Last day in Darwin

The Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory

It is believed that modern humans left Africa 130,000 years ago and slowly made their way to Australia.  During this time period there were alternating times of heat and cold, as well as vastly differing sea levels.  It is believed that people came to Australia when the sea levels were low and land bridges were walkable all the way down through Java.  They made rafts or boats the rest of the way.  Once they reached land, the settled people followed the rivers upstream.  There, archaeological evidence shows people lived at least 50,000 to 60,000 years ago.

Caryl in front of an aboriginal-made car.

Ah, the didgeridoo, an Australian staple.  Apparently, the didgeridoo, or drone pipe, was originally a relatively unknown instrument used by northern Aboriginal groups.  During the 1980s and 1990s it was widely adopted by other Aboriginal people as a symbol of their shared identity.  Non-Aboriginal people have also become interested in the instrument and it has now become a global musical icon.  The term didgeridoo is not an aborigines word.  It was coined by an anthropologist in the 1920s to imitate it's sound.  The Aboriginal people have different names for this instrument - yidaki, djalubbu, makos, depending on the region.  While the didgeridoo is valued by outsiders as a sacred instrument, Aboriginal people use it mostly in public performances and do not consider it to be sacred.
 

This is a baby coffin.  It is a bark bone box, made to contain the bones of a deceased child.  The box represents the spirit of the deceased, and remains with the mother until another child is born.  If she has another child then the newborn is assumed to be a reincarnation of the deceased child.  the child would therefore be named after the deceased child, and the bone box would later be handed over to the woman's mother or another old woman who would keep it for a number of years, then it would be discarded.  If the mother did not have another child then the box would be passed on to her youngest sister to ensure the regeneration of the deceased's spirit.