PYRAMID ONE NETWORK SUPPORTS RESEARCH INTO OUR PAST
“Three Strikes and we are all out of Africa and into Australia” (Article)
Three Strikes and we are all out of Africa and into Australia
By Steven & Evan Strong
The most recent mtDNA study we stumbled across, is from our perspective
the final nail in the coffin of the Out-of-Africa theory. Once, twice
and a third time over, separate genetic studies of Homo sapien sapiens,
dingoes and now song birds, stand united in ascribing the same place of
origin: Australia.
The genetic facts in these equations are incontestable, the
distinctive and unique nature of the mitochondrial DNA of both the dingo
and Mungo Man (WLH 3) cannot be matched to any like species on this
planet.
In 1991 mtDNA was extracted from the bones of Mungo Man (WLH3).
Agreed to be the oldest Homo sapien sapien yet found in Australia and
dated by Alan Thorne to be over 60,000 years old, his internal genetic
code should reek of African ancestry. Theoretically, the African
castaways who first got to Australia around 50-60,000 years ago would
have barely set up camp on a beach thousands of kilometres to the north,
but here they were fully settled by a lake system positioned well to
the south and a thousand kilometres from any coast. In what is as
unexpected as it is inconvenient, a comparison of Mungo Man’s
mitochondrial DNA to every other hominid and primate past and present,
came up empty. The lack of connection to any person, ape or monkey
presented a real problem for the researchers who responded in the only
way they could, declaring the sample to be “an extinct gene.”(1) Rather
than choosing a description like ‘separate,’ ‘different,’ ‘older,’ or
‘ancestral,’ the idea it is a long lost off-shoot or some form of
mutation is self-serving in dismissing Mungo Man as part of an
irrelevant genetic cul-de-sac. The real possibility that Mungo Man is
not African, nor are any other Original people, is a far less appealing
path for mainstream academia to embark.
So too this year’s genetic research investigating the make-up of the
dingo found the same lack of connection to any other species or location
on the planet outside Australia. After extensive research by a team of
Australian geneticists, they were quick to concede that the genes of the
dingo are markedly different from all other dogs and wolves found
everywhere else. They are adamant that the dingo did not descend from
any canine in Southern India or any other location. In the simplest
terms the dingo is genetically unique and separate and its ancestry is
now unknown. Regrettably but predictably, there is no prospect of
further research in solving this genetic impasse. The whole result was
unforseen and from the perspective of the academics in research it just
doesn’t make sense, and when that happens it easier to walk away and
look the other way. 
These observations are not opinions but agreed facts, the problem is
that what follows is far less digestible. What is as real as it was
lamentable is the researchers’ narrow focus in being unable to
appreciate all the implications and avenues of research beginning to
unfold. The logic lost in transmission is as simple as it is compelling:
if the dingo and the oldest modern human found in Australia are
genetically unique and cannot be genetically linked to any dog, wolf,
human, hominid or primate that ever lived on this planet, they are
neither related to others of their type nor do they share a common
ancestry.
Bad Science and Lazy Thinking
The insurmountable problem these genetic studies creates is obvious,
if both Australian dingo and human are unique, the question that demands
to be answered relates to how can it be that there is common belief
that Original Australians came from Africa and the ancestor of the dingo
lived in Southern India? What is puzzling is that despite the imposing
evidence to the contrary, every text, university and lecturer will
earnestly claim that the Out-of-Africa theory is an unquestionable fact.
Equally, from the same department their books assure us that all dogs,
canines and wolves share the same ancestry, but that is not true in the
dingoes’ case. All of this smells like bad science and lazy thinking,
but it gets worse, there are birds in the air to reconsider and
reposition.
In what only highlights the inability of mainstream academia to
respond with an open mind and clear vision, yet another mtDNA study of a
different species, song birds, came to the same conclusion and
continent.
Singing up the Wrong Tree
The Australian researcher who has rewritten so much on the history of
birds, entered the field when the prevailing belief that Australia had
‘second-hand bird fauna’ was regarded as a sacrosanct truth. Professor
Les Christidis (director of Southern Cross University’s National Marine
Science Centre) has impeccable credentials, and we sincerely doubt there
is a person more qualified to embark on such a massive study. He has a
Bachelor of Science with honours in zoology and genetics (University of
Melbourne), a PhD in population and evolutionary genetics (ANU), senior
co-author of Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds, co-editor of
the Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World, and so the list of his
achievements continue.
In what is a touch ironic Professor Christidis was a reluctant
passenger when it came to birds of any type, and was not an avid bird
watcher. From the age of seven he harboured a strong passion to become a
zoologist and held no interest in birds, what really captured his
attention were mammals. By default he was born in a continent inhabited
by marsupials, bats and rodents, and to begin with became interested in
the genetics of insects.
It was only while working on insects did Les Christidis realise there
was virtually no research being done on birds in Australia. With such a
vacuum seen not as an academic black-hole but an opportunity,
pragmatism stepped in as he realised that there was an opportunity to
become an expert in bird genetics. When first venturing into this
academic field, it was blighted by the same narrow focus that taints so
much Original archaeology in Australia, that we are merely recipients
from abroad. It was assumed that this continent was a global backwater, a
place of second-hand birds, dingoes and hominids, somewhat of an
afterthought to real action taking place everywhere else on the planet.
