Ngaro
The Ngaro (also called Island People in Australia) were an Aboriginal tribe . They are classified as seafarers and not as typical Coastal People (indigenous coastal people) of Australia. They were the only seafaring Aboriginal tribe in Australia and lived in the Whitsunday Islands in what is now Queensland for about 9,000 years . The Ngaro became extinct as a tribe during the time of British colonization.
history
Of the Ngaro first reported James Cook on his voyages of discovery as he described people on the lake between the Whitsunday Islands with outrigger canoes drove. The Ngaro were able to navigate between the islands; they were probably based on wave movements, smells of the islands and star constellations. On the Whitsunday Islands, hundreds of their tracks can be found under rocks and on fire pits. At Nara Inlet, a fjord on Hook Island , an archaeological site was discovered that is located in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and is considered to be the oldest human site on the east coast of Australia.
It should be noted that today's coastline was hundreds of kilometers to the east 18,000 years ago. During the Ice Ages , the water was trapped in the polar caps , and when the Ngaro came to Nara Inlet , it was still part of the mainland. As the climate warmed, the polar caps melted and the Whitsunday Islands area was inundated with water. Today's water level is roughly the same as it was 6,000 years ago, and numerous Aboriginal historical sites are underwater.
In the areas inhabited 9000 to 3000 years ago, shellfish , fish and turtles have been found during archaeological excavations . Thereafter there was a dramatic change in climate and small whales , dugong and large sea turtles were hunted with barbed spears from the outrigger canoes in the open sea. With this form of hunting, blood got into the water and the hunters were threatened by sharks . Even so, the Aborigines showed that they were able to adapt, survive successfully, and develop further. In the late Holocene , about 3,000 years ago, the number of Aboriginal sites on the east coast of Australia exploded.
On South Molle Island was the quarry from which the Ngaros made their special stone tool, the so-called Juan knife. This artifact was found as far as Cape Cleveland , south of Townsville , as it was obviously deliberately traded.
European settlement
The first conflict-free encounters between Europeans and the Ngaro were reported between 1788 and 1861, when glass and needles were exchanged for dugong and turtle meat. After 1861 the conflicts began because the free access of the Aborigines to their ancestral areas was restricted or prevented by the European settlers. There are reports that their boats were burned and Aboriginal people were killed. The Native Police Corps was hired to mediate between the disputes, and from 1870 onwards, the traditional Aboriginal way of life was lost. They were finally evicted from their land and had to work in the mills of British landowner Nicholson on Lindeman Island to survive .
Their stories about the dream time , their places and experiences have been handed down to this day. As their lives changed dramatically with the integration into the industrial age, their identity with their country was lost, an essential aspect of their spirituality.
There are artifacts and information about the Ngaro tribe in two locations, the Proserpine Museum and the Airlie Beach National Parks office . A sea route that runs between Whitsunday Island , South Molle Island and Hook Island to Nara Inlet is named after the Ngaro as the Ngaro Seatrail .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Fiona Dickson: The Ngaro people of the Whitsundays on abc.net, June 25, 2008, accessed May 23, 2010
- ↑ Information on derm.qld.gov.au ( Memento of the original from May 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on May 23, 2010
- ↑ Video on everytrail.com , accessed May 23, 2010
