Where the Ancestors Walked: Australia as an Aboriginal Landscape – By Philip Clarke

We evaluate the cultural, ecological, and horticultural potential for a distinctively Australian sweet food to provide a means of Indigenous cultural revitalization. Among the world's Indigenous peoples, the Australian Aboriginal use of the sweet exudations (lerps and scales) of plant sap-sucking insects (Hemiptera) is exceptional in many respects. This food not only provides a sweet treat and a source of energy but can be stored as dry balls for hard times. Lerps feature in Aboriginal calendars, ceremonies, mythology, and cosmology, all of which have embedded biocultural knowledge about the time and place for optimal collection. These insects are central to Indigenous cultures, yet Western science knows surprisingly little about their taxonomy, biology, and ecology. Recently, there has been interest in using lerps in the restaurant industry as part of the commercialization of traditional Aboriginal foods. We highlight the numerous benefits of a collaborative approach to such enterprises and show that there is a wealth of Indigenous Biocultural Knowledge (IBK) that is invaluable for informing and guiding research, conservation, and commercialization of a guild of insects that remains poorly understood.

Section: Methods Of Collection and Preparationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Aboriginal Australia, the seasonal abundance of food, such as lerps, provided the basis for large numbers of people to converge at one place to hold ceremonies (Clarke 2003). For the Wemba Wemba people of western Victoria, the lerp season was central to religious and marriage ceremonies (Dixon et al 1992).…”

Section: Lerps In Ceremonies and Mythologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Indigenous Use of Lerps in Australia: So Much More than a Sweet Treat

Faast

Clarke

Taylor

et al. 2020

“…The delta of the Murray River provided earlier Aboriginal inhabitants with an estuarine habitat that had much shoreline for their foraging practices (Clarke 1994(Clarke , 2002(Clarke , 2009b. Pre-European Aboriginal population levels were comparatively high in comparison with more arid inland regions (Clarke 1994(Clarke , 2003a. While widespread land clearance from the early twentieth century created an open rural landscape in much of the Lower Murray (Williams 1974), this temperate region maintains a rich avifauna, particularly waterfowl (Kingsford et al 2014).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Birds and the Spirit World of the Lower Murray, South Australia

Clarke¹

2016

Beliefs in bird spirits are still widely held by the Indigenous people in the Lower Murray of temperate South Australia despite an overall decline in the perceived significance of creation ancestors since British colonization in the early nineteenth century. This paper investigates these cultural beliefs in avian spirits. Birds are seen as possessing transformative powers and being mediators between human society and the invisible world. Contemporary Aboriginal people utilize their bird spirit folklore to connect with their past and to highlight their cultural distinctiveness, from both other Indigenous groups and the modern settler society. They draw upon this ornithological body of knowledge that is framed outside of Western science for cultural maintenance, education, and the re-defining of the relationships between knowledge-holders and the broader society.

“…Those who attended these ceremonial gatherings often had to camp along their journeys (Kerkhove 2016), travelling vast distances guided by the stars and songlines, and by using established pathways and trade routes (Fuller et al 2014;Steele 1984). During these events, neighbouring Aboriginal groups came together to settle disputes, share knowledge, organise marriages, and discuss their deep connection to their unique lands (Clarke 2003;Steele 1984).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Not All Edible Nuts Are Eaten: Evidence for Continued Aboriginal Cultural Use and Dispersal of Bunya Pine (Araucaria bidwillii) in Southern But Not in Northern Queensland

Cooke,

Ens,

Clarke

et al. 2024

Globally, there is increasing evidence that Indigenous peoples have manipulated plant and animal populations over millennia. The Bunya Pine ( Araucaria bidwillii Hook.) is a coniferous tree native to subtropical and tropical eastern Australia, which produces 30–100 large, edible seeds within a large cone weighing 5–10 kgs. Endemic Bunya populations occur as two disjunct populations: one in south-eastern Queensland/north-east New South Wales and the other in northern Queensland. We investigated possible pre- and postcolonial Bunya seed dispersal within and between the two separate populations by utilising multidisciplinary methods to examine Aboriginal cultural connections with Bunya. Analysis of historical sources and ethnographic interviews conducted with Aboriginal knowledge holders provided strong evidence for localised deliberate dispersal within the southern population but no solid evidence for dispersal in the north, suggesting two distinct modes of Aboriginal interaction with this species. Early European colonial records documented the Indigenous cultural significance of southern Bunya, evidenced by large feast gatherings, creation Stories, Aboriginal familial tree connections, seed carrying and planting, and storage in camps. The continued cultural attachment post-colonisation was evident from ethnographic interviews with Indigenous knowledge holders that revealed plantings of this species on Aboriginal missions and modern grave sites. The development of an overarching effective biocultural management plan to conserve the biological and cultural importance of this species is therefore particularly important for the southern population, especially in the face of new threats from pathogenic dieback. The individal tree connections of certain Aboriginal families also warrant deeper ethnographic study to target planting and restoration efforts that preserve these kin-based biocultural connections.