r/AskHistorians • u/Standard_Cucumber_92 • Oct 29 '24
What made trade or contact with Australia and its indigenous population so difficult initially?
I am a European and I don't know a whole lot about the history/geography of the South-East Asian sea but from my understanding the isles that are now occupied by Indonesia had many different maritime nations over the last two millennia that avidly traded with one another as well as trade with outside forces from China or India. Why though was there no/minimal contact for these people with the aboriginals of Australia? It seems like "simple" island hopping would allow easy access to Australia? It was only later on after the colonisation from Europe that trade happened there or am I Just missinformed?
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u/Halofreak1171 Oct 30 '24
u/TheWellSpokeMan has provided a great starting point, but I did want to delve deeper into Indigenous Australia pre-European contact for just a bit.
Now, when discussing the Indigenous Australians and their contact with the world beyond Australia's shores, it is important to note we are discussing a place and time where, unlike European sailing, not every interaction and event was recorded. Indigenous oral history does have incredible strength in both its accuracy over time and ability to tell events (I discuss that in this post), and their art is quite similar, however, it could not capture every single interaction that occurred. As such, the set of sources we can utilise to decipher who visited Australia and when is quite limited. That does not mean there isn't any.
Indigenous Australian migration
So first thing I want to discuss is the fact that, the Indigenous Australians aren't a monolithic peoples. While their arrival to the continent anywhere between 50,000-70,000 years ago was likely in one major wave, there is a second one, far less known but incredibly important, which is relevant to us. Around 4,000 years ago, Indigenous language, culture, and tools began to change, especially in the north. Why this happened isn't well understood, but it is believed a new wave of migration, stemming from a "ghost-like" source, had significant influence on Indigenous Australia as a whole. For instance, the Pama–Nyungan languages, the broad church most of the Indigenous language groups are believed to belong to (though there is some debate), likely orginated from this wave 4,000 years ago. Another, perhaps Australian Icon, the Dingo, also likely came to Australia around this time, though whether it was from this wave of migration or something else is unknown. All of this is to say that, even before the South-East Asians, there was likely contact with the 'outside' world. Whether this was continuous or not, and how often it occurred, are both difficult to say with any certainty, but it did exist.
Contact Prior to the Makassar
Now, you may still be wondering if there was any other contact with the Indigenous Australians pre-European contact. There are a few places you might think could have potential, such as China or the Pacific Islands. If we take a look at China, their contact with Australia has been theorized before, by Gavin Menzies. I'm not going to give Menzies and his books any real time, as his work is incredibly poor and unreliable and his conclusions highly problematic and false (the subreddit has a bunch of posts discussing the bad work of Menzies). But I did want to note him to at least show that China contacting Indigenous Australia is something that has been theorized, even if it theory is both incredibly poor and impossible.
The Pacific Islanders on the other hand, are an interesting source of possible contact. They are obviously a group well-known for their seafaring ability, and these days it seems more likely than not that they had contact with South America. As such, why couldn't they have reached Australia's shores? This has been theorised over the years, however, such a visit likely would have little in the way record its occurrence, especially if it was not regular. These theories then have stood for centuries without much credence, but recent work has begun to change this. Back in 2022, Michael Rowland and Raymond Kerkhove from the James Cook University wrote a paper titled 'Evidence of external contact between the Pacific Basin and the east coast of Australia during the Holocene: A review'. They discuss some archaeological and cultural finds which could point to contact being made, but, as this paper is essentially the 'first' of its kind, they're more focused on providing a detailed overview of whether the evidence could exist, and how it could be found. They conclude by stating that more and better research into archeological and oral history on Australia's eastern coast could likely reveal whether contact occurred, and if it did, how they contact went. In addition, they note the introduction of outrigger and dug-out canoes less than 4,000 years ago, once again suggesting that this time period was significant in regards to contact between Indigenous Australia and the 'wider' world.
These two theories, one far less real than the other, both point to a reality that Australia likely was not as isolated as you may think. The Indigenous Australians may have had contact with outside peoples, it is just hard due to both a lack of evidence, and a lack of research, to demonstrate when, where, and how this occurred. That is not the case for the next group.
Part 1/3