World-first genome study reveals rich history of Aboriginal Australians

mccardey

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The most comprehensive genomic study of Indigenous Australians to date has revealed modern humans are all descendants of a single wave of migrants who left Africa around 72,000 years ago.It confirms modern Aboriginal Australians are the descendants of the first people to inhabit Australia — a claim that has previously been the subject of debate.
"There is greater genetic diversity in Aboriginal people living in the east and west of Australia than there is between people living in Siberia and the Americas.
It's going to be interesting to see what else this study brings us.

More here
 
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mccardey

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Ms Wall said the genetic information could help in properly repatriating Aboriginal remains.
"It means that all our old people who are still in collecting institutions across the world may be able to come home and be on their own specific country, not in a museum somewhere in Australia.
"Placing them as close to country as possible will settle them down."


Let's hope this happens soon.
 

kuwisdelu

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"Truganinny, the last of the Tasmanians,
has seen the stuffed and mounted body of
her husband and it was her dying wish that
she be buried in the outback or at sea for
she did not wish her body to be subjected to
the same indignities. Upon her death she
was nevertheless stuffed and mounted and
put on display for over eighty years."
-Paul Coe, Australian Aborigine Activist, 1972


You need
to come closer
for little is left
of this tongue
and what I am saying
is important.

I am the last one.

I whose nipples wept
white mist
and saw so many
daughters dead
their mouths empty and round
their breathing stopped
their eyes gone gray.

Take my hand
black into black
as yellow clay
is a slow melt
to grass gold
of earth
and I am melting
back to the Dream.

Do not leave me
for I would speak,
I would sing
one more song.

They will take me.
Already they come
even as I breathe
they are waiting
for me to finish
my dying.
We old ones
take such
a long time.

Please
take my body
to the source of night,
to the great black desert
where Dreaming was born.
Put me under the bulk
of a mountain or in
the distant sea;

put me where
they will not
find me.

—Wendy Rose (Hopi), "Truganinny", The Halfbreed Chronicles
 
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mccardey

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—Wendy Rose (Hopi), "Truganinny", The Halfbreed Chronicles

Yes, be careful of this. The Aboriginal people of Tasmania are not extinct, and they've never liked being told that they are.

ETA: More here. It's a bit of a minefield, but one of the greatest issues has been that of invisibility and erasure.
 
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AW Admin

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One of the really interesting things about this DNA study is that it reinforces the linguistic history that's been postulated for the ancient and unique aspects of the languages.
 

kuwisdelu

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Yes, be careful of this. The Aboriginal people of Tasmania are not extinct, and they've never liked being told that they are.

ETA: More here. It's a bit of a minefield, but one of the greatest issues has been that of invisibility and erasure.

Thanks for the additional context.
 

MaeZe

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It's going to be interesting to see what else this study brings us.
"There is greater genetic diversity in Aboriginal people living in the east and west of Australia than there is between people living in Siberia and the Americas.

More here

That's true for Africa as well. The older the population the greater the genetic diversity. Chimpanzees as well are much more genetically diverse than humans.

Study Finds Africans More Genetically Diverse Than Other Populations
Africans are more genetically diverse than the inhabitants of the rest of the world combined, according to a sweeping study that carried researchers into remote regions to sample the bloodlines of more than 100 distinct populations.

AFRICAN GENETIC DIVERSITY: Implications for Human Demographic History, Modern Human Origins, and Complex Disease Mapping
Comparative studies of ethnically diverse human populations, particularly in Africa, are important for reconstructing human evolutionary history and for understanding the genetic basis of phenotypic adaptation and complex disease. African populations are characterized by greater levels of genetic diversity, extensive population substructure, and less linkage disequilibrium (LD) among loci compared to non-African populations. Africans also possess a number of genetic adaptations that have evolved in response to diverse climates and diets, as well as exposure to infectious disease. This review summarizes patterns and the evolutionary origins of genetic diversity present in African populations, as well as their implications for the mapping of complex traits, including disease susceptibility.
(note, ^ link may be down on 09-22 for site maintenance)

Nearby chimpanzee populations show much greater genetic diversity than distant human populations
Chimpanzee populations living in relatively close proximity are substantially more different genetically than humans living on different continents, according to a new study. The study suggests that genomics can provide a valuable new tool for use in chimpanzee conservation, with the potential to identify the population of origin of an individual chimpanzee or the provenance of a sample of bush meat.
 

RichardGarfinkle

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Very interesting discussion of this by Indigenous Australian columnist Larissa Behrendt in the Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/comment...he-oldest-living-culture-its-in-our-dreamtime

She talks about very old stories that fit in with the research. This is always an area that science needs to be cautious with, but is worth looking into.

Scientific research often reaffirms what is in an oral history. This has been particularly so in Australia where cultural stories – often referred to as Dreamtime stories – that describe land movements and floods fit in with what later becomes known about seismic and glacial shifts from the geological record. For example, Associate Professor Nick Reid and Professor Patrick D. Nunn have analysed stories from Indigenous coastal communities and have seen a thread of discussions about the rise of tidal waters that occurred between 6,000 and 7,000 years ago. And these are the newer stories.

Other stories collected from around Cairns showed that stories recalled a time when the land covered the area that is now the Great Barrier Reef and stories from the Yorke Peninsula reference a time when there was no Spencer Gulf (it is now 50m below sea level). Reid and Nunn hypothesise that this could make these stories over 12,000 years old.
So oral history and observation can reinforce what the science says. Or science can confirm what we’ve been saying all along. For many older Indigenous people, the cultural stories will seem the more trustworthy. There are historic reasons why Indigenous people remain suspicious of science practiced by Europeans, who have not yet countered the legacy of their obsessions with head measuring and blood quantum.

