When I come across an article like Aboriginal languages could reveal scientific clues to Australia’s unique past I generally find myself ignoring references to ancient astronauts but clicking down a host of other warrens helping me catch up on tidbits of fascinating insights into aboriginal culture and beliefs that I have missed in the past ten or so years. This one was no different. It led to myths about meteorites and variable stars and another look at the following map of indigenous languages
And that map reminds me of a project I was closely involved with as a metadata and open access repository librarian not very long ago and that I helped get kick started, the Living Archive of Aboriginal Languages. Some years back a certain federal government decided that bilingual education in remote aboriginal communities was not a good idea so many text resources in schools that had been painstakingly produced in local indigenous languages were stacked away to gather dust and creepy crawlies or even dumped in bins. In some cases these books were the only written records of the languages in existence. After an academic from Charles Darwin University (CDU) successfully sought funding to rescue as many of these print resources as possible, an irreplaceable resource for both scholarly linguists internationally and local aboriginal communities themselves, the Living Archive of Aboriginal Languages (LAAL) was set up and, since I happened to be working at CDU at the time, I found myself with another very worthy task to assist with.
It was a fascinating project. As a metadata librarian one of my main challenges was investigating ways to facilitate open access to languages and even ideational concepts that had no simple point by point correlation with English; yet more … to find optimal ways to facilitate open access to both linguist scholars and local aboriginal communities.
Neil Godfrey
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Neil, I have been researching the ‘little people’, the Negritos which appear to have been distributed across Australia. Apart from Peter McAllister`s Pygmonia which dismisses a separate origin for Oz pygmies, information is widely dispersed. I spoke to an anthropologist from Armidale University and she had never heard of them. If so little interest has been shown academically, their languages and culture will disappear like so many other extinct aboriginal dialects. Already, disease, clashes with white and other indigenous groups and inter-marriage of the survivors with full-height tribes has removed most of the little folk. Do you have any information about these people?
What is the source for the view that they were distributed across Australia? I confess I, too, was unaware of that claim.
From listening to an interview with Peter McAllister I understood that the “pygmy” characteristics were adapted for rainforest conditions so if that is the case, and given most of Australia was not rainforest through the time of Aboriginal occupation (so I understand), I would have thought it unlikely that the pygmy type of people would have been found anywhere else but the rainforest areas – especially north and north-east Queensland.
Are they related to the extinct Indonesian Hobbits?
It’s a tantalizing thought and my information is limited to what I read in Morwood’s The Discovery of the Hobbit in 2007. (It’s also known by the title A New Human.) Morwood argued that the “Hobbit” (Homo floresiensis) was a decidedly new species that evolved in isolation on Flores. The dwarfing of the population followed the same pattern we see with the dwarfing of other animal species cut off on small islands. His argument was clearly against counter-claims at the time that homo floresiensis was a deformed modern human or related to modern pygmies. Unless I have missed something major I think that is the dominant view, now.
I’m looking for well sourced and documented Australian Aboriginal creation stories. If you happen to know of any good resources that would be great. Perhaps there are some Australian books that aren’t widely available elsewhere?
Sorry, but I can’t help with that one. It sounds like the sort of question that should be directed to your reference librarian. 😉 They would no doubt consult the Australian National Library (possibly also the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS)) and/or specialist scholars.
Hi, Neil, the sources range across the spectrum, from anthropologists like Tindale and Birdsell, through diaries and reminiscences, to interviews and sightings across Australia. From centuries ago to the present day. It seems to be the fashion today for historians and their followers to negate any claims unless they are the ones making them. I realise the only critical evidence is to witness first-hand, but we can`t be everywhere and have to assess other sources. Do we value media reports or erect a sceptical flag? Do we dismiss a claim because the claimer does not have a degree? If the indigenous demand to be heard, then why not hear all of the indigenes. Even photographs are not regarded as proof with the advent of fakery. For some reason, the ‘little people’ have been moved not only to the back-burner, but off the stove. While DNA looks to be the clincher in the study of origins, if a group is ignored, how can we be certain of our conclusions? More to follow if you are interested.
