The contest is Australia's biggest show. Identifying the Sacred Archaeologist Josephine Flood in her most recent work Rock Art of the Dreamtime links the history of the Dreamtime as revealed in Aboriginal rock art, and its discovery by Western eyes. Rock art is a convenient way to gauge Aboriginal relationships to the land, and to map sacred connections to place. In Australia there are more than 100,000 rock art sites. The most conservative readings of these 'maps' indicate that Aborigines come to Australia 60,000 years ago, so the connections are long and strong.
Some sites surprise with their great time-spread representing art styles from different periods.
This indicates that these sites may have had particular significance to Aboriginal people, perhaps because of local resources, or due to multiple visits for ceremonies. Such artistic evidence underlines both the sacred role and continuity of association with the land, but rock art is not the only indicator of this connection. Most non-indigenous Australians, if they asked, would be surprised at the evidence of Aboriginal history in their own towns and cities. Some Aborigines themselves seek similar re-education, hardly surprising given their history of dispossession which saw them lose their land, their language and their culture. It is said to be bad luck for women to venture onto these physical sites, redundant though they may often be, as it is ceremonially a place of men's business.