She discusses as well what Europeans that came to Australia actually saw and what they thought they saw.

The problem was, Europeans often didn’t know what they were looking at when observing Indigenous people in their culture. Often blinded by their confident belief in their own racial superiority and their arrogant perception of the inferiority of all other races, it seemed impossible that other cultures could have any insights to offer. In his book, The Biggest Estate on Earth, Bill Gammage deconstructs the sketches and paintings that the first colonists made of the landscape of the Sydney basin and what is revealed is not wild bushland but carefully farmed landscapes including tracts of land cleared specifically for luring grazing animals.

There is much in this to instill cautious self-mistrust among observers of cultures other than their own.
 

shakeysix

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The discovery of DNA took up just a half page in my high school biology text. It was all Watson and Crick in those days. I still remember their photos and a rough diagram of the double helix--all in black and white. No color plates in textbooks in the sixties. My teacher, Mr. Burns, said it was a mysterious but ponderous thing that could change everything. The derndest, prettiest thing, I think were his actual words. I was more concerned about sneaking a BB Bat out of my Pee-Chee folder, unwrapping it and getting it into my mouth while using my text as a shield from Mr. Burns' prying eyes. (No candy or drinks allowed in school in those days. 50 minutes detention was the penalty for even a BB Bat.)

Now, some 60 years later--damned if that textbook wasn't dead on right! DNA has changed everything. I've always been a pre-history nut. I follow every DNA story I can find. I don't always understand it but it seems to me that DNA is sewing us all together, shooting holes in some of the stupider than stupid readings from my old anthropology textbooks, blowing away any idea of white supremacy.

This is one of the great things about getting old, you really can see the world changing for the better, if you keep your head and don't give in to the fraidy cats and doomers. Criminals are getting caught for crimes they committed decades ago. Jefferson had a black wife! (Call me Arizona; tell me to take off my Rainbow Shades, but I think he loved her.) Cell phones and computers are fun and convenient for most, even if they drive me nuts. My granddaughters have so many more options than I had at their age. People are more tolerant--even the bigots are more polite these days. I think the solid insight into ancient history that DNA offers is going to make things even better in the future. Even the fun little mysteries, like the bloodlines of the Pharaohs and blue eyed Spanish cave men, are contributing to a greater sense of community. Science and knowledge are the key to a better world--s6

Oh, and the internet helped me track down BB Bats again.
 
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kuwisdelu

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But I still roll my eyes when people get DNA tests and go "I'm 3.6% Native American!!!"
 
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Lillith1991

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But I still roll my eyes when people get DNA tests and go "I'm 3.6% Native American!!!"

Agreed! It always comes across as the person not understanding history one bit, or they would know how that was entirely possible and not surprising. And don't get me started on how they then want to explore their "Native Side™."
 

mccardey

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I'm going to be very interested to see in what areas this genomic study (and others) reflect ancient Aboriginal teachings on songlines - something I've found absolutely fascinating from the moment an old bushie told me about them, and the complexity of them which seemed and still seems almost magical to me. (I was aged about eight - the perfect age for magic and he was well into his 70s, the perfect age for bush science. I'd so love to talk to him now, half a century later, and see his reaction to all this. I think he'd love it in a shakeysix kind of way...)
 

mccardey

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Just to add - I don't know if this link works for you, but for anyone with an interest in Aboriginal Australia, this series by SBS (First Australians) is an excellent starting point. It was made with significant community consultation and indigenous permissions.
 

eyeblink

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Just to add - I don't know if this link works for you, but for anyone with an interest in Aboriginal Australia, this series by SBS (First Australians) is an excellent starting point. It was made with significant community consultation and indigenous permissions.

Unfortunately it tells me it's not available outside Australia. Oh well. It does sound very interesting.
 

kuwisdelu

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Highlights from the OP:

Co-author Ms Colleen Wall, a senior Aboriginal woman of the Dauwa Kau'bvai nation from the Mary River catchment area in south east Queensland said she was pleased women were well represented as collaborators in the study, as in the past academics had mainly worked with men.

Mr Thomas Wales, an Indigenous elder from the Cape York community of Mapoon and co-author, said the study helped him "learn more about my people, myself and my land."

From http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/22/asia/indigenous-australians-earths-oldest-civilization/index.html:

"In a real sense, the most important thing about the paper is that we have nine Aboriginal elders as co-authors, who were involved with talking to indigenous groups across Australia," said Lambert.

"We were trying to break down the distinction between scientists and indigenous people," added Lambert, who asserted the importance of indigenous communities playing an active role in research about themselves.

I was wondering about this aspect, and very pleased. This is how you do indigenous research.
 

ajaye

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I'm going to be very interested to see in what areas this genomic study (and others) reflect ancient Aboriginal teachings on songlines - something I've found absolutely fascinating from the moment an old bushie told me about them, and the complexity of them which seemed and still seems almost magical to me. (I was aged about eight - the perfect age for magic and he was well into his 70s, the perfect age for bush science. I'd so love to talk to him now, half a century later, and see his reaction to all this. I think he'd love it in a shakeysix kind of way...)
Thanks so much for this link, what a rich history we've ignored in this country. I'm only now learning a little of Aborignial astronomy.
 

mccardey

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Just to add - I don't know if this link works for you, but for anyone with an interest in Aboriginal Australia, this series by SBS (First Australians) is an excellent starting point. It was made with significant community consultation and indigenous permissions.
Oh - not to quote myself (totally quoting myself) but this is also available in episodes on youtube.