Why would anyone with a serious interest in aboriginal history and culture want to ignore any relevant testable evidence? I have come across several scholarly and other serious publications about aboriginal history and culture that point to diaries etc of earlier generations so I am surprised that anyone thinks there is a “fashion to negate claims” by historical eyewitnesses and reports. New understandings, some involving very dramatic revisions of traditional ideas, are always emerging, often by the uncovering of old diaries of explorers, early settlers, etc.
I’d be interested in any sources that I can follow up for myself and see what others have had to say about them — and if they have ignored them, as you suggest, to understand why.
Hi, Neil, I started my voyage of discovery with the report from world-renowned anthropologists, Tindale and Birdsell, during their research into characteristics of Australian indigenes. They actually visited some of the pygmy tribes in the rain-forest near Cairns. When Keith Windshuttle attempted to resurrect the hidden facts about these ‘little people’, I couldn’t understand the pile of abuse heaped on him by leading academics. It seemed to be dodging the existence of these tribes. When Peter McAllister in his book Pygmonia, pushed the line that smallness of stature was due to living in the dense rain-forest, I wondered how he explained the full size of other rain-forest tribes. Or pygmy people that didn`t live in the rain-forest. Then I came across Lindsay Page Winterbotham`s interviews with Willie McKenzie (Gaiarbau), an aboriginal man from the Kilcoy, Queensland area whose father had told him of the ‘little people’, the Dinderi, in his area. This led me to Jill Slack`s Then and Now, a history of the Gayndah, Queensland, aborigines with sightings of pygmies there. I found a mention of Archibald Meston, Qld Protector of Aborigines, moving ‘little people’ into the Durundur Reserve from those areas in the 1870s. Jill referred me to John Green`s collection of tribal history in the Gympie, Queensland area with mention of the pygmies, the Dhi’lumi, there. Since then, I have collected mentions of small-statured people across Australia, from Western Australia to Tasmania, sightings in N.S.W. from Barrington Tops to the Blue Mountains up to the present day, and Arnhem Land. The Bama people from near Mareeba are possibly another source to trace. I`m trying to track a mention of John McDouall Stuart who accompanied Sturt on an expedition to Lake Torrens and may have met small people there. All these tantalising clues keep me hunting for what may have been one of the founding folk in Australia. Ultimately, I expect DNA profiling will be necessary to determine just where these people fit into our history.
Here`s an article from the Royal Historical Society of Qld. newsletter that mentions the consulting physician at Cairns Hospital and his conclusions( sorry for the length):- ‘AUSTRALIAN NEGRITOS
Have you had a chance to read Russell McGregor’s article “Making the Rainforest Aboriginal: Tindale and Birdsell’s Foray into Deep Time”? If not, you can request a copy of the paper from Russell McGregor at https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/46957/ or purchase/request a copy via http://www.qm.qld.gov.au/About+Us/Publications/Memoirs+of+the+Queensland+Museum#.W41AFLh9iUm
In the previous comment you mention the hostility aimed at Keith Windshuttle for his article. I agree with some of the principles and criticisms of historical methods that KW has raised in relation to Australian history, but at the same time I cannot ignore his attachment to Quadrant which is anything but an “objective” journal. I am confused by KW’s principles on methods as I have understood them, but am worried by his links to reactionary or very right wing causes. His bias was revealed when he fell victim to a hoax article in Quadrant.
I would not want to dismiss anything argued by KW but I would always like to examine what he provides as evidence and to cross-check his points with others.
Thanks for that article, Neil. I contacted Jeremy Hodes who gave me references to a number of publications on North Qld. which dealt with the subject. Too much ego in research for my liking. The discipline allegedly taught to acedemics seems to be forgotten when it comes to sifting facts from whatever. Whether it`s religion or other histories, critical thinking gets shoved sideways. Sure, test theories and submitted thoughts, but leave the ad hom at the door. Back to the search.