All language subtitles for the first inventors s01e03 1080p hdtv h264-cbfm (1)_track3_[eng]

We acknowledge the many
First Nations across the country

and their elders
and knowledge holders

who have generously
shared their stories

and welcomed us
onto their country for this series.

And we would like to warn Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander viewers

that the following program
may contain images and voices

of deceased persons.

The story of human history raises
many great questions.

Perhaps the greatest question
is why do some societies succeed

while others fail?

Australia is home to the world's
oldest living culture,

which begs the question -
what are the secrets to a society

which has endured longer
than any other?

The First Australians
had to organise themselves.

They built systems that would not
only sustain them locally,

but would facilitate trade, travel
and the exchange of ideas

across vast distances.

The ancestors invented
communication networks

spanning thousands of kilometres.

A message stick
gave you free passage

through different clan territories.

Complex societies

organised through
mathematical genius.

This is a really optimised system.

Trade routes and superhighways

moving goods across the continent.

Using a supercomputer,
we ran 125 billion pathways

through Australia.

And creating roads
all Australians rely on today.

What our ancestors invented

was a sophisticated and robust
civilisation,

and a deeply connected continent.

Australia is absolutely vast.

So big, it's hard to
get your head around.

So imagine yourself back in time.

It seems almost impossible

that people thousands of
kilometres apart

could be connected
to each other.

Not so long ago, history books
described small groups

of isolated people that knew little
beyond the land that they roamed

or the neighbours that they kept.

Today, we know that First Nations
people routinely travelled hundreds,

even thousands of kilometres
for meetings, migration,

diplomacy and trade.

But let's start with a story
that's even bigger.

When Europeans first arrived
to the continent,

they thought it was completely
cut off from the rest of the world

since the beginning of time.

Archaeologists are now
proving them wrong.

30 kilometres off
the Queensland coast,

on Jiigurru,
also known as Lizard Island,

archaeologists are hunting
for evidence

of an offshore trade route
as old as the Silk Road.

Hey, Ben, before we go in,

I'll just sing it to the old people
and let them know, hey?

Fantastic.
(SPEAKS INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE)

Can you explain
why you sing out to country?

Yeah, just let them know
we've got our friend here,

bringing him in to see...

..see country
where the dig's taking place.

Traditional owners Lewis,
Charlie and Kenneth McLean

have granted journalist
Ben Abbatangelo

privileged access to the dig site.

We're at 40cm now.

The further it goes down,

there's gonna be
more artefacts there.

The excavation was sparked
by a discovery

archaeologists never expected
here in Australia pottery shards.

MAN: Pottery is not
meant to be here.

The traditional ways that Europeans
have written

the history of Australia

says that First Nations Australians
didn't make pottery.

Well, we're showing that
that is absolutely wrong.

Pottery shards found
in the nearby lagoon

are strikingly similar to fragments
found on the Papua New Guinea coast,

which date back almost 3,000 years.

Archaeologists believe this could be
evidence of an offshore trade route.

Sometime between 2,000
and 3,000 years ago,

there's this whole sort of culture
of pottery making ideas

that have been sort of
moved along the coast,

literally over thousands of
kilometres,

and now these ideas are coming
down the Queensland coast.

The route stretches 3,500 kilometres
around the Coral Sea.

But to confirm this radical theory,
more artefacts need to be found.

How are you?
Good. How are you?

This looks meticulous.

How long have you been
in the pit for?

A couple of hours.

It takes 2 to 3 hours to excavate
a single excavation unit.

So there's 2cm layers,
and we sort of rotate out

and take turns doing that.

Just one new pottery fragment
could be enough to confirm

that Jiigurru was once a hub
for international trade.

We have to go very slowly
and meticulously,

so that way we can locate any small
bones or charcoal or artefacts.

And patience feels like
a prerequisite for a job like this.

Absolutely. Lots of patience.
But the rewards are so worthwhile.

But we're extra keen to see
whether we can find pottery.

The team's breakthrough
discovery's proving elusive,

and their time on
the remote island is nearly up.

We're down nearly 50cm
and that's taken nearly two weeks,

and we still haven't found
pottery yet.

Every scrape of the trowel,

you hope a little piece of pottery
will come out.

Maybe in the next day or two.

Yeah.
Fingers crossed.

