Australia Day …

The anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove in 1788 since when there has been a continuous colony of people descended from Picts, Scots, Angles, Saxons, Romans, Jutes, Danes and Normans and goodness knows what else.

It is fashionable in some quarters to put on the black armband and lament the fate of the original inhabitants, wail about the crimes of the invaders. An apology on my behalf for crimes I did not commit to people who were not alive to be the victims strikes me as an absurdity. Better, it seems to me, to celebrate the fact that the average modern day Australian, no matter their genetic past, lives a more secure, orderly and enriching life than those inhabitants of this land in 1788.

No doubt, the day will throw up the line about the oldest nation on earth once again. Australia was not organised as a nation, it was a conglomerate of groups with between 350 and 750 distinct languages and dialects. A quick look at a language map shows that the diversity is far greater in the far north, consistent with successive waves of colonisation. And remember that Torres Strait did not exist until about 8,000 years ago, so add another few hundred languages since lost from the pool by that separation.

Aboriginal implies from the beginning. The truth is that no one was here from the beginning, modern man has its origins in Africa. Part of the evidence for this is found among the fossils but not every fossil has descendants roaming the earth today. On the other hand, if you’re roaming around today you had ancestors roaming around at every moment of human history. The relationships of those ancestors can be inferred from our DNA. The result can be seen very nicely by visiting The Journey of Mankind, take a break from me and click it now, I’ll wait …

The crucial moment is found at 85,000 years ago. All non-African humans alive today descend from that group.

We are one species, your ancestors are my ancestors, my ancestors are yours. Lets make the most of it.

Celebrate Australia day, the anniversary of the day that families, separated for 85,000 years, were reunited.