Thousands of years have passed since the winds wicked the last of the water from the Willandra Lakes in NSW's semi-arid south-west.
But, even as time slows to a gentle ebb around the footprints and fishbones preserved on the ancient shore of Lake Mungo, not everything below the long-dry surface is calm.
Aboriginal elders are continuing a four-decade campaign to decide the fate of their oldest-known ancestors and redraw the history of Australia, after the iconic remains of Mungo Man were returned home a few days ago.
In 1968 archaeologist Jim Bowler pulled the shattered and charred bones of a young woman from a sand dune on the lake's edge.
The Mungo Lady, as she came to be known, had been cremated approximately 40,000 years ago.
She was only about 18 when her family farewelled her at the then vibrant freshwater lake.
Dr Bowler unearthed more remains in 1974 - the bones of a 50-year old man.
Scientists would eventually conclude the Mungo Man had been buried up to 42,000 years ago.
He remains the oldest known human in Australia.
Australian National University historian and National Museum indigenous history director Ann McGrath told AAP the discoveries changed the way historians viewed Aboriginal and human history.
"To find people had been here 40,000 years was mind-boggling. Scientists had never even thought of it," she told AAP last week.
Previous estimates had put Aboriginal history in Australia at around 4000 years.
Paakantyi and Parintyi elder Michael Young told AAP the discovery was an iconic moment for the international community, but Australia's systemic racism means Mungo Man is "a treasure that has not been fully realised by white Australia".
Many elders felt Mungo Man and Mungo Lady emerged to draw the eyes of the world to the undignified treatment of Aboriginal people by white Australia.
But elders were still divided when the remains of the pair, along with 104 other ancestors, were taken to Canberra for study.
"Together with assimilation and missions (the removal of remains) had an impact of devaluing us as a people and ignoring us as members of the human race - but instead a curiosity for museums," Mr Young said.
As the years ticked by, however, an overwhelming anxiety grew to have the remains returned.
Mungo Lady was repatriated in 1992 after a sustained campaign, but the National Museum held on to Mungo Man.
It would take another 25 years for his remains, and the 104 other ancestors, to be loaded into an old black Chrysler hearse and driven from Canberra back to the Lake.
As the remains entered the final kilometres of dirt road toward Lake Mungo on Friday, Dr Bowler lauded the opportunity western scientists and Aboriginal elders had been given to work together.
"We of the Western world, the scientific rational world, have to acknowledge the intuitive and Dreaming land," he told the crowd.
"The way Aboriginal people perceive the landscape is very different from ours but the two run in parallel. They are complementary ways of understanding the land we live in."
For Europeans it can take feet hitting the sand to begin to comprehend what he meant.
Lance, a traditional custodian and National Park guide, brushed the dust from a mussel shell and cast his eyes over the grassy lake.
"Over there is where they found the footprints," he said, pointing to another strip of dunes.
Some tracks show a mother carrying a child, others a hunter's path - perfectly preserved.
But one set of tracks has just one footprint and a sharp indent in what was once mud.
"A fella with one leg," Lance says with a smile.
"He's balancing with a spear."
Lance, like many others, can see the lake as Mungo Man saw it. Stories, shells, animal bones and fire pits underfoot make 40,000 years feel like yesterday.
And then it begins to make sense why anxiety about the removals had become palpable.
Traditional custodian Sissy Pettit said there had been a sense of broken connection - spiritually, emotionally and physically - with her ancestors removed from the country.
"It tells us 'you're sick, you need to bring him home - you're sick and this land won't heal until he's brought home'," she told AAP.
As the hearse rolled into the ceremonial ground a wind blew over the lake and Ms Pettit raised her face skyward, closed her eyes and inhaled deeply.
"It just opened up - the ground beneath me - and came up through my feet, my hips, my heart and... thank you, thank you," she said.
But, even with the ancient riverwood casket carrying the remains returned to the shore, the journey is not over.
Erosion and time have shifted the landscape significantly since the discovery - they can't just be reburied.
Mungo Lady remains in a hidden vault in the National Park which requires two keys to unlock - one from the scientists and one from the elders.
Dr Bowler called upon the NSW Government to fund a "dignified keeping place" for the remains.
Mr Young also believes a keeping space would "provide a safe and secure place for our heritage" through education.
But money and political will have been hard to find for a community so remote it can't get a phone signal and looks like Mars in satellite images.
Dr Bowler and Mr Young also want the Mungo remains to kick-start a redrawing of the narrative around European colonisation.
One that properly memorialises and acknowledges the "many inhuman crimes" of the period, Mr Young said.
It could be "a starting point for decolonising", he said.
Ms Pettit, like most people at the ceremony, isn't sure what the answer is, but it was going to be an Aboriginal decision, she added firmly.
"I think there's still a bit of a ways to go," she said.
"But to have him back here where he can smell and sense his own, old people - his spirit is going to be able to rest."
