John Williams, May I say a well considered article which will sit comfortably with many. I would like to see the contributions of genuine aboriginal Australians recognised in a united sovereign Australia where all are equal. Unfortunately the quote by Paul Keating exposes the real agenda of the contemporary quasi aboriginal community - "… doing away with the bizarre conceit that this continent had no owners prior to settlement of Europeans.". Prior to European settlement the reality is that Australia was occupied by a diverse collection of hunter gatherer tribes, mostly warring at one time or another. There were no civilisations in the real meaning of the word. A civilisation is created when a population of humans creates a synergistic development and culture for the benefit of all. There was no agriculture, no technology, no permanent housing, no written language, no sense of a place or location that could or would be defended from intruders, no records other than memory and images on rocks etc. There was no cross-fertilisation of ideas and knowledge with peoples from other parts of the planet. None of this should preclude of course a recognition of the longevity of isolation of aboriginal Australians, nor the intention to be recognised as such in a united sovereign Australia. May I suggest that the demands of the contemporary Australian aboriginal people (which includes many with little claim for aboriginality) for constitutional recognition of the first nations are seen by many as a ploy to subdivide Australia into many sub-nations where disputes over sovereignty will become the norm. Such an Australia has no real future.

Indeed Joe

In terms of the author's 60,000 years of continuous civilisation claim - nNo way was there an Australian Aboriginal NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS 600 years ago, let alone 60,000 years. If there were NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS one would eg. expect Aborigines of the Pilbara 300 years ago having a good working knowledge of Yorta Yorta http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yorta_Yorta customs or trading goods 300 years ago .

This is also noting TASMANIAN Aboriginal were physically cutoff from the mainlaind polopulation for 1,000s years ie. no communication or consciousness.

As you imply "consciousness" may be fostered by (or require) CONTRASTS eg. opposition or recognition of Difference from outsiders. Eg. Northern-NT aborigines may have sensed they were different from visiting Southeast Asian sea-cucumber gathering seamen and from Torres Strait Islanders (TSIs).

TSIs may well have been self-conscious of mainland PNG raiders/traders AND difference of TSIs when they canoed and met mainland aboriginals.

Hi Pete,

Yes, it's puzzled me why Aboriginal groups on Cape York didn't take on the bow-and-arrow hunting technology from the PNG raiders.

Forty-odd years ago, I did a tiny bit of work sorting spears at the SA Museum and was struck by the size of the spears from up that way, barely a metre: even then, I thought, wow, bows and arrows would have surely been more useful in rain-forest ? Like in the Amazon, and in Borneo ?

Cultural systems seem to have their own momentum, in that ways of doing may be perpetuated where possible (maybe for a very short time), even if they are manifestly out of date - but perhaps only until the older people pass away. So older people fishing by spear down this way, even on government-supplied boats, while younger people were using fishing lines and nets - but nobody knowing how to make fishing spears by the 1880s (or presumably using them).

Joe

The whole show is just a profitable circus for the opportunistic within Academia.

How many waves of people arrived on this continent ?
Who knows ? No one probably. After the landbridge to Papua or to the
Indonesian Islands went people could still arrive by sea as knowledge
of the land would still be known to fishermen.
Except for the Northernmost Aborigines knowledge of the rest of
humanity would not even exist in imagination.
So did the Aborigines displace by invasion numerous other forgotten
peoples ? Does DNA tell us anything ?

I do not think I can ask Norwegians to aplogise for displacing my
ancestors in Britain and even their descendants for invading from
Normandy and killing my King Harold.

The Aborigines are not exempt from the machinations of history and
the movement of people around the globe.
History does not dish out special treatment.

So Live With It !

We are all custodians of the land. The bush, beaches, mountains and rivers all here for us to enjoy, and we are free. A shame the division of anthem/Australia Day persists and there should be boxes to tick in the next election, for there's no doubt about that event.
Good book to read, The Custodians.