9
style does not fit the ‘typical’ images made by
Aborigines and in some respects resembles African
rock art more closely; it is also striking that two
species of baobab tree only grow in the Kimberley
Region, and the other boabab species can only
be found in Africa. Because their seeds are not
resistant to salt water, it is tempting to suspect
that at some point people from Africa must have
travelled across the ocean to Australia, bringing
the fruit of the baobab with them. Having said
that, we now know that the Australian Aborigines
represent one of the oldest continuous human
cultures outside of Africa. They likely reached
Sahul, the then connected land mass of New
Guinea and Australia, roughly 55,000 years ago.
Because there is no genetic evidence of further
migration into Sahul in the Holocene, possible
African seafarers would have had to have already
reached Australia before its settlement by
Aborigines.
In addition to its section for the natural sciences,
the Landesmuseum Natur und Mensch also has
archaeological and ethnological sections, and as
such, I was very pleased when Reto Weiler asked
me if we might have space and interest in holding
an exhibition on Australian rock art in 2017. I
gladly agreed, and now we are not only a platform
for a discussion of who the creators of the rock
art were, but also the question of to whom the art
belongs. In the chorus of voices that say that one
can only examine and interpret this rock art in
the presence of the Aborigines because it belongs
to them, as an ethnobiologist, I lean towards
scientific freedom. That means that members of
other nations and scientific fields must be allowed
to determine the origin of art without prejudice.
This is the only way that one can achieve sound
results without ruling out specific assumptions in
advance.
We are pleased to be the first museum in the
world to present photographs of Bradshaw
figures together with an insight into the scientific
questions that surround them, as well as
contributions from an artistic perspective.
Dr. Peter-René Becker,
Director Landesmuseum Natur und Mensch