Re-Planting the Seeds of Indigenous Science in Australia: Directions in Australian Ethnobotany and Traditional Knowledge
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conference contribution
posted on 2024-06-18, 11:54authored byDS Jones, J Dearnaley
Australian Aboriginal Peoples have long been typified as sedentary peoples lacking permanency of residence, any cultural laws and rules, any technological expertise, and lacking an agricultural industry or a botanical science knowledge. The last 25 years of ethnobotanical research in Australia has challenged this assumption, as well as the very nature of the 65,000 years of continuous landscape management and design activities by Australian Aboriginals that many authors and ‘explorers’ characterised to be disorganised, fragmented, and lacking any science. World Heritage Listings of Kakadu and Uluru-Kata Tjuta national parks in the last 30 years have included evidence of long-practiced Aboriginal botanical cultivation and harvesting to substantiate their nominations. Additionally, the pending Budj Bim tentative World Heritage nomination will highlight the longest continuous aquaculture harvesting infrastructure in the world and its strong inter-relationship with Gunditjmara botanical cultivation and
harvesting. This paper surveys ethnobotanical research in Australia over the last 25 years, including the key researchers and their publications, considers recent debates about Aboriginal Country custodianship and management, and summarises the increasing validation of Aboriginal Country-specific seasonal calendars in ethnobotanical research. In particular, recent research from southeastern Australia drawing upon the Wadawurrung Country is profiled including the long-forgotten research by anthropologist and archaeologist Louis Lane.
History
Pagination
31-31
Location
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Start date
2018-06-03
End date
2018-06-07
Indigenous content
This research output may contain the names and images of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people now deceased. We apologise for any distress that may occur.
Language
Eng
Publication classification
EN Other conference paper
Title of proceedings
FOOD SECURITY, SOVEREIGNTY, & TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE, Joint Conference of the Society of Ethnobiology & Society for Economic Botany
Event
Society of Ethnobiology & Society for Economic Botany, Joint conference (2018 : Madison, Wisconsin, USA)