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The Ngaro People were a seafaring Australian Aborigine group of people that inhabited the Whitsunday Islands and coastal regions of Queensland from at least 7000 BC until 1870.〔http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2008/06/25/2285036.htm〕〔The Social Archeology of Australian Indigenous Societies by Bruno David, Bryce Barker, Ian J. McNiven〕 Ngaro society was destroyed by warfare with traders, colonists, and the Australian Native Police. The Native Police Corps forcibly relocated the remaining Ngaro aborigines in 1870 to a "mission" settlement on Palm Island and the lumber mills of Brampton Island to be "employed" as laborers.〔Aboriginal Tribes of Australia, by Tindale, 1974〕 ==The Vanishing Ngaro== The word Ngaro means "miss," "can't see," or "vanishing" in Maori and Tahitian, modern Polynesian languages of the south pacific near Australia. As a proper noun, the name "Ngaro" appears in the names of Polynesian tribes as far away as Manihiki Island. The Vanishing People would be an appropriate name for the Ngaro, considering the small amount of archaeological and historical information about Ngaro culture. Their society endured repeated onslaught, first by rising sea levels 9,000 years ago, then by the arrival of Europeans. Eventually the Ngaro succumbed to the guns, germs, and steel of western explorers. The Ngaro may have inhabited the region prior to 7000 BC, but no archaeological evidence of their presence has been found.〔Plaque at entrance to Nara Inlet Cave boardwalk by Australian forest service documented in a cruising blog for SV Australis, http://sail-australis.blogspot.com/2010/09/nara-inlet-mystery.html〕 This may be due to their migration from another region of Australia or because the rapidly rising sea level during that period washed away their coastal settlements, middens, and burial sites. The rising sea level would have left only their more recent settlements, or their mountain settlements on islands such as Hook Island where they inhabited the higher terrain to take advantage of shelter (caves), fresh water (a waterfall from the cliffs in Nara Inlet, Hook Island) and seafood in the bay below (oysters, clams, mussels, abalone).〔The Sea People: Late Holocene Maritime Specialisation in the Whitsunday Islands, Central Queensland. By Bryce Barker. Pandanus Books, Canberra, 2004. ISBN 1-74076-092-1.〕 Over thousands of years until 4000 BC the sea level rose several meters and the coastline moved inland more than 100 miles, from beyond the Great Barrier Reef. This has left the ancient inland mountaintops as the Whitsunday Islands. The prehistoric coastal plains known by the Ngaro would have been near what we now call the Great Barrier Reef. Oral history indicates that the Ngaro continued to visit the Great Barrier Reef by bark canoes even after it became a hazardous journey to a remote ocean destination more than 40 miles from their coastal settlements.〔Tindale 1974, p. 182〕〔Tindale's 1934 Journal〕 The earliest archaeological evidence of the Ngaro people has been found on Hook Island where two inlets protected by steep cliffs would have been welcome shelter for Ngaro canoes. Cave openings and nearby mounds, or middens, of oyster-like shells are still visible in the steep slopes of Nara Inlet. The shells do not resemble the modern oysters and clam species presently found on the coast, attesting to their age. The age of aboriginal paintings in several of the caves has been authenticated by experts who analyzed the pigments and minerals in them with carbon dating.〔Pigment Analysis at Nara Inlet Rock Art Site, Hook Island, Whitsunday Group, Far North of Queensland, K.M. and A. WATCHMAN, A. 1993. Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies and Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service.〕 Though much about the lifestyle of the Ngaro has vanished with the rising sea level and demise of their settlements and campsites, the cave paintings shown here remain as evidence of their presence and their humanity. However, the meaning of these paintings remains a mystery. Some tour operators hint at the possibility that the ladder-like paintings are an engineering drawing or map showing how to build a ladder to reach caves higher in the cliff which are the burial sites of prominent Ngaro elders. To some it appears to be the curved trunk of a palm tree, or perhaps the trunk of a plant species that was important to the Ngaro and is no longer present in the region. If domesticated coconut palms were ever seen by the Ngaro, their value as a food source would not have been missed. The domesticated coconut palm would have reached Borneo by a land bridge before the sea levels rose.〔The "Niu" Indies: Long Lost "Home" of the Coconut Palm by Hugh C. Harries, Centro de Investigacion Cientifca de Yucatan AC, Apdo. Postal 87, Cordemex 97310, Merida, Yucatan, Mexico|The "Niu" Indies: Long Lost "Home" of the Coconut Palm〕 The coconuts may have reached the Ngaro people or their ancestors by floating on the strong currents where the Indian and Pacific oceans meet. As a seafaring people, the Ngaro would have been among the first of the Australian aborigine tribes to learn of coconuts and coconut trees and incorporate them into their diet and culture. The painting of a hashed oval shape is often presumed to be a sea turtle shell, a prominent food source for the Ngaro and Australian aborigines of the mainland. However, it may represent the fruit of the pandanus plant and its seed. The cyad nut of the pandanus plant requires chopping (perhaps hash marks in the cave painting are instructions to chop up the large seed), and heating (perhaps the wavy lines at the bottom of the painting represent fire) in order to break down deadly poisons. The crushed, cooked nut produces an edible flour which can be roasted into a bread-like food similar to Australian damper or flatbread.〔The Social Archaeology of Australian Indigenous Societies by Bruno David, Bryce Barker, Ian J. McNiven〕〔http://homepage.mac.com/will_owen/iblog/C1693819711/E20090808115719/index.html〕 Information about poisonous plants, their uses, and their preparation would be critical to the survival of the Ngaro, and worthy of the effort required to produce a long-lasting cave painting. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ngaro people」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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