Nexus - 0704 - New Times Magazine-pages

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REVIEWS <= Cook and Brown present recent scientific B oO oO K S findings as well as diverse archival accounts and illustrations from late 19th/early 20th THE PEOPLE BEFORE . century anthropological and archaeological (THE SECRET LAND Trilogy, Vol. 1) sources which have been conveniently by Gary J. Cook and Thomas J. Brown _ brushed aside over ensuing years. Among Publisher: StonePrint Press, NZ, 1999 the evidence is that the Maori knew that ISBN: 0-9582040-0-4 (225pp tpb) New Zealand's flightless bird, the moa, was Price: NZD$29.90; Australian orders, extinct before the first wave of their ances- add NZD$8.00 p&h, elsewhere add tors arrived, and that a much earlier people NZD$15.00 p&h with links to Central and South America, Available: New Zealand—StonePrint Australia and the entire Pacific Ocean region Press, Post Box 55-037, Castle Hill Village, ccupied the land in ages past. . Christchurch 8020, tel +64 (0)3 318 7377, The authors treat their subject matter with fax +64 (0)3 318 7311, e-mail info@ sensitivity, but their controversial findings stoneprint.co.nz, www.stoneprint.co.nz still leave many questions unanswered. lhe prehistory of New Zealand is far rich- er than the mainstream version of events | THE PURE STATE OF NATURE concedes. The Polynesian Maori iwi (tribe) | by David Horton may have arrived after AD 1200, but it's Publisher: Allen & Unwin, Aust, 2000 believed that an earlier group arrived a thou- ISBN: 1-86508-107-8 (192pp tpb) sand years earlier, only to find the land Price: AUD$19.95; NZD$27.95 already populated with tall, light-skinned, Available: Australia—Allen & Unwin, tel fair-haired people, a darker people of small- +61 (0)2 8425 0100, e-mail frontdesk@ er stature, and even vestiges of giants. allen-unwin.com.au; NZ—Archetype Book StTCRET LAnG I Agents, tel (09) 377 3800 Pp FE 0 P L Zi n The Pure State of Nature Dr David Horton, scientist, archaeologist, farmer and editor of Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia, launches an attack on the miscon- ceptions of white Australian academia and culture over the last two centuries and pre- sents a passionate argument for a different way of looking at Australia's prehistory. Dr Horton takes exception to a view expounded by Dr Tim Flannery in The Future Eaters, that Aborigines used fire to the detriment of the environment and that they were responsible for the demise of the land's megafauna. He argues that their use of fire caused no more damage than a typical bushfire (which, he concedes, can be very destructive) and that large-scale use was not in the interests of their survival. On the second point, Horton asks how the Aborigines, who have occupied Australia for 50,000 years (at least), could have killed off the megafauna when they co-existed for For The People Before, writer/historian/ explorer Gary Cook and researcher Tom 25,000 years before the extinction. The "kill Brown, former editor of the Borderlands sites" proposed by some archaeologists are journal, have compiled this dynamic first non-existent. The culprit, he maintains, was book in a trilogy titled "The Secret Land", climate change. The megafauna, having on New Zealand's hidden, alternative histo- adapted to climatic variations in preceding ry. Both of them contribute an introductory ages (like the other species, humans includ- chapter which must also serve as their final ed) were cut off from adequate water sup- words, for in the end readers are left to mull plies (as other species were not, due to better over the facts and draw their own conclu- adaptations) when the lush interior was beset sions about the origins of tangata whenua, by an extended dry spell which caused the earlier occupants of the islands. Many desertification of key ecosystems. of these ancient artifacts, which include With his personal, provocative approach, canals, pits, mounds and stone carvings, | Dr Horton gives insights into the Aboriginal have been deemed anomalous > their ori- view of nature, and laments that the rampant gins not part of Maori stories covering the ecological havoc inflicted on Australia these last thousand or 1,800 years. past 210 years has already caused disaster. Cook and Brown present recent scientific findings as well as diverse archival accounts and illustrations from late 19th/early 20th century anthropological and archaeological sources which have been conveniently brushed aside over ensuing years. Among the evidence is that the Maori knew that New Zealand's flightless bird, the moa, was extinct before the first wave of their ances- tors arrived, and that a much earlier people with links to Central and South America, Australia and the entire Pacific Ocean region occupied the land in ages past. The authors treat their subject matter with sensitivity, but their controversial findings still leave many questions unanswered. THE PURE STATE OF NATURE by David Horton Publisher: Allen & Unwin, Aust, 2000 ISBN: 1-86508-107-8 (192pp tpb) Price: AUD$19.95; NZD$27.95 Available: Australia—Allen & Unwin, tel +61 (0)2 8425 0100, e-mail frontdesk@ allen-unwin.com.au; NZ—Archetype Book Agents, tel (09) 377 3800 n The Pure State of Nature Dr David Horton, scientist, archaeologist, farmer and editor of Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia, launches an attack on the miscon- ceptions of white Australian academia and culture over the last two centuries and pre- sents a passionate argument for a different way of looking at Australia's prehistory. Dr Horton takes exception to a view expounded by Dr Tim Flannery in The Future Eaters, that Aborigines used fire to the detriment of the environment and that they were responsible for the demise of the land's megafauna. He argues that their use of fire caused no more damage than a typical bushfire (which, he concedes, can be very destructive) and that large-scale use was not in the interests of their survival. On the second point, Horton asks how the Aborigines, who have occupied Australia for 50,000 years (at least), could have killed off the megafauna when they co-existed for 25,000 years before the extinction. The "kill sites" proposed by some archaeologists are non-existent. The culprit, he maintains, was climate change. The megafauna, having adapted to climatic variations in preceding ages (like the other species, humans includ- ed) were cut off from adequate water sup- plies (as other species were not, due to better adaptations) when the lush interior was beset by an extended dry spell which caused desertification of key ecosystems. With his personal, provocative approach, Dr Horton gives insights into the Aboriginal view of nature, and laments that the rampant ecological havoc inflicted on Australia these past 210 years has already caused disaster. 76 * NEXUS JUNE — JULY 2000