The expedition
has just three days remaining.

I mean, we might find something.

Good luck.

Even today, much of
Australia remains barely accessible,

and communication
in remote regions is limited.

Yet thousands of years ago,

as many as 500 nations,
speaking more than 200 languages,

had an incredibly effective way

of communicating
over vast distances.

Long before the telegraph,

early colonists were astounded
to see First Nations people

converging from every direction
at the same time and place,

sometimes in their thousands.

Now, this feat of
social organisation

was sometimes attributed to
mental telepathy.

But of course, the truth
is far from supernatural,

but no less remarkable.

It's a handheld communication device
that stores, encodes,

and transmits information across
hundreds of kilometres.

Today, we know this invention
as message sticks.

At the Australian Museum in Sydney,

oral historian Dr Lorina Barker
recently discovered

a piece of her own culture
sitting in a glass cabinet.

When I saw the message stick,
it spoke to me.

I could see our rivers.
I could see our songlines.

It gives me goosebumps just to even
think about the message stick.

Sent between tribes,
clans and nations,

message sticks could be used
to share news, arrange meetings

or conduct diplomacy.

It's amazing how much information
really could be encoded

in these objects,

and their content
is almost always about coordinating

the movements of people
and the movements of resources

over large areas of country.

Dr Piers Kelly is the creator

of the Australian Message Stick
Database.

He depends on First Nations people
who can decode message sticks.

There's so much I don't know.

One of the things I'm hoping to find
out is what these markings mean

that are depicted on the figures,
and where they're travelling.

There's a lot of things that,
due to the disruption,

we still are relearning.

And that's why elders are here
with us today.

Elders and community are
meeting to view this message stick

and potentially unlock secrets
encoded in it

more than 130 years ago.

At the Australian Museum
in Sydney,

a message stick created
some 130 years ago

lies waiting to be deciphered.

Today, traditional owners and elders
have come to decode its secrets.

You got the markings on him. That's
a little fella. See he's a bit sad?

When you look at him,
he looks a bit sad.

At the start of the full moon,
pathway.

Across the rivers or...?
Cross the rivers.

Along with community members,

senior elder Paul Gordon

is seeing this message stick
for the first time.

The rivers are there.

The Bokhara, the Birrie
and the Culgoa.

And then Cuttaburra.

The places that are depicted on
these objects,

the body paint that's depicted
on the figures

of some of these message sticks,

that's been really interesting
for me.

Cuttaburra Creek.
Yeah.

That's from going on ceremony
from Goodooga

up to Tinanburra.

And on the other side?

On the other side, full moon.

So, corroboree time.

He's happy now, see? Look.
Got that different face.

At the end of the trail.
He's been through it.

Two young fellas
that's gone through here.

You can see the emotion,
you can see movement.

You can see how powerful he is.
Look at how he's standing.

Standing strong, hey.

You can see they're not sad no more,
eh, them two boys.

'Cause they're men now.

Within minutes, the elders
identify this message stick

as a call to gather
for a major ceremony.

Expertly encoded are the identities
of both the sender and messenger.

The time it was sent -
in this case, the new moon.

The route the messenger
must take,

indicated by the spacing
between rivers.

The identity of the recipient,

the time of the event -
the next full moon -

and the location, the ceremonial
grounds at Cudnappa Creek.

MAN: It's like a cultural map,
you know -

you can see the journey
across the rivers

that make up the eastern boundary of
Muruwari country.

Seeing it for the first time

just brought it
all back to life again.

Other people who spoke
other languages

would still be able to recognise the
symbols and know what they mean,

which was really important.

The message stick brought us
all here to the Australian Museum

and brought us from different parts
of the state to come down,

and it was calling to us
to gather again

like our old people had done
at the Cudnappa.

Ian! Talk to me.
Hello. Good to see you again.

What have we found?

On Lizard Island, archaeologists
working with traditional owners

are searching for evidence of an
ancient international trade route,

and finally, their luck has changed.

We have found something
on the erosion face,

just on the other side of
the pit there.

So we'll just carefully
walk past the pit,

make sure we don't disturb anything.

Tread carefully and lightly.

There it is, right there.
Wow.

So, it's tiny.

But out of little objects
come big stories.

So, that is a piece of pottery.

Wow.

How can you say with such conviction
that it is from here?

