May 29, 2019

Students journey into the deep past at Lake Mungo

Hands-on lessons in 50,000 years of Aboriginal heritage at Mungo Youth Project

School students were taken on a journey into the deep past and 50,000 years of Aboriginal history recently when University of Wollongong earth scientists gave them a hands-on lesson in archaeological fieldwork at Lake Mungo in far western New South Wales.

Close to 250 students from 35 schools across NSW and Victoria were at Lake Mungo in the Willandra Lakes Region World Heritage Area for the 2019 Mungo Youth Project (MYP) Conference from 7 to 9 May.

Held every two years, the MYP Conference gives primary and secondary school students an immersive lesson in Australia’s Indigenous past and present. This year’s event was sponsored by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH), a University of Wollongong (UOW) headquartered research centre focused on uncovering and telling the epic story of Australia’s human and environmental history.

Over a busy three-day schedule, the students learnt about Aboriginal heritage and cultural practise through interactive sessions with Aboriginal elders and cultural practitioners, National Parks staff, pastoralists, educators and an archaeological science team.

The science team was led by UOW geologist Dr Nathan Jankowski, an associate research fellow at CABAH who has been doing fieldwork at Lake Mungo for the past two-and-a-half years, collaborating closely with a team of archaeologists from La Trobe University and the local Indigenous community.

“Taking part in the MYP is a way of saying thank you to the amazing people that have welcomed me into their community and onto Country,” Dr Jankowski said.

“I’m a bit jealous that I never had the opportunity to take part in anything like the MYP when I was at school. Not only are the students exposed to really interesting and different ideas and perspectives, but hopefully some of them will be inspired to consider science and archaeology as a career option.”

Scenes from the 2019 Mungo Youth Project Conference. Pictures: Paul Jones, UOW 

Lake Mungo is an archaeological site of world significance. The oldest known human remains in Australia – “Mungo Lady” and “Mungo Man” – were found here in 1968 and 1974. They are also the world’s oldest known examples of ceremonial burials.

Dated to around 40,000 years ago, Mungo Lady and Mungo Man re-wrote Australian history (for European Australians anyway; Indigenous Australians have always believed they have been here forever), placing people on the Australian continent many thousands of years earlier than thought at the time.

Further research has revealed evidence of continuous human habitation in the Willandra Lakes area dating from at least 50,000 years ago up to the present day.

“There’s such a rich archaeological heritage here. We’re trying to piece together the heritage of the region and of Australia’s First Peoples, and to understand what the landscape was doing while they were here,” Dr Jankowski said.

Students learnt key concepts and methods that archaeologists use in their everyday work environment.

“The most important of these concepts is that all the heritage items students engage with during the activity are part of someone else’s ongoing story, someone else’s heritage,” Dr Jankowski said.

“The activity taught students how to recognise these archaeological materials, but also that these objects are special and need to be treated with respect.”

School students were taught how to recognise and interpret archaeological artefacts they found in the landscape. Pictures: Paul Jones

 In small groups, the students visited different sites on the lunette – a large dune formed when there was water in the lake and where, for thousands of years and generations, people came to make tools and to hunt, fish, cook and eat. The water has long since disappeared but the dune remains, eroded in parts to reveal shell middens, camp fires, charred animal and fish bones, and stone tools dating back 20,000 years and more.

Once they know what to look for the students start seeing archaeology all around them, picking up and examining ancient mussel shells, emu eggs, stone cores and flakes, and then returning them to where they came from.

“There is a semi-continuous record of human occupation in this area dating back to about 50,000 years ago,” Dr Jankowski said.

“And we get tiny little snapshots of that culture, that tradition, existing in this place; what it was like when the lake was full, when the lake was dry, when conditions were colder than present. The people here thrive and survive, even during the harshest climatic conditions, right up until the present day.”

The Willandra Lakes area is one of the most significant archaeological sites in Australia, with evidence of continuous human habitation from at least 50,000 years ago up to the present day. Pictures: Paul Jones