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Podcast: The hair’s breadth: mapping Aboriginal genetic history

The South Australian Museum holds thousands of hair – and to a lesser extent, blood – samples collected from Aboriginal people during anthropological surveys last century.

Scientists and staff from the South Australian Museum, the University of Adelaide, the National Centre of Indigenous Genomics (NCIG), Deakin University and Latrobe University will use specimens, linguistic records and anthropological and archaeological data to piece together a genetic map of Australia, as part of the Aboriginal Heritage Project.

Lead researcher Professor Alan Cooper from the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, as well as the Kaurna elder who had hair taken as a child at the Point Pearce mission in South Australia in the 1930s speak to ABC Radio National about the project.

Find out more and listen to the podcast.

Image: Joseph Birdsell and his wife Bee collected anthropometric data from Aboriginal people all over the continent, as part of two expeditions in the 1930s and 50s. The Aboriginal woman is not identified. (image courtesy the SA Museum (aa338-5-15-120))

Image: Joseph Birdsell and his wife Bee collected anthropometric data from Aboriginal people all over the continent, as part of two expeditions in the 1930s and 50s. The Aboriginal woman is not identified. (image courtesy the SA Museum (aa338-5-15-120))

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