Cirrus@Austlit

'The story of the movement of Aboriginal peoples into what is now Australia some 70,000 years ago and their survival over tens of thousands of years is, as Scott Cane says in this book, truly epic. The story of these achievements is not new, but the way it is told in First footprints is. Scott Cane’s new book demonstrates, through a survey of archaeological evidence, the extraordinary diversity, adaptability and innovative skills of Australia’s Indigenous peoples as they moved into and settled throughout this continent. Their superb skills enabled these people to adapt their technologies, cultural expressions, traditions and lifestyles over time in the context of immense climatic and environmental changes. I discussed some aspects of these innovative skills of Aboriginal people in my 2007 book Writing heritage: the depiction of Indigenous heritage in European–Australian writings. Innovations in material culture included modifying stone and wooden tools in form, size and function, introducing new designs or entirely new objects, or even ceasing use of some items if circumstances no longer required them. Then, of course, there was the incorporation of introduced European materials into their toolkit — wire, steel and glass, for example. There were innovations in subsistence strategies, foods and living conditions. Cane brings out all these and much more in the way of innovative and adaptive strategies that Indigenous people employed over time and place, across the entire range of their cultural and societal systems.' (Introduction)