Very easily, actually.

What we do is we analyse
the minerals

that go into the pottery, and you
compare that to local geologies.

What does this little,
little fragment tell you?

It's thin and it doesn't have
much of a curvature,

which tells me
it's quite a sizeable pot.

And to get a sizeable pot
made out of earthenware

that's only a few millimetres thick,

I mean, you've got to really know
what you're doing.

I mean, this is made by
an expert ceramicist.

This is the calling card
of a particular idea.

This pottery shows that
there were connections

going right up the coast
and through into New Guinea

2,000 to 3,000 years ago.

They're sharing that knowledge of
how to make pottery.

So literally, we're not only
rewriting the history of Jiigurru

and Dingaal history,

but we're also rewriting the history
of Australia at the same time.

So it's a big story.

The find adds to a growing
body of evidence

that positions Jiigurru as part of
an extensive trade network,

exchanging goods and ideas
right across the Coral Sea.

Radiocarbon dating
now places the pottery

at between 2,000 and 3,000 years old,

making this trade route
as old as Asia's Silk Road.

My people were able to make
this pottery

about 2,000 years ago,

and this pottery
was a part of trading.

Today, the story of movement
is being told scientifically,

as well as with the voices of
our people.

I think we're gonna get
a good sunset this afternoon.

You organise that?

I think the old people let
that happen for all of us.

They looked out for us.
They've looked out for us.

Highways like this one

are vitally important
for trade and travel.

And the route they take
is no accident.

They chart the most efficient course
through some pretty complex terrain.

But for tens of thousands of years,

the First Australians
face similar challenges,

crossing vast distances
and some pretty unforgiving terrain.

A wrong turn could mean
the difference

between life and death.

So how is this all possible
before the age of GPS?

Across Australia, traditional goods
have been found incredible distances

from their original locations.

Stone axes turning up
hundreds of kilometres

from where they were quarried.

High-quality ochre
mined in one place,

then moved all over the continent.

Even shell products from the coast
found deep in the red centre.

How did all these items
end up so far from home?

A powerful supercomputer has finally
solved one of the great puzzles

of ancient Australia.

There's my ride.

For thousands of years, valuable
goods have been moved vast distances

across the Australian continent.

The question is, how?

G'day, g'day!
Hello, mate!

How you doing?
I'm good.

What took you so long?
(LAUGHS)

Archaeologist Professor Sean Ulm

has discovered that Australia's
oldest trade routes

were far from random.

Instead, they were efficiently
designed networks

reaching across the continent.

In the distant past,
30,000, 40,000 years ago,

the old people were trading goods
hundreds and hundreds of kilometres.

Wow.

For example, pearl shell
from the Kimberleys

was being traded
all the way down to Adelaide.

Baler shell from
the Gulf of Carpentaria

was coming down to
the Flinders Ranges.

We know those goods were important,

connecting people
over those huge distances,

even when the environment
was much drier and harsher

than it is today.

Knowing how deliberately
and strategically

our ancestors travelled

could tell us a lot about the past.

Archaeology only tells us
what survived to the present,

and to really understand
the continental-wide picture,

we need to turn to some pretty fancy
computer modelling.

To identify the locations
of these trade routes,

Sean enlisted the help of
a military-grade supercomputer

to create the largest-ever
simulation of human movement.

In our model, we simulated
125 billion different ways

to travel across the continent,

but not all of them
are equally probable.

There's a whole lot
of considerations

that people are calculating
into their wayfinding

of what the best path is to traverse
between point A and point B.

Efficient travel
is more than just finding

the shortest distance.

To stay on course,
the route needs visible landmarks.

A bit of a hill there.

Drinking water must be no more
than 40 kilometres apart.

Well, that was a water crossing
that went...

Went quite well.
Went quite well.

And travellers must be able
to overcome

the physical challenges of
the terrain.

Sean's computer simulation modelled
all these factors

over every square kilometre
of Australia,

aiming to find the optimal route
from any point on the continent

to any other.

So when we compared those pathways
to the distribution

of those very old cultural places,

we saw really clear patterns
emerging.

What the results told us
was really astounding.

The simulation generated
a tangled web

of thousands of
less travelled paths...

..dominated by a handful of faster,
safer and easier routes,

navigating around
more difficult regions.

