WI: Rotinese Colonization of Australia

Zachariah

Banned
There's one civilization I've been looking into that's so obscure it's never featured or even been mentioned here on AH.com before- the Rotinese, aka the "Hataholi Lote".

In the same climatological zone as North West Australia, Rote Island is a dry land with few natural springs and subject to an irregular and inadequate monsoon rain, but the Rotinese got around this by forming a complex, hierarchical civilization which revolved around cultivating of the lontar or palmyra palm (Borassus flabellifer L.) for its sap and nectar to circumvent the need for water (but who also dry-cultivated rice, millet and sorghum, as well as keeping domesticated herds of water buffalo, sheep, goats, and horses a long time before the arrival of the Europeans). Two or three trees support each family, with each tree yielding 200-400 litres of juice each year for up to 35 years. And this nectar, known to them as Tuak manis, is the first nutrition that a newborn Rotinese baby receives, even before its mother’s milk. The Rotinese were also renowned for their cakes of crystallised sugar, which they made by baking the juice of the lontar palm; traders regularly visited the island to purchase lontar palm sugar, which was then traded throughout the Indonesian archipelago, and vessels from Roti also sailed to the Tukangbesi islands of Sulawesi Tenggara, selling palm sugar directly to them and picking up ironworking from them.

The closest advanced agricultural civilization to Australia, only slightly further away from mainland Australia as Tasmania (extending to the Ashmore and Cartier Islands, known to the Rotinese as Nusa Solokaek), with a complex imperialistic court-based society that was already adapted to the climate and scarce rainfall, possessing with all of the crops and domesticates one could ask for, as well as iron-working and a number of unique cultural innovations, dating back over a thousand years, with a long history of engaging in naval trade and with artifacts from trade partners as far afield as Song Dynasty China- what's not to like? Aside from the fact that IOTL, they never bothered to sail southwards and settle the continent, in spite of how much easier it would have been for them than anyone else, and how much more vast and powerful their civilization might have become as a result.

So then, what if the leader of one of the Rotinese noble or commoner clans had decided to embark upon a colonial expedition, taking that short 300km voyage across the shallow Timor Sea (less than the distance between Brittany and Ireland) and settling on Australia- bringing their culture, technology, cultivars, domesticates and trade along with them? Let's say that this happens around 1100-1200 CE, around the same time when the Song Dynasty Chinese Porcelain artifacts on Rote island date back to. How big an impact might this have had upon the history of the continent?
 
Do note that the Rotinese themselves, like the people of the Timor area in general, were not great seafarers in the historical period (the Song porcelain in question were probably obtained from Bajo traders).
 

Zachariah

Banned
A few other fun facts about them- the lontar palm, aka the "tree of life" is central to Rotinese society- when a Rotinese person dies, he or she is buried in a coffin made from the hollowed-out trunk of the palm. The lontar leaves are never wasted- Houses are re-roofed every four to five years, and the old thatch is burnt in the garden to fertilize it. The lontar is also used to make hats called tilangga for different occasions, ranging from everyday use to celebrations. The stem of the leaves has thorny edges, and fences can be prepared from these stems by nailing them together. The skin of the stem can be peeled off and be used as rope, and is also used to weave into cots. The stalks of the trunks are used to make fences, and also produce a strong, wiry fibre suitable for cordage and brushes. When the "tree of life" finally becomes old and unproductive, the trunk, which is stronger than coconut, can be shaped into house beams, posts and rafters, or can be hollowed out for coffins, pig-feeding troughs or the canoes which the Rotinese use.

The lontar leaves are also used to craft the unique harp-like Rotinese musical string instrument, the Sasando. The development of this instrument dates back to at least the 7th century, giving an indication of how long-established the Rotinese imperial system and its eighteen self-ruling domains are. Each of these is governed by its own Lord, who together with the lords of the various clans (known as 'trees', with all important relations in Rotinese society described by a variety of metaphors involving the imagery of planting and growing) that make up the domain, presides at a flourishing court and makes decisions based upon the customary usage of that domain. Marriage alliances (described as the 'tying' of various kinds of bonds), once established, endure for three generations. A child's membership within his lineage is established by his father's payment of his mother's bridewealth; the children of women for whom bridewealth is not paid, and who remain unmarried, are members of that woman's brother's (or father's) lineage instead. And the former wife-givers, a person's matrilateral affines, become the husband's obligationary ritual protectors throughout his life, and are known as the man's 'roots'.

Rotinese society is hierarchical and patriarchal, with fixed classes of nobles and commoners. Each named clan recognized at court is distinguished by its separate traditions, rights, and privileges. Nobles are ranked in status and belong to one of two clans, the clan of the Male-Lord and the clan of the Female or Sister-Lord. The Male-Lord who presides at court is the highest noble of the domain and is its political head, but he shares his temporal power with a Female-Lord or Lord-fetor. And a dignitary, the Head of the Earth, of whichever commoner clan is traditionally regarded as the oldest clan of that domain, with the longest lineage (aka 'branch'), is the Male-Lord's ritual superior who, at court, is the traditional authority on customary usage- in effect, the prime minister of that domain's House of Commons. How might such a society influence the Aboriginal Australians, and vice-versa?
 

Zachariah

Banned
Do note that the Rotinese themselves, like the people of the Timor area in general, were not great seafarers in the historical period (the Song porcelain in question were probably obtained from Bajo traders).
Oh, almost certainly. But the Rotinese did sail northwards routinely, in their own vessels, to engage in trade with the Bajo themselves, as well as the other way around. The distance between Rote Island and the Tukangbesi islands is longer than the distance between Rote Island and NW Australia, and the Timor Sea's markedly easier to navigate than the Banda Sea, so there's no reason that they couldn't have done it if they'd wanted to. And a cyclone could easily do the job for them, carrying a few vessels across the sea to Australia and facilitating its 'discovery' and colonisation in much the same manner as those of Madeira and the Canary Islands by Europeans.
 

raharris1973

Gone Fishin'
Donor
Monthly Donor
Do it. You'll have a clean slate, so nobody will be able to help you, but do it and wank the Rotinese enough to have them spread either themselves or their tech or domesticates widely, but not so much that they become a new China, India or Europe.
 
How much of what they have can grow in Australia proper, and how well will those crops do? They would need to outcompete the natives of the Top End and Kimberley for any proper colonial venture to succeed. Although more likely is a more extensive trade with those natives rather than colonisation.

Why they would go there, I guess we can assume population pressures, since IIRC Rote and nearby islands like Sumba are prone to intense drought.
 
I think it'd be much more realistic to have bajau settle in and around key ports around northern Australia and creating local creole communities/cultures that would themselves take particular customs learned by Bajau travellers.

You get the whole of Island South East Asia's material culture and subsistence techniques with a small population of people whose main role is trade.
 
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