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source (2014): https://popthirdworld.tumblr.com/post/101160309148/cause-it-is-jan-26th-here-is-australias-history
[jpeg]Only thing missing is the apocalyptic level of post contact death, similar in magnitude to up to everyone in every country in the world dying except Brazilians.
Reminder that the mythical rainbow serpent might have been essentially the result of a media campaign constructed by a bunch of collaborating tribes to make a shared symbol that would encourage villages to take in refugees after a major flooding disaster
that sounds cool as fuck, do you have anything i could read on it? or even the songways themselves?
Unfortunately I heard this on a museum tour, so I can't actually confirm it from something I read. I know there's a pretty famous book by Bruce Chatwin about the topic but it's old enough that I'm sure research on the topic has progressed past it.
Image description/transcription
Comic with multiple panels. A small child stands with a yellow piece of paper with some writing on it.
TEACHER: What's your report on?
STUDENT: "The most accurate telling of Australian history"!
TEACHER: In 5 minutes?
STUDENT: In 5 minutes!
TEACHER: LOL! Go for it! [pushing button on watch: BEEP!]
STUDENT: Aboriginal people first appeared in Australia around the Kimberlys where it's pretty nice. Over the next 10,000 years they settled the entire continent. This was good until an ice age started. It lasted for a few thousand years. A lot of people died but some people survived by sticking close to rivers and wet areas where things were a bit better. People in different spots stayed connected with each other through pathways that some think are the origins of 'songlines'—tracks believed to be created by dreaming beings like the Rainbow Serpent. The ice age ended and living in Australia was easier again. As the ice melted, the map of Australia changed to what it looks like today. This took a few thousand years. Tasmania became separate from the mainland. The Torres Strait Islands formed. Different lakes and rivers got created. In all of these different areas, different people found different ways of doing things—different tools, art, technology, diets, hunting and farming tactics, medicines, weapons, traditions, dances, gender roles. Different groups still interacted with each other for everyone's gain. They'd hold corroborees to share goods, exchange news, have fun, find love, and keep conflict between groups to a minimum. Then white people on boats came and took over. Thanks.
TEACHER: What? What about Captain Cook? Convicts? Anzacs? Multiculturalism?
STUDENT: I said this was the most accurate telling of history, Miss.
STUDENT: Indigenous people have been here for 40,000 years. All that stuff happened in the last 250 years.
STUDENT: [tapping on calculator] That's 0.6% of all Australia's history. So I gave it 0.6% of my time.
STUDENT: I didn't want to short-change anything.
TEACHER: Hmmm.
STUDENT: Is this too much maths for history?
