Search for descendants of Yolngu Aboriginal people who settled in Indonesia at least 150 years ago 

A search is underway to find the descendants of a group of aboriginal youths believed to have started a new life in Indonesia more than 150 years ago.

The photos of six indigenous men and boys, taken in Indonesia, have been stored in a library in Rome, where they have been examined by Perth-based historian and archaeologist Professor Jane Lydon.

Italian naturalist Odoardo Beccari took the photos between 1860 and 1870 in the Indonesian port city of Makassar, in the Sulawesi region.

Italian naturalist Odoardo Beccari took the photos between 1860 and 1870 in the Indonesian port city of Makassar, in the Sulawesi region.

One shows three young men staring into Mr. Beccari’s lens, while a sad-looking boy stands sideways clinging to the group.

They are all bare-chested and wearing similar boxer briefs.

Another image shows a young man in profile. It gets much closer to the subject and highlights the traditional scarification of the man.

Aboriginal elders who have studied the photos acknowledge that the man’s scars are the work of the Yolngu people and believe the man is from Arnhem Land.

Deliberate scarring was a form of narration etched into the body. It has been practiced for a long time by the Yolungu people using stone knives.

“Scarring is like a language inscribed on the body, with each deliberately placed scar telling a story of pain, resilience, identity, status, beauty, courage, sadness or grief,” according to the Australian Museum.

Professor Jane Lydon said examining the photos in Rome was “a wonderful moment of discovery” bringing to life the theory that Aboriginal people were curious about the world and were great navigators.

A map showing the close proximity of northern Australia to its northern neighbours, which underpinned 400 years of trade, friendship and influence on tribal cultures.

There are many accounts of Indonesian fishermen visiting northern Australia over hundreds of years while fishing for trepang (sea cucumber) in Australian waters and mingling with the local aborigines.

But experts believe the photos are the best corroborating evidence of accounts of aboriginal men returning to Indonesia with fishing boat crews.

Professor Lydon told Daily Mail Australia that the footage brings that theory to life.

She admits she was “shocked” when she first saw the photos in the vaults of the Luigi Pigorini National Museum of Prehistory and Ethnography in Rome.

“It was a really wonderful moment of discovery. They open up the imagination, they allow us to connect with the people in the images,” she said.

‘Maybe they said ‘can we come back with you to work on the boats?’

‘Maybe they thought ‘I can work in Makassar’ and that’s what they did.

The rock art is believed to represent an Indonesian fishing boat, painted at a site called Marngkala in Groote Eylandt in the Northern Territory

‘Now there are accounts that they settled down, married a Makassan woman and raised Makassan families and returned to Arnhem Land.’

Some, no doubt, were driven by the desire “to have a woman in every port”, Professor Lydon said.

There is a possibility that the men were slaves.

“There is some evidence that in the late 19th century we know some Kimberly men kidnapped and brought to Makassar and enslaved,” Professor Lydon said.

‘So it’s possible that maybe just maybe they were taken against their will.’

Professor Lydon said the likelihood of Aboriginal people living between northern Australia and Indonesia contradicts the powerful myth that indigenous peoples never strayed from their traditional lands.

“The truth is that the aborigines were great navigators,” he said.

This unknown view of Aboriginal people as curious about the world is supported by the photographer’s own travelogues.

An engraving depicting trade between indigenous Australians and Makassan fishermen

Indonesian fishermen came to northern Australia in search of Trepang (sea cucumber)

Mr Beccari wrote in his travelogue in 1873 that “indigenous Australians are not rare in Makassar”.

‘In July and September, at the height of the influx, the port is packed with ships of all shapes and sizes: Chinese, Malay, Indian, Bughis, Papuan and Australian making a jumbled jumble of colorful turbans and multicolored clothing.’

Early efforts to find Makassans with Aboriginal heritage have so far been positive.

Professor Lydon said there have so far been unconfirmed reports of Makassans recognizing the scars on one of the men as the marks on their own relative.

Leading the practical part of the search for descendants is Makassan-born Indonesian writer and educator Lily Yulianti Farid, a researcher at Monash University.

She sees important personal and political dimensions to the search.

“People try to find their families and ask endless questions. ‘Do I have family in Makassar, and how can I contact them?’

It is also important for the relationship of these two countries: we are not only close neighbors, but we have this shared past and it could help shape our future,” he told the abc.

Leading the practical part of the search for descendants is Makassan-born Indonesian writer and educator Lily Yulianti Farid, a researcher at Monash University.

It is a relationship in which differences (cultural and religious) seem more important than similarities (our closest neighbors), especially in the age of national borders.

For the past 40 years, if Indonesian fishermen are caught crossing the Arafura Sea to fish on the west coast of Arnhem, their boats are burned and the fishermen are deported.

But for 400 years before that, the Makassars not only fished in Arnhem land, they had a huge impact on the Yolngu.

Makassars introduced Yolngu to metal, allowing them to replace traditional bark canoes with sturdier dug out canoes that would allow dugongs or sea turtles to be brought in.

This allowed some Yolngu communities to transition from land-based economies to sea-based economies.

Makassar influenced its culture and food, some got married and the Indonesians even left an imprint of Islam among the locals.

Muslim references still survive in certain ceremonies and dream stories at the beginning of the 21st century.

Yolngu is said to have learned of the existence of white people from Makassan traders.

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