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Russell Mullett, Traditional Custodian — Kurnai, Indigenous Knowledge

Oldest living culture: our new research shows an Indigenous ritual passed down for 500 generations

the Australian Research Council Earth Nathan Wright Australia Monash University
GunaiKurnai Elder Uncle Russell Mullett at entrance to Cloggs Cave, East Gippsland. Jess Shapiro, courtesy GunaiKurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation

We often hear that Aboriginal peoples have been in Australia for 65,000 years, “the oldest living cultures in the world”. But what does this mean, given all living peoples on Earth have an ancestry that goes back into the mists of time?

Our new discoveries, announced today in the scientific journal Nature Human Behaviour, shed new light on this question.

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