mungo man is a man who lived 42 000 years ago on the shores of lake manga a very clever man mungo man he was a leader of the people so that when he did die and was buried he he was treated special he to us would be like a king with no throne in 1974 jim bola was at lake mungo and he saw mungo's brow glinting at him so that was a moment when australian history changed that was a blinding moment he's come from out of the ground back up to tell us something he's give us a story we need to put him back where he come from because he's given the information they don't need him anymore the main thing is getting him back on country [Music] with dad discovering manga man it's his his life was consumed by it [Music] he's writing his book about mungo man and um has been for a while and this is not a light-hearted thing [Music] i felt a heavy sense of responsibility in the discovery of those remains they came to the surface i wasn't looking for them but having um having found them i'm under heavy responsibility to provide the significance of those remains mungo man he was very clever because he revealed himself to a man of science he thought that he would be the ideal person to make wider australia understand of just how long us aboriginal people been here [Music] the modern day story of mungo man really began in the 1960s in western new south wales we're coming across the floor of the what was the ancient lake i'm a geologist with a particular emphasis on understanding the landscape and landscape history mungo is one of many dry lakes in the region each with a crescent-shaped dune on the eastern shore jimbola has traced the formation of these lakes and dunes on the edge of the semi desert back to the global events of the ice age it dried out about 15 000 years ago and uh it has remained in that situation until the present day and it was in the process of of mapping the shoreline i found the traces of human presence five years before i found mungo man i discovered the remains that became known as mungo lady jim had been stressing to the archaeologists the need for research into the human aspects of what was going on at the willandra lakes so he got a group of scientists together and as a young scholar i was part of that expedition at that stage this small residual cemented by calcrete was protruding slightly above the surface lifting up the blocks suddenly out fulfill a piece of bone and people said hey this is people this is these are human remains we were just looking at the bones we suddenly realized looking at a piece of the the eyebrow ridge now the archaeologists to a degree were in a state of shock it was i remember an extraordinary exciting like a flash it was the oldest skeleton in australia 25 000 years when there are human remains it changes things it creates a moment of drama and probably fear people had thought of australian history as being relatively short in time span now it was being proved that it was as long as anybody's history anywhere in the world in the european paleolithic even in africa she became known as the mungo lady the archaeologists got to work in five years they found many artifacts but no other skeletons [Music] [Applause] in 1974 i returned to mungo station and after heavy rain i went out there to inspect what new things might have appeared at the surface [Music] i saw in the distance a protruding white bone at the surface an archaeological team came from the anu with great aged and this is the the actual site where the where the skeleton lay [Music] it was a day of immense excitement the final clearing of the grave they were moments almost beyond description [Music] we certainly went well look how complete it is [Music] because of the geological evidence we already knew that the barrier had gone way beyond twenty thousand were back to thirty thousand years that's an incredible age the neanderthals had only recently disappeared from europe there were still woolly mammoths and woolly rhinos walking around europe in the process of complete uncovering of the remains we then found that there was a zone from the cranium down to the groin a red pinky stone in the soil it meant that that whole the body had been entirely either painted or sprinkled in the grave and with red ochre [Music] that that ritual anointing had taken place at least 30 000 years ago was mind-boggling as far as we knew at this time in europe possibly they were burying people but ochre and ritual aspects to the burial and use of pigments we that was not known in europe at that time we were blown away by it the next step was you know what do we do about it and this became a responsibility not of geologists but of the physical anthropologists the archaeologists there was no option of leaving them there there there was a wide open to the skies open to the rain they had to be removed from the from the site on that day they just went in there on their own accord and took them out so i don't think that's right i wasn't in a big meeting you know come up all right we'll consult with the people from lake and those those three or four tribal groups that are there i was totally unaware at that stage in my ignorance my geological ignorance i was totally unaware of any local aboriginal presence so in those uh decisions uh at that time we didn't have the benefit of the wisdom of aboriginal people for any consultation that's a nice sharp knife is it or a spear the traditional owners of the whole of the wallandra would be the matimati people the bhakanji people and the nympha people these are our ancient cemeteries these are our burial grounds these are what we all very dear to us because we know how old people are sleeping there they just put in under the ground to stay