UWA academics in race to document ancient Indigenous carvings on Australian boab trees before they die

Researchers and traditional owners say they are racing to preserve Indigenous carvings found on Australian boab trees before they are potentially lost forever.

A new group of academics from the University of Western Australia, Australian National University and Canberra University have started documenting the carvings before the trees die and the art is lost.

While a similar species of trees in South Africa have been found to be thousands of years old, it is not known exactly how old the Australian boabs are. Because of their soft external trunks, when boabs die they collapse inwards.

University of WA Professor of Archaeology Jane Balme said while Indigenous rock art was more famous, the boab carvings were just as important.

“There’s been no systematic recording of these carvings ... we’re basically trying to record every boab we can,” she said.

The group have tracked down and documented 12 carvings on boabs in the Tanami desert which is spread across the WA-NT Border.

A paper on their findings is being published by world archaeology journal Antiquity.

Jaru woman Brenda Garstone was part of the group of traditional owners and likens finding carvings of snakes on boab trees in the Tanami desert to “putting together a big jigsaw puzzle”.

Ms Garstone’s mother and aunt — both Stolen Generation survivors who grew up in WA’s Forest River Mission— also took part in the research.

Many of the trees they found featured snake carvings, telling the Dreamtime story of the King Brown Snake or Lingka Dreaming.

Ms Garstone said seeing the carvings reinforced what they had been told by elders of their family story.

“The boab tree is a symbol of our (family) totem that tells the story of the Dreaming,” she said.

“Going back to country and seeing this gave some closure and healing. The fact these stories have survived is testament to the strength of culture.

“It’s like a big jigsaw puzzle that we are putting back together and now can be passed down to the next generation.”