Ancient Australia ~ Where It All Began

This morning, before the sun came up, as we sipped on our hot tea and cocoa… we finished reading one of our library books “Bush Tucker” by Robert Gott.

We’ve been eager to dive back into Indigenous Australian studies since Ella completed her book “The Ancient World” as part of a World History series she is doing.

It just so happens to be NAIDOC week so we had the opportunity of speaking with a local Elder at the Wetlands this week which was a great immersion into our local River Dweller people’s history right on our doorstep!

Thus inspired me to write a forward for Ella’s book The Ancient World, as when we discovered the series she is studying has NO Ancient Australian Indigenous history… it made us determined to discover more!

It wouldn’t be right to talk about the Ancient World without discussing Australian Indigenous peoples, as Australians!

So I’ve reflected on how Ella first came to love History ~ through Indigenous stories at our very own local Wetlands!

Such a wondrous and wild place that we love!

What drew our daughter (and us along with her) in like a moth to a flame ~ to indigenous ancient studies was the roots it has in nature.

The oldest people lived in harmony with the Earth and treated it with respect as part of creation and spirituality. They saw the spirit in all things.

As lovers of nature and earth (because of the sense that it makes ~ to be part of something so harmonious and healthy)… the attraction to exploring “the first people” was born.

It was in discovering that bush medicine, and all natural medicine ~ has been used since the beginning of time, that made us see the great wisdom that the ancient world offers us.

And so, while native Australians have left hardly a trace, in their nomadic tribal ways, we began our indigenous ancient Australian exploration in the first school years.

We set off on one of our roadschooling journeys, and sought out a native dreamtime walk through a world heritage site with an indigenous elder at Mossman Gorge of the Daintree rainforest.

We learned about ~ the sarsaparilla plant and it’s medicinal uses, the giant jungle stinging nettle and how to identify that and some of the other native poisonous plants and their dangers.

We discovered the ancient ways of our native peoples, and how they found their way on their hunting travels and dreamtime walks back to their tribes.

We learnt about their medicine and resourcefulness… and as lovers of nature, were very much inspired by it.

From there, we sought our next outdoor adventure with a four hour guided educational, hiking tour of the Daintree. It was mind blowing.

We were told about all the wonders of the most ancient rainforest of the world, and it’s sacred sites. It was really something! The wisdom of the ancients blew our minds!

From the python feasts at birth times to the custodians and their management of the land and animals, such as the reptile population and the balance of the food chain… we learnt so much. Just imagine how much we don’t know!

It was here we learnt more about the forced removal of indigenous peoples in January 1890, from their home and land, and how devastating it was for not just them, but the sacred world heritage land itself, now over run by the introduced and feral species of the wild boar.

We learned of it’s devastating destruction of our Daintree, the most ancient rainforest in our world! Much of what we learnt, only propelled us to seek further knowledge about the wisdom of the ancients.

So while our native Australians had no writing, they make up for it in the example of harmonious living with the land and each other.

While they never built permanent homes or buildings, they never employed slavery, unlike all great, ancient architecture only made possible with great suffering and slavery… our indigenous had the greatest respect for creation ~ and that included people and each other!

Our daughter’s (and now family’s) interest and love of ancient wisdom has only deepened with this exploration.

We have immersed ourselves in a homeschooling journey of digging for more ~ reading all about other ancient civilisations that left written records from the Sumerians and Egyptians to the Chinese and Indians.

While our ancient Australians only left story records through art, dance and song… It was by no means void of rich culture!

We endeavour now to dive deeper and find out more through their elders and the traces left behind by our world’s most ancient peoples – Indigenous Australians!

More than that, our journey has just begun as we are of Celtic descent, and that it self is an area of ancient study, all on its own, that we’ve begun to explore.

It started with our family ancestry and has taken on a life of its own now.

Only yesterday, while visiting my Nana, we were given a book about my grandfather who was a great inspiration to me, growing up through the great depression in an orphanage! We are as excited as archaeologists to keep digging!

Stay tuned as we dive deep, and I sure to share what treasures we find!

PS,

This was written to be the forward of Ella’s book on the Ancient World. Thanks for reading:)