Aboriginal Cetacean Hunting in Northern Australia

Aboriginal peoples in Australia are not generally considered to have hunted cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) independently of the whaling industry that developed following the arrival of the Third Fleet in 1791. This article examines evidence for the hunting of cetaceans by Aboriginal peoples in northern Australia, concentrating on historical accounts of dolphin hunting and Dreaming narratives involving whale hunting. The article demonstrates that dolphin hunting occurred historically in northern Australia. It further affirms the existing consensus that there is no extant evidence for the active hunting of whales by Aboriginal peoples in northern Australia and argues that Dreaming narratives involving whale hunts provide no definite inference of contact with exogenous whaling traditions.