Hamacher, Duane, Patrick Nunn, Michelle Gantevoort, Rebe Taylor, Greg Lehman, Ka Hei Andrew Law, and Mel Miles. “The Archaeology of Orality: Dating Tasmanian Aboriginal Oral Traditions to the Late Pleistocene.” Journal of Archaeological Science, August 10, 2023, 45pp.

Pre-print.

See also: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440323000997

Annotation url: urn:x-pdf:d4ccd0952073ac59932f4638381e6b69

Popular press coverage: https://www.unimelb.edu.au/newsroom/news/2023/august/tasmanian-aboriginal-oral-traditions-among-the-oldest-recorded-narratives

https://www.garnkinynotgranite.com/

The Aboriginal flag was developed in 1971 by Luritja artist Harold Thomas. Centering its importance to Aboriginal Australians, the sun appears in the middle of the flag.

It's subtle here, as in other instances, but notice that Hamacher gives the citation to the Indigenous artist that developed the flag and simultaneously underlines the source of visual information that is associated with the flag and the sun. It's not just the knowledge of the two things which are associated to each other, but they're also both associated with a person who is that source of knowledge.

Is this three-way association common in all Indigenous cultures? While names may be tricky for some, the visual image of a particular person's face, body, and presence is usually very memorable and thereby easy to attach to various forms of knowledge.

Does the person/source of knowledge form or act like an 'oral folder' for Indigenous knowledge?

US white supremacists targeting under-vaxxed Aboriginal communities, WA Premier says. (2021, December 2). ABC News. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-02/us-white-supremacists-targeting-aboriginal-communities-in-wa/100670090

The word Eskimo has historically been used to refer to the native peoples of Alaska and other Arctic regions, including Siberia, Canada, and Greenland. It comes from a Central Algonquian language called Ojibwe, a language still spoken around the Great Lakes region on both sides of the U.S.- Canadian border. However, the word has a controversial history. People in many parts of the Arctic consider Eskimo a derogatory term because it was widely used by racist, non-native colonizers. Many thought that it meant eater of raw meat, which implied barbarism and violence. In America the word is still commonly used in Alaska while in Canada and Greenland using the word is offensive and racist. Canadians and Greenlanders prefer to use other terms. Aboriginal refers to the first inhabitants of Canada, including First Nations, Inuit, and Métis. First Nation is a term used to describe Aboriginal peoples who are neither Métis nor Inuit. First Nation came to common usage in the 1970s and ‘80s to replace the term Indian. Inuit refers to the people generally living in the far north who are not considered “Indians” under Canadian law. Inuit means people and is the most commonly used. The singular, which means “person,” is Inuk. The term Métis refers to a collective of cultures and ethnic identities that resulted from unions between Aboriginal and European peoples in what is now Canada.

Citations

Joseph, Bob. "Indigenous Peoples terminology guidelines for usage." Indigenous Peoples terminology guidelines for usage. Accessed March 08, 2017. http://www.ictinc.ca/blog/indigenous-peoples-terminology-guidelines-for-usage.

This jumps out at me as a major difference between the two systems of learning. Indigenous: highly contextualised with a strong sense of place versus Western: pedagogy deals with content in the abstract in spite of attempts to contextualise. What do you think?