Ancient superhighways that allowed
the efficient movement

of people and goods to the furthest
reaches of the continent.

Once people were settled in country,

they developed massive
trading systems

where goods were moved
from one side of the continent

to the other.

I mean, these are extraordinary
distances.

We're talking about sometimes
thousands of kilometres,

and people develop that
cultural knowledge over time.

Sean calls these routes
Australia's ancient superhighways,

and they reveal
a surprising discovery

about how all of us travel around
the continent today.

Far from being a modern invention,

many of today's arterial roads
closely follow routes

discovered by the ancestors

thousands of years ago.

These superhighways link
hundreds of nations

from every corner of the continent.

No matter where you were,
your stories, knowledge,

and well-being were all connected.

Throughout the series,

I've travelled
the length and breadth of Australia.

Today, it's time to pay a visit
home to the Tiwi Islands.

Hey! Hello! Hello!

Very excited to see me.

Many of these people welcoming me
are my blood relatives.

Hello, Grandson!

But even people I have
no biological connection to

are related to me via
an intricate social system.

The kinship system.

Hello!

And this is my mob.

Later today, I'll be taking part
in a demonstration of Tiwi culture

which will identify my roles, status
and obligation in the community.

Kinship is at the very heart
of Indigenous culture,

but it's something most
non-Indigenous Australians

are yet to learn about.

So what you've just divided into
is the two halves of the universe.

Now, in anthropological terms,
they're called the moieties.

At Sydney University,
Dr Lynette Riley educates people

about kinship systems.

For me, it's really about
understanding the basics

of Aboriginal cultural interaction.

There are three levels of
the kinship system -

moieties, totems and skin names.

The first level is moieties.

So, moieties is the foundation
for how the kinship structure works.

This is the first level
of relationship.

People of the same moiety,

which we inherit from our mothers
or fathers,

are obliged
to help each other.

Every single person here
who has the same moiety as you,

these are all
your brothers and sisters.

So this means this is also
your first level of support.

Another important level
of kinship is skin names.

Skin names gets down to
the specifics

of who can marry whom,

so that we're mindful
of what the genetic impact

of people whose bloodlines
are too close

might mean in creating
health problems for our children.

You're not allowed to marry anyone
who has the same skin name.

So what they're doing is
they're trying as best as possible

to control genetics.

So they're making sure that people
whose bloodlines are really close

don't marry and have kids.

So, as Aboriginal people,
we've been doing this for millennia.

Don't you think that there's some
royalty out there

that should have adopted our way?

This system provides clear rules
that help to keep gene pools healthy.

And now, for the first time,
the genius and power of its design

has been proven mathematically.

Today, more than half
the world's people live in cities.

In these massive populations,
two strangers falling in love

are unlikely to be so closely
related genetically

that they shouldn't marry.

But for most of human existence,

people around the world have lived
in small groups of less than 100.

Marrying a blood relative

can result in generations of
unhealthy children.

Here in Australia, our ancestors
invented an ingenious system

to overcome the health hazards

of marrying someone
too closely related.

The kinship system.

Gamilaraay woman Aunty Pat Field

is the mother of mathematical
biologist Dr Jared Field.

I'm so proud of him.

He's the first Gamilaraay person
that ever went to Oxford Uni

and he's never forgotten
who he is, who is people is,

and where we come from.

Jared has used advanced mathematics

to analyse the Gamilaraay
kinship system,

which he learnt
as a child from his family.

Like, you guys remember
all of these things, right?

Even though people were moved
around, you still remember.

Yeah. Yeah.

This is what you need to learn,
so you can teach your children,

you know, who they can
and who they can't marry.

You know, when you talk
to the old aunties and uncles,

they will always say, you know,
why do we do this?

We do this so our children
don't get sick.

Today, at the University
of Technology in Sydney,

Jared is revealing
his groundbreaking work

to fellow mathematician and
Gamilaraay woman Karlie Noon.

As I'm sure many people know,
when you're out there dating

and you meet a handsome blackfella

and, you know, you want to find out
more about them

and there's chemistry there,

it's so important that,
you know, you're not related.

With the Western family tree,

if you want to understand what's
happening in that person's history,

there isn't enough paper
in the world, right?

You have to go back
as far as possible.

