Here further extensive evidence makes a compelling argument “that Aboriginal people right across the continent were using domesticated plants, sowing, harvesting, irrigating and storing” as well as building houses, storage and dams and altering the course of rivers to provide for irrigation.
So many revealing stories from early explorers such as Major Thomas Mitchell and Charles Sturt are common in early colonial records. Writers such as Mary Gilmore and Kate Langloh Parker tell stories of pioneering families witnessing planting ceremonies, dam building, irrigation and harvesting.
It is now believed that over long periods of time Aboriginal people made changes to genomes and habitats of plants through selection of seeds for use. In the case of RICE the genome of Australian rice is of importance as Asian rices are losing qualities that protect them from diseases. Protection of the environment without use of fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides and even, at times, the growing of rice in brackish water are features that have valuable effects in food production.
Other grains, such as wild oats (a round grain) were extensively harvested and the process of baking developed. Grindstones from Walgett (dated to 30,000 years ago) and Kakadu (dated to 25,000 years ago) suggest that Aboriginal bakers were at work well before Egyptians (dated to 17,000 years ago) previously believed to be the earliest bakers. Sturt describes the “evening whirring of hundreds of mills grinding grain into flour”.
Early records “were so persistent in their description of grain harvests from all parts of the country that Norman Tindale in 1974 was able to draw a map of Indigenous grain areas “which went way beyond the current grain growing areas.
The loss of valued grasses through grazing was disappointing to early settlers – one Wimmera settler commenting that after 3 or 4 years of grazing “the long, deep rooted grasses… have died out”(to be replaced by??).
An example of the managed use of valuable but scarce ‘domesticated’ plants is the Bush Tomato or Desert Raisin (Solanum centrale) now a feature in cooking products. This is now needing to be built up in availability by Aboriginal groups – not a rapid process.
While Bruce Pascoe is strongly arguing for a reconsideration of the “hunter-gatherer” label for pre-colonial Australians he also points out that the SHARING and TRADING of the fruits of the land by Aboriginal people resulted in “a system of pan-continental government that generated peace and prosperity” .
This book has been well recognised as making an interesting and compelling case for a different way of looking at our land and its history.It is available at Lake Macquarie Council libraries.
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