Aboriginal "History Rock" Discovered
A new archeological discovery leads to questions of when the Australian continent was first visited by westerners. The Djulirri rock cave depicts a history of western vehicles from boats to cars to planes to bicycles. The earliest sailing ships depicted has researchers theorizing the continent was visited by outsiders long before the British arrived.
The history on the rock includes details of ship interiors and interactions with visitors, as well as more characteristic drawings of animals of the desert. This narrated slideshow is a must see.
The aboriginal elder who first led researchers to the site is hoping to protect the site with an "indigenous ranger program," which would oversee care of the site. The expectation of increased tourism to the area is well-founded, and the hope is to prevent degredation by tourist traffic. Protection of the site may include the need to stave off plutonium and uranium extraction in the surrounding mountain range.
Story via The Daily Grail
Image: "rock 39 cave painting 2.JPG" by Lyndi&Jason on Flickr courtesy of Creative Commons Licensing.
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- 10-7-08
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plutonium does not occur
You should see some of the other stuff
Its great to see this post- I've been to the Kimberly, the part of WA this rock art is from, although I didnt see anything "modern" like this. We saw some phenomenal and elaborate depictions of what seemed like humanoid E.T.'s very wispy and well decorated....these are as old as 40,000 years. (With respect to the wishes of the aboriginals we met, I can't release photos- most tribes are weary of photography as a form of idolatry.) This is a mysterious part of the world, still totally wild (an untouched wilderness area the size of california!) BTW, yes, there were powerful shamans there as recently as two generations ago, I can verify that from the stories that we heard about people's grandparents.
I feel a little funny talking about this publicly, but re-connecting with our ancient roots seems like a critical act in the current transformation.