Aboriginal Australians

According to The Australian Geographic, in a genetic study in 2011, researchers found evidence, in DNA samples taken from strands of Aboriginal people's hair, that the ancestors of the Aboriginal population split off from the ancestors of the European and Asian populations between 65,000 and 75,000 years ago—roughly 24,000 years before the European and Asian populations split off from each other. These Aboriginal ancestors migrated into South Asia and then into Australia, where they stayed, with the result that, outside of Africa, the Aboriginal peoples have occupied the same territory continuously longer than any other human populations. These findings suggest that modern Aboriginal peoples are the direct descendants of migrants to leave Africa up to 75,000 years ago.oipo

Aboriginals themselves, however, trace their creation back to the Dreamtime, an era long past when the earth was first formed. One Aboriginal man explained it thus:

‘By Dreaming we mean the belief that long ago these creatures started human society, they made all natural things and put them in a special place.’These Dreaming creatures were connected to special places and special roads or tracks or paths. In many places the great creatures changed themselves into sites where their spirits stayed.’Aboriginals have a special connection with everything that is natural. Aboriginals see themselves as part of nature … All things on earth we see as part human. It is true that people who belong to a particular area are really part of that area and if that area is destroyed they are also destroyed.’

Like in so many places of the world, Aboriginals’ land was invaded from the end of the 18th century onwards, with catastrophic consequences for them. (Source)

As an African I do consider the Australian natives part of the big African Diaspora and I am concerned about their fate after having narrowly avoided a systematic genocide. Nevertheless, those despised folks managed to create one of the most exhilarating painting ever: imaginative, bright and modern at the same time, and without having attended a single training center!

The following (former 2D) pictures have been gathered on the Internet, some of them (ancient drawings) being very rare archives, which deserve to be exhibited here and there among the folk, anyway as far as possible from museums and universities. That is surely one of the main virtues of the Internet.