Culturally modified trees have always been a part of the aboriginal culture in Australia. A recent study reveals that some of these altered wood may possess a younger age than initially thought.
In the discovery, the researchers found a distinct tree in Wiradjuri Country in New South Wales possessing a massive scar with an Aboriginal stone tool still embedded in its trunk. In collaboration with the Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council, the authors conducted an archaeological study of the tree which symbolizes an exceptional finding in Australia and even for the whole world.
The researchers used a variety of scientific methods such as 3D modelling, radiocarbon dating, and microscopic analysis to aid in their understanding of the origins of the tree scar and stone tool. Through radiocarbon dating, they were able to determine that the tree was relatively young and the stone tool was lodged between the 1950s and 1973s.
This time frame was an unexpected revelation coming from the Aboriginal community. The findings of the study were published in the journal Australian Archeology on June 10, 2020.
Australian Aboriginal History
The National Geographic says that Aboriginal Australians could be the oldest population of humans living outside of Africa. Furthermore, a theory claims that they migrated from boats about 70,000 years ago. Today, there are about 250 distinct language groups swept across Australia.
Aboriginal Australians were not always considered "welcome" in the past. In 2008, the Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, expressed a national apology for the country's actions toward Aboriginal Australians of the Stolen Generations. Ever since the event, Australia has then strived to diminish social disputes between non-indigenous Australians and Aboriginal Australians.
Furthermore, the majority of Aboriginal Australians were not granted full citizenship or voting privileges until 1965. It was only in 1967 that Australian voted that federal laws should also apply to Aboriginal Australians.
Today's Australia has about three percent of its population belonging to people with Aboriginal heritage. Aboriginal Australians currently still strife with fighting for recognition and retaining their ancient culture and restitution from the Australian government.
Australia remains to be the only country in the British Commonwealth not having established a treaty with its First Nations peoples.
Trees in Indigenous Culture
Aboriginal communities have long used trees, bark, and wood for practical and symbolic purposes. Many of these trees carry scars and carvings from their activities of daily life. However, over time the marks are often draped by new growth.
Aboriginal culturally modified trees can be found all over Australia; however, their numbers are dying down due to natural decay, development pressures, and bushfires.
Historical and oral evidence suggests that Wiradjuri people were cautious about open displays of culture at the time, which had implications on the passing of information onto younger generations. The researchers claim that the results of their study offer a rare glimpse of cultural persistence at the time.
While the researchers say that further studies are needed to understand the remaining mysteries in their paper fully, the results of their research are a sharp reminder of the progression and resilience of Aboriginal knowledge and culture through the 20th century and into the present.
