Signs of ‘feeding’ ritual at dingo burial site shed new light on bond between First Nations people and canines

Barkindji custodian David Doyle lifts the first bone from a millennium-old dingo burial site in Kinchega national park. Dingoes ‘were a companion animal right up until colonisation’, he says. Photograph: Amy Way

The discovery of a millennium-old dingo burial site in western New South Wales, including evidence of a “feeding” ritual never before documented archaeologically, has shed new light on the longstanding relationship between the canines and First Nations people.

The dingo was buried along the Baaka, or Darling River, in Kinchega national park near the Menindee Lakes.