Iona Italia talks to Mungo Manic, an independent scholar of early Australians

An independent scholar of early Australians who goes by the pseudonym “ Mungo Manic ” speaks to Iona Italia in a wide-ranging conversation about pre-colonial Australian life.

He spoke to me in detail about many aspects of precolonial Australian life including religious practices, initation rites, intertribal warfare, sexual mores, the relationship with the local environment.

There’s no genetic definition of Aboriginal , but there's no cultural definition.

There is no genetic basis of Aboriginal and there is no legal definition, he says.

He says using the same words to describe the people who may have ancestors, whose ancestors lived in Australia before 1788 or whatever, to use that same word is rather misleading.

How and when did the first humans get here? MM: I don’t know. There is a lot of theories. It’s hard to know, judge the data. There seems to be evidence, the most secure evidence is from Northern Australia , Arnhem Land , about 65,000 years ago .

II: Do you think that there were different waves of immigration to Australia ?.