the time. Even more astonishing was
that this person had been around 196
centimetres (6’5”) when he passed
away, extremely tall for ancient man,
extremely tall for modern Aborigi-
nals. He too had been buried with
ceremony, carefully laid out and cov-
ered in red ochre. What was more
astonishing was that carbon-dating of
the remains have suggested that it is
possibly as old as 68,000 years. Con-
tentiously, this could mean that the
‘out of Africa’ theory needs to be re-
written.
To the three Aboriginal groups that
still call Mungo their Country; the
Paakantji / Barkindji, the Ngyiam-
paa and the Mutthi Mutthi peoples,
it perhaps doesn’t matter how old the
remains of their ancestors are, they
just know that their people have been
here for a very long time, living in har-
mony with their surroundings.
Mungo is a very special place, one
that the traditional owners want to
share with non-indigenous people.
TRAVERSE 58