At https://phys.org/news/2024-09-unexpected-discovery-early-sweet-potato.html … research in New Zealand, with a dollop of woke, has found evidence of taro, yam, and sweet potato cultivation that was going on as early as AD1290-1385. This is as early as anywhere else in Polynesia. Sweet potatoes are thought to have originated in South America which suggests the south sea islanders had reached Easter Island and South America at that time, in order to get back to New Zealand on the other side of the Pacific.
At https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/12000-year-old-aboriginal-sticks-may-be-evidence-of-the-oldest-known-culturally-transmitted-ritual-in-the-world …. the discovery of artifacts in Australia that were likely used for ritual spells – going back 12,000 years. Possibly even longer as the site was in use since at least 25,000 years ago. . The two sticks were found in a cave in southern Australia. They are similar to ritual sticks of the Gunaikurnai people, smearing a wooden object with human or animal fat and then dropping it into a contained ritual fire. The cave, it seems, was not used to live in but was rather used as a place of ritual performance – in memory of some past phenomenon involving fire. Human use of the cave goes back 25,000 years ago. C14 dating of the sticks, and fire pits, came out at 11,930 and 12,440 years ago. This suggests the same ritual took place from, at least, around `12,000 years ago – at least.