Healthier times?: revisiting Indigenous Australian health history

Abstract

The perception that Indigenous Australians were primitive hunters and gatherers who lived in a nomadic 'Stone Age' culture resonates through most narratives found on Indigenous people in pre-colonial times. This narrative is better placed in the realm of myth; I contest claims that the life expectancy of Indigenous Australians was only forty years in pre-colonial times, by providing suggestive evidence that there is a strong probability that longevity favoured Indigenous Australians in comparison to many poorer sectors of the European population living in slum habitats. As well, I will challenge notions that Indigenous Australians were more violent than supposedly 'civilised' nations. Finally I express the hope that future researchers will revisit archival sources to develop a more nuanced perspective on the past.