Using linguistics to expand histories of interaction between Indigenous Australians and Islanders of Eastern Indonesia

Contact with Makassan trepangers and their crews has left a significant mark on the languages of numerous Indigenous peoples of Australia’s Top End. This talk revisits the evidence for other linguistic influences from the Indonesian archipelago, much of which has been dismissed or downplayed. I seek to identify traces of language contact between speakers of Australian languages and speakers of Austronesian languages other than Makassans. Although fragmentary, the material I present suggests varied and geographically extensive contact between Indigenous Australians and Austronesians.