Australian Aboriginal Native Plant Use
How Australia's Aborigines Used Plants for Food and Medicine
Nov 22, 2008
Australia is a vast land and as such its aboriginal culture contains many aboriginal tribes and languages; however, many aboriginal tribes have similarities. The use of native plants by the aboriginal people has been common for at least 40,000 to 50,000 years; it is thought that ancestors of the Australian aboriginal people migrated from south-east Asia. Aboriginal people traditionally led a nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle which only changed when the European immigration began 200 years ago.
The Impact of European Immigrants on Australian Aborigines
European settlers to Australia lacked the ability and wisdom of the native Australian aborigines in understanding how the environment around them was capable of sustaining life with plant sources; the Australian bush contains literally thousands of edible, wild plants. In addition, some of these plants have many valuable medicinal properties; however, many aboriginal plant remedies may be lost forever as some plant remedies held sacred by many aboriginal tribe elders are no longer being passed down to younger aboriginal tribe members.
The arrival of European settlers to Australia resulted in both displacement of aboriginal tribes and an introduction of diseases which were not common to aboriginal people; many traditional aboriginal plant remedies were lost in the process and a distrust of the Europeans developed amongst the aborigines. As a result, many aboriginal tribe elders feel that much aboriginal information has been abused and therefore many traditional aboriginal remedies will die with them.
Species of Edible Plants Used by the Aborigines
Many varieties of edible plants in Australia were recorded by early European botanists; these included sweet fruits, seeds, leaves, tubers, seaweeds and fungi. Wild plants provided a rich natural source of fat, protein and carbohydrates. Although there is limited evidence as to the types of plants aboriginal people ate, plants such as the bush tomato (Solanum chippendalei) were considered a staple food of desert aborigines; other fruit staples included the fig (Ficus platypoda).
Roots, tubers and bulbs which were eaten by the Australian aborigines were yams (Dioscorea species), native onions (Cyperus species), yam daisy (Microseris scapigeris) and the wild potato (Ipomoea costata). Aborigines also ate wild nuts which included the Pandanus nut and the fruit and nuts of the bunya bunya tree (Araucaria bidwillii).
There were some native seeds eaten by aboriginal people too; these included those of the wattle tree (Acacia species) and grass seeds such as Calandrinia balonnensis, Panicum australiense and Eragrostis eriopoda. Important plant sources for drinking were coconut milk and diluted nectars. Some plants were chewed or steeped to extract valuable resources.
Aboriginal Use of Plants for Medicinal Purposes
There are limited records and resources of medicinal plant use by the aborigines but some records have been preserved from early European explorers and some aboriginal resources. The Eucalyptus tree species of Australia was used in the treatment of coughs and colds by aboriginal people, as was the Hibiscus; there were various aboriginal remedies for diarrhea including the use of raspberry leaves, the gum of eucalyptus and the orchid (Cymbidium madidum).
A poultice made from the coolibah tree (Eucalyptus microtheca) was used for snake bites; insects bites were relieved with the juice of young bracken stems. Finally, an aboriginal form of contraception to prevent pregnancy was the eating of Exocarpus latifolious 'cherry' leaves or the fruit of the Quinine bush (Petalostigma pubeescens).For Related Reading by the Same Author:The Maori Use of Native Plants
References:
Aboriginal Plant Use for Medicine
Brand-Miller, Janette C., Holt, Susanne H.A., 1998 Australian Aboriginal Plant Foods: A Consideration of Their Nutritional Composition and Health Implications Nutrition Research Reviews: University of Sydney, Australia
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