What's in some wording on a statue's plinth?

[old man emu]

The History Purification Teams are flagellating themselves with righteous indignation as to whether 26th January 1788 was an early English D-Day. Cheering them on are the proud-to-be-downtrodden, propagandized descendants of the 1788 occupants on the land.

 

The current cat-o-nine tails is the wording on the plinth's of several statues. Captain Jame Cook -"Discoverer of Australia."

 

"No", they say. "Aborigines were in Australia for 40+ thousand years before Cook was a twinkle in his old man's eye."

 

Archaeological and geological evidence in the Sydney area suggests that aboriginal occupation was more likely to have been for only 5000 years there.

 

We can agree that aboriginals were the first humans to enter the Sydney, and in fact, the east coast areas. But we must also agree that, as far as proven records show, Cook and his crew were the first Europeans to enter the Sydney area. So the correct wording should be Captain James Cook - "European Discoverer of Australia".

 

Being equal in all things, there should be a corresponding statue in London with the wording : Woollarawarre Bennelong - Eora Discoverer of Europe, since he and another man of his tribe, Yemmerrawanne arived in England in 1792.

 

 

 

Wording is everything in these signs relating to historical events and their effects. This sign on the outskirts of the village near the southern entrance to Botany Bay is probably the least offensive observation of the historical event of Cook's landing there in 1770.

 

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OME

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

40,000 years???? Don't believe it: Australian dig finds evidence of Aboriginal habitation up to 80,000 years ago

 

Don't forget, inland Australia was a lush vegetated area - not sure how long ago though.. but if it was within 80k years (or 75K years), then maybe the movement from Asia/Africal wasn't in a hurry to find water on the east coast.

 

One of my biggest regrets about growing up in Aus is not learning more about Aboriginal culture... When I get back, I intend to put that right.. Plan at the moment is to first go (come) back for a holiday and ensure Aboriginal culture (and not just art) materially features.

 

 

[old man emu]

40,000 years???? Don't believe it: Australian dig finds evidence of Aboriginal habitation up to 80,000 years ago

Whether 40 ? 80? 5? , it doesn't matter a great deal to the argument about defining the establishment of European settlement in 1788 as an "invasion" or not. I accept that Australoid peoples ( Australoid race - Wikipedia ) occupied the land prior to 1788.

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

Either number compared to slightly north of 200 years is a big number... I was trying to accentuate the time line somewhat in terms of both occupation and by far the longest consecutive/continual anthropologically defined society to add weight to the assertion of invasion.. And also highlight that for urban Australia - at least when I grew up, there was nothing in the education system that enlightened us to the history, culture or challenges (including blatant racism towards) of the aboriginal people. I am not sure that has changed much.. hopefully it has.

 

 

[spacesailor]

Just looking at Dates!.

 

Australian centre "lush vegetated" @80,000 years.

 

Australoid arrived " Aboriginal habitation up to 80,000 years ago" .

 

DID they make the desert wasteland that we know today, with a big salt lake in the centre!.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Interesting discussion, but we still know so little. For most of the time that people have inhabited Oz, the coastline was miles out to sea. Who knows what evidence lies undiscovered under the ocean.

 

I still carry a torch for the idea of successive waves of settlers. Japan's indigenous Ainu have some similarities with our Murray Valley peoples. For centuries there was a thriving trade (including exchanges of people and words) between Australia and islands to our north. Who says that didn't also happen thousands of years before?

 

 

[old man emu]

I was trying to accentuate the time line somewhat in terms of both occupation and by far the longest consecutive/continual anthropologically defined society to add weight to the assertion of invasion..

There's a trap many have fallen into. There were as many different cultures (one might call them "nations") across the Australian continent as one might find across any of the other inhabited continents. There was no "Aboriginal Nation" and communication between societies at opposite ends of the continent was impossible due to language differences. Trade routes may well have cross the continent, but there was no homogeneous culture across the land. This is exemplified by the didgeridoo. The Didgeridoo is a wind instrument thought to have originated in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia. Researchers have suggested it may be the world's oldest musical instrument, over 40,000 years old. There is a little evidence of the didgeridoo being used as far south as the Alice Springs region of Australia, but traditionally never in the southern three quarters of the country.

 

It is only since the second half of the 20th Century that the didgeridoo has become a common musical instrument in the rest of the country, and then mainly as a result of its use by non-Aboriginal musicians who have learned to use it from the Arnhem Landers.

 

OME