there not dig up and take away taking them out of their place of rest and taking them somewhere else it's like asking you if one of your people have passed away take them out and say do you want to travel with me over to canberra or do you want to come and sit on a shelf it's you know it's these are human beings we are talking about the mungo discoveries became a focus for a lot of aboriginal voices now what are you doing this is your this is our history not yours so that led to a period initially of tension between scientists and the aboriginal people we've got to prove that we are still abroad people and i reckon that's wrong like years ago when you took the mungo girl and the mungo the man he just proved our aboriginal people was here for a long time and we said that we was here from the dream time mungo man needs to be put back where here came from otherwise there'll be no peace for aboriginal people taking the bones away and taking them to a city is is taking that person away from their spirit he still hurt me to think that one of my ancestors would dug out of the ground and taken to canberra [Music] mungo man's remains will return to the university under the care of dr alan thorne a physical anthropologist it's hard at this stage to say very much about the appearance of this individual it has this same rounded form uh filled out shape and total absence of anything which you could describe as as a primitive or archaic characteristic it's impossible at this stage to say exactly how old but probably well adult into middle age the fine of full skeleton was really significant tell its age and sex and height and and anything else about it he had very large teeth and the jaw was very large and robust what mungo man represents is what homo sapiens in general looked like at that long period of time ago long-lived larger than modern people on average with rounded skulls some degree of brow riches mungo man represents those people it was a remarkable moment of realization of just how modern the earliest australians really were [Music] originally mungo man himself was was thought to be 32 000 years we did further research and the age of mungo man went back to something like 42 to 44 000 years it's nearly impossible to get our heads around a date like 42 000 years it is as good to the human imagination as eternity [Music] you know 14 million sunrises i did the the mess the other day but you know of continuous culture out and in that landscape mungo man did tell the world did show australia that aboriginal people been here for a very very long time and for him to do that it makes me very proud to be aboriginal today all ready to go and now we're going to follow the aboriginal culture that actually grew onto this continent when i first started mungo man's remains in the early 1980s he left for us this lower jaw and this has told us a lot about his life it puzzled me that they had two teeth missing and these canines the canine teeth you don't actually lose it's very hard to lose them the only conclusion it can come to is that these teeth were evolved deliberately this mungo man had his teeth taken out ceremoniously when he was young and that seems to be a sign of of ritual particularly of rights passage coming of age he's suffering from osteoarthritis but the osteoarthritis that was found in his right elbow is extreme so you've got bone on bone must be very painful for this this man as he got older this sort of pattern of osteoarthritis comes from using a spear thrower and i believe we can date this beer throw in australia or the use of it continuous use throughout the life of this man so that complex weaponry complex language complex cultural and other traits that that these modern humans will bring into this part of the planet so in that way he's taught us a lot uh i think what mungo man has shown us uh particularly through the scientific work that has been done is that it's changed all of those perceptions that we had of aboriginal people as europeans that idea of aboriginal people that were just nomadic and we were primitive people has been blown away it is an education for everybody mungo lady and mango man are part of the greater collection that's been assembled between 1977 and 83. it amounted to about 130 individuals they also was taken from out there off the ground and even though they're not as famous as him but to us they're equal manga was more or less a an archaeologist smorgasbord i just come and help yourself you know to these remains and that's what was happening [Music] as a result of those discoveries of the burials that area was declared as as national park shortly afterwards it was inscribed on the unesco listing as a world heritage status there was a mixture of feelings between the aboriginal communities and the scientific um communities as well look at the mob we got here today aboriginal people were saying yes your scientific work has helped us justify what we've been saying for many years but the aboriginal people were concerned that the bones had been taken without their permission it's been gone too long and it's been a big responsibility and a big thing to carry on your shoulders when you meet other aboriginal people from around australia and say what have you done with that mungo man have you got him earlier you know and unfortunately we have the answer no he's not there but in the 1980s it was a very important time for our aboriginal communities because they put a monitorium on on any skeletal remains to be taken out out of anywhere in western new south wales the barrier was put up look uh you've had long enough we've reached the point now of a point of no return there'll be no more research done in this area i said oh you