Rather than living passively off whatever nature provided, the Gunditjmara actively and deliberately manipulated local water flows and ecologies to engineer a landscape focused on increasing the availability and reliability of eels.

Manipulation of the landscape involved stone structures (such as traps and channels) dating back at least 6,600 years. Eel aquaculture facilities (ponds and dam walls) pre-date contact with Europeans by many hundreds (and possibly thousands) of years.

As Lourandos pointed out more than three decades ago, and Bruce Pascoe reveals in his recent award-winning book Dark Emu, differences between hunter gatherers and cultivators, and foragers and farmers, are far more complex and blurred than we once thought.

https://theconversation.com/the-detective-work-behind-the-budj-bim-eel-traps-world-heritage-bid-71800

And there’s much, much more to explore and celebrate:

Brewarrina Fish Traps – The oldest man made structure on the planet, dated approximately 40,000 years old. . The old people would travel country, share story, food, dance & ceremony taking only what they need. . Go visit Brewarrina Fish Traps, older than the Pyramids in Egypt, the Great Wall of China – something to be proud of for all people. . We are your first people – the oldest civilisation on the planet 👣

A post shared by Joe Williams (@joewilliams_tew) on Apr 11, 2018 at 9:14pm PDT

Courtesy ‘Merki’ this week on Twitter’s ‘IndigenousX‘ rotating account. (Follow!)