How Ancient genomes can help Aboriginal Australian communities: lessons from the Cape York project

Sally Wasef⁰, Joanne Wright⁰, Michael Westaway¹, Clarence Flinders²
(0) Griffith University
(1) University of Queensland
(2) Cape Melville, Flinders and Howick Islands Aboriginal Corporation

Find me on Tues Nov 24th, 1:40-3pm AEDT in Remo, table 123

Abstract
Paleogenetics is a relatively new and promising field that has the potential to provide new information about past Indigenous social systems, including insights into the complexity of burial practices. Yet, DNA evidence alone would not be enough. We present results from the first interdisciplinary study in Australia to incorporate modern and ancient genomics, isotopes, bioarchaeology and new archaeological excavations in order to provide important insights into the question of the population history, repatriation of Indigenous remains and possibility of late contact with Melanesian populations in Cape York. We reveal information that provides insights into gene flow from the north but note that the pattern is complex. Equally complex is the mortuary record from Flinders Island as revealed through the isotope and mitogenomic data, and we compare this to other groups in Cape York and Queensland.

The significant expansion in contemporary and ancient genomic research over the last 5 years has unlocked powerful new data to investigate the question of possible genomic admixture events between Australian and Papuan populations. However, there have been several new studies that have provided contemporary papuan genomic data, greatly expanding the potential to reconstruct later phases of the region’s population history. Unfortunately, parallel Aboriginal Australian datasets do not currently exist for genomic datasets. From a genomics perspective, Australia remains relatively understudied and for some locations restricted to mitochondrial data only. Further limiting the opportunity for comparison is the issue of access to these datasets, particularly the Aboriginal Australian whole modern genomic data, which is one of the largest existing datasets and currently is not publicly shared. The restrictions on who can use these data is a point of considerable concern for many geneticists and other researchers

Recently, we completed an Australian Research Council-funded project that focused on human remains from the Cape York Peninsula of Queensland, in collaboration with several local Aboriginal communities. What we found suggests no single method such as DNA testing or using geological clues will be enough to reliably determine the origin of remains – an interdisciplinary approach using all available evidence will be required to repatriate Aboriginal remains.

Interdisciplinary approaches employing a range of techniques commonly applied in archaeology elsewhere in the world can only be possible in Australia when undertaken in close collaboration and partnership with Traditional Owners. By reproducing the past by incorporating the stories from the people themselves, and not just the artefacts and material culture they left behind, we have the potential to provide very important and new insights into the stories from Aboriginal Australia.