Australian Prehistory
Researchers Patrick Nunn and Nicholas Reid believe that a number of indigenous stories from across the Australian continent ___ 31 ___ record events between 18,000 and 7,000 years ago, when the sea rose 120 m. Reid said a key feature of indigenous storytelling culture – a distinctive “cross-generational cross-checking process” – might explain the remarkable consistency in accounts passed down by preliterate people which researchers previously believed could not persist for more than 800 years.
Scholars of oral traditions have previously been sceptical of how accurately they reflect real events. However, Nunn and Reid argue that the stories provide empirical corroboration of a postglacial sea level rise documented by marine geographers. Some of the stories are ___ 32 ___ factual accounts, such as those around Port Phillip Bay near Melbourne, which tell of the loss of kangaroo hunting grounds. Others, especially older stories such as those from around Spencer Gulf in South Australia, are allegorical: an ancestral being angered by the misbehaviour of a clan punishes them by taking their country, gouging a groove with a magical kangaroo bone for the sea to swallow up the land.
“Our sense originally was that the sea level must have been creeping up very slowly and that this would ___ 33 ___ have been noticeable in an individual’s lifetime,” Reid said. “But we’ve come to realise through conducting this research that Australia must in fact have been abuzz with news about this. There must have been constant inland movement, reestablishing relationships, negotiating with inland neighbours about encroaching onto their territory,” Reid said. “There would have been ___ 34 ___ consequences of this.”
The fortunes of those faced with the decision to retreat as camps, tracks and dreaming places were slowly swallowed up – especially on islands – were mixed. Those on Rottnest and Kangaroo Islands cut and ran up to 7,000 years ago. Others, such as those at Flinders Island in Bass Strait, made the fateful decision to stay, and died out as the land grew arid and fresh water became scarce. Reid said that while it was impossible to prove that the indigenous oral tradition had continued unbroken over time, its contemporary features gave a clue as to why it may be the world’s most faithful and ___ 35 ___ .