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We Have Always Been Here: 50,000 Years of Unbroken Connection Across Anaiwan, Wiradjuri, and Ngarigo Country

  • Writer: Brian AJ Newman LLB
    Brian AJ Newman LLB
  • May 13
  • 4 min read

The story of Aboriginal Australia is one of resilience, survival, and deep belonging. While modern science is only just beginning to understand the depth of our history, Aboriginal people have always known the truth: we have been here since the beginning of time, and our connection to Country cannot be measured by bloodlines or broken by colonisation.


Recent genetic research using historic hair samples now confirms what our Elders have said for generations – Aboriginal people have remained on their traditional lands for over 50,000 years, despite profound changes to climate and landscape. The findings reinforce the cultural and genealogical connection we maintain with Country today.


As someone with ancestral ties to the Anaiwan, Wiradjuri, and Ngarigo nations, this scientific affirmation adds weight to a truth I carry through family, story, and spiritual connection to land. My people come from the tablelands of northern New South Wales, the mountain regions of the Snowy, and the vast rivers and plains of central New South Wales. Each of these lands holds its own language, law, Dreaming, and responsibilities – and I carry the legacy of all three.

We Have Always Been Here: 50,000 Years of Unbroken Connection Across Anaiwan, Wiradjuri, and Ngarigo Country
We Have Always Been Here: 50,000 Years of Unbroken Connection Across Anaiwan, Wiradjuri, and Ngarigo Country

Ancient Hair, Deep Roots

Between the 1920s and 1960s, a large anthropological effort was undertaken across the outback. Researchers gathered stories, artefacts, genealogies, and – in many cases – hair samples from Aboriginal people. Though collected in ethically questionable conditions by today’s standards, these samples were meticulously documented, with cultural metadata such as language group and family lineage.


Decades later, those same hair samples were reanalysed using cutting-edge genetic science. Through community-led protocols and consultation with Aboriginal descendants, researchers were able to map maternal DNA lineages back through generations, revealing striking patterns of continuity.


The results, published in Nature in 2017, showed that Aboriginal people not only arrived in Sahul (the ancient supercontinent that included Australia and New Guinea) roughly 50,000 years ago, but quickly spread along the coasts in two directions before settling inland. From that point on, people remained in their traditional territories, with little long-distance movement. This genetic stability – with communities staying on the same Country for up to 2,000 generations – is unmatched anywhere else in the world.


Country Is Identity

For us, this isn’t just data. It’s the scientific reflection of our cultural law – that our identity is tied to the land, and our responsibilities as custodians are passed down generation to generation. The Anaiwan people of the tablelands, like those from Tingha and Inverell, have maintained these responsibilities through story, ceremony, and care for sacred places. The Wiradjuri, whose Country spans the vast central rivers of New South Wales, have long held the lore of the three rivers – the Macquarie, Lachlan, and Murrumbidgee. The Ngarigo, as the traditional custodians of the alpine Snowy Mountains, have sacred connections to peaks, snow country, and seasonal gatherings.


These connections can’t be erased by the passage of time or diluted by mixed ancestry. They are inherited through kinship, lived culture, and the spiritual ties that bind us to Country. To belong to these lands is to walk with the footsteps of ancestors and to carry their knowledge forward.


The Harm of “Blood Quantum” Thinking

Unfortunately, some still hold to outdated notions that Aboriginal identity becomes less valid if someone has mixed heritage. This belief, rooted in colonial race science and the eugenics policies of the 19th and 20th centuries, introduced harmful terms like “half-caste” or “quadroon” – terms designed to police and eventually erase Aboriginal identity through so-called “blood dilution.”


But Aboriginal identity has never been about blood percentages. Our communities, our Elders, and even legal definitions today understand Aboriginality through a three-part test: descent, self-identification, and community recognition.


Modern genetic science agrees. Researchers involved in the hair sample project have been clear: DNA cannot and should not be used to determine whether someone is Aboriginal. Genetic testing is not culturally appropriate to prove identity, and it lacks the resolution to determine connection to Country beyond the broadest lines.


Reconnecting After Displacement

Where this science can help is in reconnecting people who have been separated from their roots – particularly members of the Stolen Generations, who were removed from family and Country under assimilation policies. For some, these DNA findings might offer a clue about their maternal lineage or regional origins. But even then, it is not a “proof” of identity – it is a tool for reconnection, used with cultural sensitivity and guidance.


A Shared Legacy

My family’s connection to Anaiwan, Wiradjuri, and Ngarigo Country is not something that can be proven with a lab result. It is carried in the language and stories of my people, in the Dreamings of our mountains, rivers, and plains, and in the enduring community ties that stretch across generations.


This research affirms that our ancestors have never left. From the snowy highlands of Ngarigo Country, to the sweeping plains of the Wiradjuri nation, and the red ochre ridges of Anaiwan Country, our story is one of endurance. We are still here – not as a relic of the past, but as living, breathing custodians of some of the world’s oldest continuing cultures.

The land has always known us. And now, through science, the world knows it too.


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