This following post is a response to recent article: http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/aborigines-linked-to-first-african-nomads-20110923-1knng.html
First up, on behalf of the Elders I speak for, thanks for the excellent coverage. Fascinating timing-talking about the Aboriginal people as the first explorers is very encouraging, and fits in with the many sites we are sharing. And equally, after decades of hearing that the Aboriginal people were the last race, at least now they have moved up the ladder to second place. A great step forward, but there are more rungs ahead.
There are two inherent problems with their explanation. I’ve seen diagrams of their proposed route-out of Africa through Asia down to Indonesia then onto a boat. They claim it was a rapid pathway, but if so, how does that fit in with an article SMH did earlier in year detailing the genetic link to India. Dr Rao, working for the Indian Government, sampled nearly a thousand people from 26 tribal groups centred around the south of India, and found 7 people with “unique Australian Aboriginal mitochondrial signatures,” and thus proposed Africans made their way from their home-base, streamed down India and set sail to Australia. That’s a journey of thousands of kilometres into a huge expanse of blue, something Tamil boat people of today would never undertake even when aware there was a place to sail to.
When talking about Africans streaming out of Africa 70-75,000 years ago, why is it the eruption at Mount Toba is never mentioned in this scenario? According to Josephine Flood, so massive was the eruption and resulting ash cloud/deposit, the world population was dramatically reduced to between “2-10,000 people.” The eruption took place 74-72,000 years ago and the ash travelled in every direction bar south, which means Australia was ash free. Flood claims a small group in the very south of Africa and northern extremes of Europe escaped the carnage. If so, with a population base of between 1-5,000 people in each location, how is it within a couple of thousand of years, the African mob bred like rabbits and left Africa? Wouldn’t they first rebuild and re-establish their tribal estates, then slowly increase numbers and land under their control? Secondly with the whole of Asia decimated, why is it, they chose to ignore thousands of kilometres of unpopulated lands, race through Asia intent on reaching the southern extremes of Asia then set sail to a place they couldn’t be sure was even there? Neither option is logical, and in contradiction with human nature.
Surely no-one is claiming the Africans sailed from both India and Indonesia to reach Australia, but if relying on the SMH for info, it would seem so. Moreover after such a dramatic eruption, at nearly exactly the same time Africans are proposed to depart Africa, if we are correct in claiming Aboriginals are separate from Africans, this would be an ideal time for Australian Aboriginals to set sail to other places? That would explain the huge array of Aboriginal bones in America, with dates of occupation running into 6 figures, the physical similarities to the full-descent Ainu, the fact that the oldest Homo sapien found in Asia (Parak Man) exhibits “Australian Aboriginal” morphology, the genetic connection to India, and lots more. Equally, with sound geological dates of over 200,000 years associated with human activity in America, were these people in the south of Africa actually Africans or, as it now seems possible In America, Aboriginal mariners who had settled in Africa, America, Japan, India etc?
In closing I’d like to quote from the scientific paper that proposed the notion of Eve, and Africa, as the birthplace of modern man. Professors Wilson and Cann stated that the mother of all modern humans “probably” came from Africa, never definitely. As you know genealogy can never give absolutes when discussing geography. I really do believe all these inconsistencies are the result of a lack of consultation with the legitimate custodians of Aboriginal lore and history. A quote by an Aboriginal Elder selected to be placed on the first edition of the highly respected book, Voices of the First Day, sums up where they, and we, are coming from: “They say we have been here for 60,000 years, but it is much longer. We have been here since the time before time began … We have lived and kept the earth as it was on the First Day. All other peoples of the world come from us.” Maybe, as radical and left-field as this quote is, it’s time to start listening to the spokespeople of the original people of this land. It hasn’t happened yet.
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