know we want to learn more about this and we want to learn more about that but if you want to learn something you you find out whether it's right or wrong to to learn in that manner [Music] with the scientists saw they had that little cry around and little winds and all that we said no we're not stopping signs you know we want to work we just work with us we scientists had to enter into dialogue listen to the aboriginal people and in 1989 a formal agreement was entered into it lake mungo agreeing that in future all work should be done in collaboration each with the other [Music] [Applause] in the early 90s alan thorne made the offer of return of mungo lady after more than two decades of research and discussions between aboriginal groups mungo woman is going back to where she came from when alan returned mungo lady there was a special box built to house her allen organized his side and badger organized the aboriginal side it sort of brought brought us the scientists and us to work together the banking matimati and nyompa aborigines walked in the sands where mango woman once lived and waited quietly as she was returned [Music] we're all standing here down here and all the mobs standing back up here but that little bit of wind went through away and it just like touched everybody's [Music] because she returned home and she came in the wind just like stopped hands just saying thank you i think she was thanks for bringing me back home [Music] you had people crying scientists and black people crying because she returned home gives me goosebumps when i talk about it still yeah yeah [Music] it was a very healing moment when both scientists and traditional people sat down there together and the realization that we had given something back [Music] i can only imagine the depth of transformation that happened you know with within jim over the last 40 odd years as a scientist working now in direct contact with those sensitive areas of aboriginal history i had a responsibility to adjust my own thinking so that involved a change in attitude on my part having to recognize that science hasn't got the answer and i actually have to listen to this other side this other perspective being the the indigenous perspective it humbled him and it humbled him as a scientist he became more reflective and more internal and he actually has spent all of this time talking to mungo man i have a large image of mungo man on my wall in my my bedroom and i talk to him he talks to me i imagine his voice in raising questions about his own return and the pressure for dad now as 87 to see and be around where manga man is returned is i'd say paramount he feels absolute responsibility to make sure mungo man is returned to his homeland and his spirit is put to rest before he dies [Music] sadly um alan thorne is no longer with us but i think i can speak on behalf of alan that i realized that when we took those bones away there was a lot of hurt amongst aboriginal people here co the scientists here they go again inflicting injury on our dead and so for that i think we are an apology for science of what science has done to the aboriginal people in the past especially for the abuse of human remains thank you tim that's excellent beautiful we welcome we welcome what you just said thank you thank you the way things are done now is good and everyone knows which way we're going and we're learning more about ourselves how long has aboriginal people been in australia yeah but by doing it scientifically and doing it the right way we will get there well i think the elders have been fighting for mungo man's return for the 43 years that he has been taken away i think there's there's a number of issues that we could address here a lot of it has been bureaucracy federal and state and the universities of course get a lot of credibility for having mungo man in their collection but of course there's a certain point that they have to give it up [Music] the elders made the decision that they should come home in late november [Music] the laughter and excitement that went around the room was really something because people were finally realizing that we're getting mungo man back welcome here to the land of my ancestors to each and every one of yous that have traveled so far to take your ancestors home and now i think this will be the trip that will take them finally home he needs to go home mungo man this mungo man who was a very special person but there's also 105 others skeletal remains that were taken from around the area as well so they're coming home with him now oh are they ready to go and i reckon they'll be getting uh a bit savage with us if we don't start moving with them the hearses will go through wagon ball rattle go on then to mungo where we all meet on the shores of the lake the shores were very close to where that burial that ritual burial was enacted 40 000 years ago [Music] for him to come back to be reunited with not only his ancestors but the aboriginal people that are going to be there waiting on the day it will be one of the greatest things that can happen in my lifetime well what a day it is to be here today and look around and see all you people here [Music] if only those people 40 000 years ago could have imagined what would happen to the man they buried this is an absolutely amazed it's pretty emotional i don't handle it very well actually but even today he's still a great man because what that man is doing he's still got the power to make us all come together [Music] it makes you feel that proud that you're able to be a part of that to bring him home and to gently put him back in the landscape to walk freely with our ancestors out there [Music] believe [Music] wow [Music] so [Music] you