A conventional family tree

can trace the genealogy
of an individual,

but its limits quickly
become apparent

when compared with the
Gamilaraay kinship system.

Inheritance, it's said, is such
that if your mother is dark blood,

you are also dark blood.

So you have these cycles
amongst blood types.

In Gamilaraay kinship,
dark and light blood types

inherited from the mother are each
broken down into two more subtypes.

For any individual,
marriage is permitted

with just one of the four subtypes.

Marriage is such that you have
to marry on the opposite blood type,

but opposite to your father.

Which subtype a person belongs to

is the only information needed
to know who they can marry.

This works even without the need
for a family tree.

But to demonstrate
just how effectively

the system protects genetic health,

Jared needs to know the subtypes
of all an individual's ancestors.

Which he can find by tracing
the hereditary links.

So if you're type B,
then this tells you

that you have a mother of type A,
so moving to the left,

and father of type D.

If you go up one generation,

an A type individual
will have a B mother and a C father.

So left and right.

And then a type D individual
will have a C mother and a B father,

and so on and so forth.

You can populate the entire
family tree of this B individual

just by knowing this map.

This allows Jared to
calculate the probability

of having closely related
ancestors.

His result reveals
one important number.

The minimum size at which
a population can safely reproduce.

In other parts of the world,

this number would typically
be in the hundreds, if not greater.

So, to get as closely related
on average as first cousins,

we would have to reduce
to just 24 individuals,

which is remarkable, I think.

By following Gamilaraay
kinship rules,

the risk of genetic diseases remains
at a safe level for any population

over just 24 people.

The system is a really
optimised system, right?

You know, these kinship systems

are absolutely some of the best
systems that we've seen in humanity,

the history of humanity.

Gamilaraay, Tiwi and other
First Nations kinship systems

reveal pure mathematical genius.

But the ingenuity of the kinship
system doesn't end there.

For any society to survive,

it also has to manage
its natural resources carefully.

In Australia, our kinship systems
were designed to do exactly that.

Next, how the kinship system ensures
natural resources are preserved

and shared sustainably.

In the story of human history,

there is no shortage of societies
that have failed

because resources
were overexploited.

Today, we're all too aware
of ecosystem collapse

and the threat of extinction.

To preserve our natural resources,

First Nations people developed
another level of kinship -

the totem system.

So, your totems also tell you

what your responsibility is
to the environment,

to the world around you.

In the totem system,

each person has an individual
animal or plant totem.

For example, the kangaroo.

So, kangaroo people, you've got
to learn every single thing

about the kangaroo.

So you get to know it
to such an extent,

you are kangaroo.

Eating kangaroo is not permitted.

Because that's like harming
your brother or your sister,

because your job is to conserve.

And you must update
the community

on the health of
the local kangaroo population.

With your totem, you will not only
be expected to do certain things,

you will be held accountable
for what you don't do.

Every animal and plant,

from kangaroos to emus to
eucalyptus trees,

is accounted for,
ensuring sustainability.

Even rivers are included,

with individuals taking
responsibility for each section.

Today, the totem system lives on.

Off the coast of Queensland
at Jiigurru,

otherwise known as Lizard Island,

Ben Abbatangelo is joining
traditional owner Kenneth McLean...

Wallamba.
That's the name of that hill there.

..on an expedition
to ceremonial ground

used to teach young hunters.

So, the closer I got to
this rock formation,

the quicker it became obvious that
it is sculptured in a turtle shape.

You kind of can see that you've got
the front arm here

and the back arm here.

You've got the tail at the back,
the head at the front,

and then obviously the bulge
over the top to signify its shell.

Kenneth, can you describe
the significance

of these stone arrangements?

So, for the young fellas
coming out here,

seeing these stone arrangements,
that's their responsibility

to protect our environment as well
as the animals on this environment.

A hunter's role is to learn
his responsibility of hunting

and looking after his environment.

So the stone arrangements
on Jiigurru

represents the law, the ceremony,
the songlines, also the environment.

Each of these
stone arrangements

is shaped to represent
a different totem.

For the younger ones
in our community,

will give them a chance to connect
their self to country,

learn about the law of the sea.

Today, archaeologists
are using LiDAR

and photogrammetry scanning

to help preserve
the stone formations.

Oh, wow. That is excellent.

So all of this is just happening

at the click of the fingers
on the phone.

