sturt, who was the first European to penetrate the interior and see the Simpson Desert.

In his 1844-1846 expedition, Sturt was near death, having already lost some of his exploration party, when he came across a group of some 400 Aboriginals.

They saved his life by giving him water, roast duck and cake which had been made from their own grain, Mr Pascoe said. Sturt repeatedly described the cake as the “best cake he had ever eaten”, even after his hunger had been satiated.

“He describes it in great detail, he describes the method of the milling, the flavour, and he even goes as far as to give a short recipe,” Mr Pascoe said in a phone interview.

“They still call it ‘the dead heart of Australia’ and here he was eating cake made from flour harvested there.” n another account, explorer and government surveyor Thomas Mitchell describes riding through nine miles of grain crops in his 1830s exploration of black soil country in northern New South Wales.

“Not only had the grain been cut, but it had also been stooped. It had been put into bales throughout this landscape in readiness for threshing,” Mr Pascoe said.

Mr Pascoe, who has written a book, Dark Emu, detailing his findings, says he now believes describing Aborigines as nomadic hunters and gatherers is “a misnomer”.

Aborigines did move according to season and for cultural activities, he says, but many had permanent abodes, with some even maintaining two or three houses. After European occupation, however, their crops would have been destroyed and many would have been forced from their land, giving the appearance of wanderers.

Intensive Cultivation

Mr Pascoe is not alone in his views………..

Mr Pascoe says he was familiar with Aboriginal aquaculture and irrigation systems but it has taken time to get his head around the scale of land cultivation.

The amount of cooperation across such a huge area and with so many different groups would require a very strong system of governance.

“It had to be very, very powerful in order to convince young people that this was the way to go,” he said.

“Most other civilisations had various levels of dissent from time to time but here it seems there was a consensus on how to manage the land and the people.”

Mr Pascoe says he has received many calls from Aboriginal people recalling cultivation activities and stories. He expects further research will substantiate his claims. http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/688000-australian-aborigines-were-sophisticated-farmers-and-land-managers/

May 22, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | aboriginal issues, AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL