Foxy, did you yourself bother to look at the Creative Spirits website? Because I just did, http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/history/australian-aboriginal-history-timeline. The timeline they give only goes back to 1400, or in other words they admit that there is no real documented history before this time. And between 1400 to 1770 it lists only 8 events of history (yep you read that right, 370 years with just 8 facts!). And of those 8: 5 were records, made by foreigners (either European or Chinese) of aboriginal encounters, 2 were a facts the derived by archaeology (one about bone tool deposits linked to aboriginals working animal skins and another about dating a rock painting that had a picture of a Indonesian boat) and 1 was a general fact about there being trade of trepang (sea cumcumber/sea slags) between aboriginals and the Macassans. So not a single one was a fact recorded by an aboriginal!!

So guess what, it supports EXACTLY what I'm saying! That is, aboriginals had no in depth knowledge of their own history before white man's arrival and most of what exists today, exists either because 1)literate people wrote down what they saw and what has happened in the last couple of centuries, or 2) before that time we employed western techniques and technology to exact the details of the past.

However, what I'm not saying is that aboriginals don't have a history. Everything that exists has a history. For example, I have a large naturally formed rock in my garden. This rock has a history that would span millions and millions of years, but no-one knows what the history is. However we can use scientific methods to determine some of the things that have happened to it over time. It's the same with aboriginals and their history. Very, very little of their history was maintained by themselves, but we can use modern scientific methods to determine some of it.

So to recap: in almost all cases of their incontestable established historical facts/events, the aboriginals knowledge of it exists solely because because we (ie: people of modern times) unveiled it to them!

thinkabit,

As a student I had my work experience at the State
Library of Victoria in the AMPA Library (Art, Music,
and Performing Arts). I was given
to catalogue the Aboriginal Oral History Collection.
It was fascinating and went back for decades. As
Andris tried to tell you - their history was in the
main - oral. And the white settlers kept only what
suited them and made them look good. Why is that so hard
for you to understand and grasp?

Surely you can't seriously believe that they had no history
until the white man came? If that's what you believe then
I guess - nothing I say will change your mind and there's
no point in continuing this conversation. All I can
suggest politely is that you do a bit more research.
And Creative Spirits does go into some greater depth if you click
onto the appropriate references. They do go back quite a way.

cont'd ...

Also, if you're really interested you can always
go into either your State Library or your Local
Municipal Library and ask for the help of a librarian.
They'll be glad to steer you in the right direction.

ABC's Landline this afternoon was about Archaeologists checking camp sites & Trepang curing stations in the Far North of WA. One of the indigenous women said she was sure they had amiable relations with the Maccassans.
It is recorded that as late as the 1870"s, the Maccassans had violent conflicts with the indigenous, mostly because of Aborigine women having been abducted & also because of commodities the Indigenous desired.
It certainly does not appear to have been as harmonious as some academic historians are trying to portray.

Foxy:/"Surely you can't seriously believe that they had no history until the white man came?"/

No, I've never said they "had no history that they knew until the white man", I've said they had scant or next to none. The did have some history but compared to what complex cilvilized societies have recorded about their (the complex societies') histories it is negligible. Indeed, it is still negligible when you compare the amount of history that non-traditional-aboriginals (ie. folk since 1788) have recorded or ascertained about the aborigines.

A perfect example of the deficiency of oral histories is the story that SteelRedux provided. In this story there is basically one historical fact being detailed, namely: Port Philip bay was created by a flood.

Now, what's really interesting about this story as a conveyor of historical fact is:

1) how inefficient it is: it is about 400 words (a quick guesstimate by me) and in describes just the one fact which I've recounted in 7 words.

2) how bereft of detail it is: it doesn't say when or how long it took, or why it occurred (actually it does give a why- according to it, it was the result of inter-tribal conflict and bad behaviour, but I'll accept that this is really a morality instruction myth mixed with a history and won't treat this as though it is meant to be taken literally)

3) To verify or establish exactly which event the story is talking about SteelRedux himself had to defer to modern scientific knowledge. In his own words, "The scientific date for this was only recently been pegged to be about 1000 years ago."

4) It is factually WRONG. Although I'll be generous and give them some points anyway because Port Philip Bay did form by rising waters but it wasn't a flood but rather sea level rise.

-- continued below --

Now, compare this oral history of the formation of Port Philip Bay, with modern "white-man" established history.

[Ok. Let's see what we can find out about Port Philip Bay. Hmm, a quick google search will do it....and, what do you know there is a Wikipage devoted to it.]

So on this page, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Phillip, there are about 1500 words devoted to the history of the place and EVERY SINGLE SENTENCE contains at least one fact!!

Here just a snippet- it's the very first paragraph about its prehistory (where I've added numbers to count the individual micro facts):

"(1)Port Phillip formed between the end of the last Ice Age around 8000 BCE and around 6000 BCE, (2)when the sea-level rose to drown what was then the lower reaches of the Yarra River, vast river plains, wetlands and lakes. (3)The Yarra and other tributaries flowed down what is now the middle of the bay, (4)formed a lake in the southern reaches of the bay, dammed by The Heads, subsequently pouring out into Bass Strait"

And remember, this is just one webpage of history about the bay. If we examined the whole corpus of our knowledge there would be gazillions of facts! And that's gazillions of facts about just ONE bay.