Posted on 03/15/2006 11:29:36 AM PST by blam
Aboriginal people built water tunnels
Judy Skatssoon
ABC Science Online
Wednesday, 15 March 2006
The rainbow serpent, a key Aboriginal Dreamtime creation symbol, is closely connected with Indigenous knowledge of groundwater systems (Image: Reuters)
Indigenous Australians dug underground water reservoirs that helped them live on one of the world's driest continents for tens of thousands of years, new research shows.
The study, which is the first of its kind, indicates Aboriginal people had extensive knowledge of the groundwater system, says hydrogeologist Brad Moggridge, knowledge that is still held today.
Some 70% of the continent is covered by desert or semi-arid land, which meant its original inhabitants needed to know how to find and manage this resource if they were to survive.
"Aboriginal people survived on one of the driest continents for thousands and thousands of years," says Brad Moggridge, who is from Kamilaroi country in northern New South Wales.
"Without water you die. They managed that water sustainably."
Moggridge, currently a principal policy officer in the New South Wales Department of Environment and Conservation, did his research as part of a Masters degree at the University of Technology, Sydney.
He based his work on oral histories, Dreamtime stories, rock art, artefacts and ceremonial body painting as well as written accounts by white missionaries, surveyors, settlers, anthropologists and explorers.
Managing scant resources
Moggridge says Indigenous Australians channelled and filtered their water, covering it to avoid contamination and evaporation. They also created wells and tunnel reservoirs.
"Groundwater was accessed through natural springs or people used to dig tunnels to access it," he says.
"Sometimes they'd dig till they found the water and then they'd build a system so they could access the water. Sometimes they've go fairly deep and people would slither down there and get their water."
Aboriginal people also used terrain, birdlife, vegetation and animals as markers for water, Moggridge says.
For example, they followed dingos to rock pools and waterholes while ants led them to subterranean reservoirs.
"They used the landscape," he says. "For example, you're in a dry area and all of a sudden there's a large number of ghost gums, so you'd think there must be some groundwater."
The Dreamtime
Aboriginal people's understanding of their groundwater system permeates Dreamtime stories, Moggridge says.
For example, the rainbow serpent is a key symbol of creation but its journey from underground to the surface also represents groundwater rising to the top via springs.
Moggridge says European settlers owed their subsequent knowledge of groundwater to local tribes and trackers, and even much of Australia's modern road system is based on water sources identified by the original inhabitants.
"A lot of the old roads in New South Wales are based on Aboriginal walking tracks ... and their water supply would have been along the way," he says.
The Desert Knowledge CRC is also trying to link traditional knowledge with science in terms of water management in central Australia, home to numerous remote Indigenous communities.
Current projects include looking at the cultural values of water, a spokesperson says
I will let that matter rest.
Thank God for small favors...and yes, your English is better than my Dutch since I don't speak Dutch although having been in Amsterdam and Rotterdam a bit in my youth I have nothing against the Dutch aside from their views on abortion and homosexuality and believe they may be awakening to their Muslim problem finally.
I speak Spanish and Portugese as well and spent 16 years abroad. You stereotype Americans and then rail when they do that to others.
Is that petty or arrogant?
My little brother loves your ganja and brothels btw..
and btw...I do apologize for picking on your language...I was replying to an earlier reply and had not seen your admission
sincere apologies on that...I don't mind arguing but I did not mean to pick on you.
I was just pointing out the unfairness of your sneer that "they should have developed the wheelbarrow" by pointing out while it is one of those ideas that seem obvious in retrospect even a culture that had extensive use of the wheel did not come up with the concept until rather recently.
I am aware that the idea did first come into being in China quite a while before the idea came to be in Europe. But as there is no direct evidence that it was an imported idea unlike the stirrup, the phonetic alphabet, the printing press, paper and so many other ideas adopted by Europeans from other areas of the globe that I prefer to leave open the possibility that it was actually invented independently.
don't much cotton to revisionists who mask their true motivations nor social engineering liberals
I've seen you around before...you always take the PC side on comparative culture or minority issues
fair enough
I don't believe that is PC.
I actively attempt to combat the PC mentality that every culture except the European Christian culture is "Spiritual/ Child of nature/holy holy"
But I also believe in studying cultures, learning and not disparaging their achievements.
Truth is my guide. The good, the bad and the ugly. But always the search for the true story.
As you say. Fair enough.
well damn...we have more in common than I thought...
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