Vandals destroy 22,000-year-old sacred cave artwork in Australia

That protected cave and its artwork have now been vandalized with graffiti, devastating the indigenous Mirning group as authorities seek for the culprits.

“Earlier this yr it was found that the cave had been unlawfully accessed and a piece of the fragile finger flutings had been vandalized, with injury scratched throughout them into the facet of the cave,” a authorities spokesperson stated in an announcement to CNN.

The flutings are grooves drawn by the fingers of ice age people throughout the tender limestone cave partitions.

“The vandalism of Koonalda Cave is stunning and heartbreaking. Koonalda Cave is of great significance to the Mirning Individuals, and its tens of hundreds of years of historical past present a few of the earliest proof of Aboriginal occupation in that a part of the nation,” the spokesperson stated.

“If these vandals may be apprehended they need to face the total drive of the legislation.”

The vandals weren’t deterred by fences on the caves, so the South Australia state authorities is now contemplating putting in safety cameras and has been consulting conventional house owners “over current months” on higher shield the location, the spokesperson added.

Nonetheless, Bunna Lawrie, a senior Mirning elder and the custodian of Koonalda, stated he hadn’t heard concerning the vandalism till native media reported it this week.

“We’re the standard custodians of Koonalda and ask for this to be revered and for our Mirning elders to be consulted,” he stated in an announcement.

The incident has pissed off the Mirning Individuals, who say their earlier repeated requests for larger safety went unheeded.

As a sacred website, it’s closed to the general public and solely accessible to a couple male elders in the neighborhood, the group stated in an announcement. Aside from the cave’s religious significance, the restrictions are additionally to guard the fragile artwork, a few of which is etched into the cave flooring.

Regardless of the authorized protections, the group stated it has nonetheless obtained requests to permit public entry to Koonalda.

“Now we have opposed opening our sacred place, as this is able to breach the protocols which have protected Koonalda for thus lengthy. Since 2018 we’ve been asking for help to safe the doorway as a precedence and to supply acceptable Mirning signage. This help didn’t occur,” the assertion stated.

“As an alternative, there was injury finished lately that features the cave entrance collapsing, following entry works that we weren’t consulted on and (had been) not authorized.”

It added that as a website that represented the hyperlink to Mirning ancestors and residential lands, Koonalda “is greater than only a valuable murals, this runs deep in our blood and identification.”

Cave significance

For many years, Australian scientists believed the nation’s indigenous individuals had solely existed on the land for about 8,000 years.

Koonalda Cave was the primary place in Australia with indigenous rock artwork that may very well be dated again 22,000 years — upending the scientific group’s understanding of Australian historical past.

“The invention precipitated a sensation and endlessly modified the then accepted notions about the place, when and the way Aboriginal individuals lived on the Australian continent,” stated Greg Hunt, then-environment minister in 2014 when Koonalda was designated a Nationwide Heritage Listing website.

The cave artwork relationship was assessed via archeological stays and finger markings, then confirmed utilizing radiocarbon know-how, in accordance with the nation’s Division of Local weather Change, Power, the Atmosphere and Water.

Aside from the finger flutings, the cave additionally had a second sort of rock artwork, with strains lower into tougher limestone sections utilizing a pointy instrument. The partitions function patterns of horizontal and vertical strains lower right into a V-shape, in accordance with a authorities website.

The cave and its artwork have been overseen and guarded by Mirning elders for generations, the Mirning assertion stated.

“All of our elders are devastated, shocked and harm by the current desecration of this website,” Lawrie stated. “We’re in mourning for our sacred place. Koonalda is like our ancestor. Our ancestor left his spirit within the wall, of the story, of the songline.”