When Christidis first suggested that “nightingales, mockingbirds and
songbirds around the world originated in Australia then populated the
rest of the globe”(2) during “the late 1980s”(3) it was considered
“ludicrous.”(4) “When we first suggested this … we got laughed at …
Australia doesn’t have that many birds relative to the rest of the
world, so how can it be the centre of everything? It turns out that
lowly Australia is the centre. Australia can lay claim to songbirds
without a shadow of a doubt.”(5)
As Professor Christidis started to analyse the real science, as
opposed to comfortable assumptions, he too found everything was
back-the-front. Australia was never a passive recipient but a major
global provider. “Up until the last four or five years it’s always been
thought that the passerine birds originated in the northern hemisphere
and spread south and that’s been the gospel for the last 200 years.”(6)
“The Gospel”(7) Versus Good Science
For daring to suggest a species evolved in Australia first, Les
Christidis was attacked by many academic quarters and for quite some
time no accepted journal would go near him or his research. This sounds
so familiar and is the same decidedly hostile path we are also trying to
navigate. As expected such a revolutionary theory gained very little
traction and was “mocked by the scientific community.”(8) After
receiving a not so “friendly response”(9) the criticism was certainly
ramped up in vitriol, so much so that they did concede thinking “let’s
not pursue it anymore because you know, life’s too short to have to
constantly be ridiculed on these things.”(10) Fortunately good science
did prevail over bad manners and we noted that with further genetic
research in collaboration with European researchers, they eventually
confirmed their initial findings. With the tick gained abroad, as is so
often the case, all Australian academics then fell into line.
What is rather ironic and symptomatic of the conservative academic
climate is that which was vigorously denied by the experts then, is now
accepted “without a shadow of a doubt”(11) as a scientific truth. But to
begin with this latter-day fact was regarded as a ridiculous
proposition, and a permanent reminder of the intellectual apathy that
reigned at the time and how quickly people in control never learn from
the errors.
In our experience this predisposition towards labelling anything new
as “ludicrous”(12) is actually a collective aversion towards questioning
evidence inconvenient or unfamiliar. But as things stood, in Australia
in 1986 this country was assumed to be a land of ‘second-hand’ birds, a
place where one species of what is now categorised a non-dog/wolf was
thought to be a younger off-shot of a dog from Southern India, and a
continent who were populated by a people who came from Africa. Even
though the mtDNA extracted from the oldest Original person (Lake Mungo
Man) has no relationship to any African and was deemed to be an “extinct
gene,”(13) nothing really changes in the corridors of …
The Original Verdict
As is our custom and preference, we always seek Original guidance
when dealing with any aspect of Lore and ancient Australian history,
there is no other course available. But in going back to the very
beginning, first hand witness accounts are sparse on the ground, and
under these conditions near enough will suffice. There is an account
found in A. W. Reed’s book Aboriginal (sic) Myths, Legends & Fables
which provides an exceptional overview as to the interconnectedness of
dingo, human, bird and all creations, and the place from which all forms
of creation originated.
In a Dreaming story, The Making of Mankind, which is essentially
about “how the world began and was populated with animal life,”(14) the
Creation Spirit Biamie “was entrusted the task of forming and caring for
animal life.”(15) This was first occurring in Australia, but Biamie’s
task was “lacking.”(16) The missing ingredient to complete what he set
out to do was “the form and intelligence of man.”(17)
At this point the narrative gets decidedly genetic, but leaving that
aside, there is an underlying message of an eternal inter-species
connection that seems long forgotten in today’s race forward. Adamant
this genesis took place in the land where Original people always
inhabited since the beginning, the Original Creation Spirit had all but
completed his plan of life. “When at last the experiments were complete.
Baiame gathered birds, animals, and insects together in a cave. Baiame
and Yhi acted in concert, plucking what may be described as the
incubated fragments of the spirit of man from their animal hosts,
amalgamating them into one cohesive whole. The animals looked on in
astonishment. The longings and aspirations that belong to man alone were
lost to them forever. Content with their nature …”(18)
This Dreaming story is as much about the origins of so many
life-forms as it is a cautionary tale about the “desires”(19) and
“pride”(20) purged from all of Biamie’s creations bar one, Homo sapien
sapiens. Central to this account of creation, is that there is an
inherent connection that binds all forms of life and that it all begins
here.
The White-fella Verdict
So once again another avenue of research in Australia into an area of
genetics that was assumed to be fact, has been found fundamentally
flawed and wrong. It would seem that the rest of the world has
‘second-hand’ sapiens, song birds and dogs. Feather, fur or skin, in
each case their origin lay in Australia, simply because the genetics and
Original Custodians of the Old Ways will have it no other way.
REFERENCES:
1. Flood, Josephine, Archaeology of the Dreamtime (Marleston, South Australia: J.B. Publishing, 2004) 7.
2. Skatssoon, Judy, “Earliest songbirds had an Aussie twang”, News In
Science, (20/07/2004),
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2004/07/20/1157172.htm
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Demasi, Dr Maryanne (Reporter/Prod.), Taylor, Anja (Assoc. Prod/
Researcher.), “Transcript, Story Archive – Songbirds Update”, Catalyst,
(01/03/2007), http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s1860533.htm
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. Skatssoon, News In Science.
13. Flood, Archaeology of the Dreamtime, 7.
14. Reed, A.W. Aboriginal Myths, Legends & Fables (Chatswood, Australia: Reed- William Heinemann Australia, 1993) 46.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
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