'DNA Nation' challenges racial assumptions

The new SBS series “DNA Nation” calls on the latest developments in genomics, archaeology and anthropology to tell the story of human migration from Africa across the globe over the past 100,000 years.

With the help of three charismatic Australians, Ernie Dingo, Julia Zemiro and Ian Thorpe, viewers are also challenged to confront assumptions about race and difference.

In a recent article in “The Conversation,” Deakin University’s Professor of Anthropology Emma Kowal and co-author Misty Jenkins from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, discuss some of the tricky questions raised by the program.

These include the assumption that because Indigenous Australians have brown skin and lived as hunters and gatherers, they must be genetically closer to African people.

In fact, explain the authors, “because all humans with recent ancestry outside Africa descend from a relatively small number of pioneers who left the continent, non-Africans have much less genetic diversity than Africans.”

The authors also raise political and ethical issues about the genetic testing service available for indigenous Australians, which uses forensic databases “appropriate for forensic casework and paternity testing, but not genetic genealogy.”

“The only certainty here is the importance of full Indigenous engagement in every aspect of genomic science, from the start to the finish.”

In addition to her role at Deakin, Professor Kowal is Deputy Director of the National Centre for Indigenous Genomics, the first Indigenous-governed genome facility in the world, which began when the Australian National University developed a management strategy for 7,000 blood samples collected from Indigenous communities, mostly in the 1960s and 70s.

“We will be listening carefully to the difficult conversations that 'DNA Nation' will stimulate,” she said.

• Read the full article.