Ancient genomic population structure enables the repatriation of Aboriginal Australians

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
File version
Author(s)
Wright, Joanne L
Wasef, Sally
Heupink, Tim H
Westaway, Michael C
Rasmussen, Simon
Pardoe, Colin
Fourmile, Gudju Gudju
Young, Michael
Johnson, Trish
Slade, Joan
Kennedy, Roy
Winch, Patsy
Pappin, Mary
Wales, Tapij
Bates, William Badger
Hamilton, Sharnie
Whyman, Neville
Pellekaan, Sheila van Holst
McAllister, Peter J
Tacon, Paul SC
Curnoe, Darren
Li, Ruiqiang
Millar, Craig
Subramanian, Sankar
Willerslev, Eske
Malaspinas, Anna-Sapfo
Sikora, Martin
Lambert, David M
Griffith University Author(s)
Primary Supervisor
Other Supervisors
Editor(s)
Date
2018
Size
File type(s)
Location
License
Abstract

After European colonization, the ancestral remains of Indigenous people were often collected for scientific research or display inmuseumcollections. For many decades, Indigenous people, including NativeAmericans and Aboriginal Australians, have fought for their return. However, many of these remains have no recorded provenance, making their repatriation very difficult or impossible. To determine whether DNA-based methods could resolve this important problem, we sequenced 10 nuclear genomes and 27 mitogenomes from ancient pre-European Aboriginal Australians (up to 1540 years before the present) of known provenance and compared them to 100 high-coverage contemporary Aboriginal Australian genomes, also of known provenance. We report substantial ancient population structure showing strong genetic affinities between ancient and contemporary Aboriginal Australian individuals from the same geographic location. Our findings demonstrate the feasibility of successfully identifying the origins of unprovenanced ancestral remains using genomic methods.

Journal Title

Science Advances

Conference Title
Book Title
Edition
Volume

4

Issue

12

Thesis Type
Degree Program
School
Publisher link
Patent number
Funder(s)
Grant identifier(s)
Rights Statement
Rights Statement

Copyright © 2018 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY- NC).

Item Access Status
Note
Access the data
Related item(s)
Subject

Genomics

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander archaeology

Indigenous people

Native Americans

Aboriginal Australians

Indigenous ancestral remains

Ancient nuclear genomes

Persistent link to this record
Citation
Collections