Yeah, it's one of the...
one of the benefits

is we can do this fairly quickly
and process it in the field,

and we'll be able to see what
this stone arrangement

looks like in 3D.

It's a pretty amazing leap forward
in recording these things.

Elder Uncle Lewis can no longer
make the trek himself,

so these 3D models
connect him to a ceremony

he went through as a young hunter.

Leaving them
in their original forms,

the way our ancestors left them.

Share this for our younger ones.

It's their responsibility to look
after our environment as well.

On the Tiwi Islands,

I'm preparing for
a community gathering

incorporating elements of our own
kinship ceremony.

Tonight, some of my mob
are getting together

to show me some
traditional Tiwi dances

that are usually reserved
for ceremony.

Those dances reflect our totems
and show our connections

to each other.

But before that happens,
I need to get ready.

And that involves sourcing some
ingredients directly from the earth.

Tonight, the community want
to share select parts

of this important aspect
of our kinship system.

I've never seen cliffs
like this here.

This one go all the way
up to the lighthouse.

I've come to my ancestral home,
the Tiwi Islands,

to experience the dances of
our own kinship ceremonies.

That's why I love this place.

I can see why, man. It's beautiful.

My grandfather, Teddy Portaminni,

is collecting ochre
for my face paint.

This is the white.

Soft.

The natural pigment is
ground down to make paint.

So this is the one you burn.
Yeah.

Burn this, makes red.

Good red.

Relationships to another person
or the totems you hold

can be communicated using
bold colours or through dance -

something I hope my uncles
Danny Munkara and Bernard Tipiloura

can explain.

Hello, Uncles!
(ALL GREET ONE ANOTHER)

That's the one thing
that I'm always confused about.

I never know what dance to do,
you know?

So if you're for a funeral,
for example,

it depends on my connection
to that person.

Yeah.

My... What...
The dances that I do.

Yeah.

Like, when I die,
you have to dance...

(SPEAKS INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE)

For me.

And that dance is because
the connection to you, for me,

is through my mother.

Yeah. That's why that dance.

Alright. You'll teach me
how to do that tonight?

Yeah.
That's good.

I'm being painted in my mother
and grandfather's totem,

the horse.

Black stallion.

Even introduced species
are given a place

in the kinship system.

Jungle fowl.
Jungle fowl.

Each person here is painted
with their individual totem.

Crocodile, yeah? Crocodile.
Crocodile.

This way, everyone can see
who is responsible for what.

My dance shows my relationship
to Uncle Bernard,

which I'll one day dance
at the Pukumani ceremony

to honour his passing.

More than just a ritual,

this ceremonial dance
is part of my identity.

It's a big part of
what has made Australia

a deeply connected continent.

These are the connections
that tell us who we're related to,

who we do ceremony with,

who are the people we have
the biggest responsibilities with

in looking after the environment.

I could feel the energy
of the message stick.

Just touching something that
our old people had made,

so that now we can receive
that knowledge that they left for us

all those years ago.

Our ancestors invented
sophisticated ways

of preserving a healthy gene pool.

JARED: This didn't arrive
by accident.

It's the result of careful
and considered thought.

And it's passed on through song,
right?

So it requires poets
to write the songs,

singers to sing the songs,

philosophers to think
about these things.

Scientists to go through thinking
about mathematics.

You need all of those people,

which is to say you need
a complex society.

The sustainability of
precious natural resources.

And a way of giving every person
a place and identity.

So, for me to be reminded
of these connections,

to know that I have a place
where people rely on me,

and I can rely on them in turn,

whether I've met them or not,
was so profoundly moving

and very important to me
as a person.

So, yeah,

where you're from, it's much
more than just a polite question.

But how can this understanding
of connectedness

help us tackle the challenges of
an uncertain world?

Are you ready there? Good.

Next time...

Make sure you follow this end here.

..an ancient innovation,

tackling one of the modern
world's greatest problems.

Good fire management essentially
halves the emissions from fire.

Knowledge of Australian plants.

How can you tell what you can't eat?

Helping to create new medicine.

It is a treasure trove for
medical knowledge.

And was the boomerang
the earliest invention of flight?

Now it's our turn to teach
the scientists of the world.

Captions by Red Bee Media
(c) SBS Australia 2023