Australian flora is distinctively unique from anywhere else in the world!
It’s also a fundamental part of human culture with a complex set of relationships for all of us, but it is Australia’s first people, the Aboriginals who used plants for thousands & thousands of years, and thousands of years before European settlement!
Aboriginals used plants physically to provide them with the means for making food, medicines, stimulants, narcotics, adornment, ceremonial objects, clothing, shelter, tools & for creating artwork. Symbolically, plants feature heavily in Australian myths & religious beliefs. Australian flora is so diverse & unique, having qualities which are also present in Aboriginal pharmacopoeia! We already know, however various studies also find that many Australian plants used in indigenous remedies have a chemical basis for medicines.
In Aboriginal communities the healer’s job is to diagnose problems, advise on remedies, suggest & perform ritualised healing procedures, explore the impact of community, social & cultural issues upon illness, and to reassure their patients that they can be cured. Most recognised healers are men, although both genders have a wide knowledge of effective healing plants. While the healers focus upon treating sick individuals, it’s the women who specialise in performing ceremonies that promote the general health & well-being of their whole family. Traditionally, all adults in the community knew about bush medicines, although the healers were considered to have special access to spiritual powers & assistance.
Each healer will have their own set of “sacred tools”, and the belief is that the healer enter’s the patient’s body to do their work. Healers also draw upon the ancestral powers of their kinship network when treating the seriously ill. A European settler named Heinrich Meyer in 1846 at Encounter Bay South Australia claimed the Ramindjeri people had Doctor’s who appealed to the object, animal or plant that was their totemic “friend” or spirit familiar, one such person used a snake & others an ant or seaweed. In the case of the seaweed, Meyer recorded the term parraitye-orn, which is translated to mean “sea-weed-man” or “doctor”. In the Lower Murray region of South Australia, a healer would invoke the power of the “war-god” ancestor Ngurunderi to cure warriors of their spear & club wounds. In the South-Western Desert, healers used charms called Mapanpa, which would be comprised of pieces of wood, stone, bone & other objects.
There are many ways in which Aboriginal people become healers, generally through special training commencing in youth, into the methodology & rituals related to causes of illness & involves spiritual revelation. Aboriginal healers also observe specific taboo’s believed to maintain their powers, for example, in Northwest Arnhem Land, some healers cannot submerge themselves in saltwater. In many regions, particularly Central Australia, & parts of the Kimberley, healers avoid things like bites from large ants, excessive eating of fat & drinking hot beverages through fear of losing their powers!
Aboriginal herbal remedies chiefly use plants to relieve symptoms such as fever, congestion, headache, skin sores, tired swollen or aching limbs & digestive problems. Treatments can involve drinks (tea’s), washes, massages & aroma-therapies. Aboriginal medicine is vast & far too large for me to discuss in this post, the diversity of herbal remedies served them very well though! As hunters-gatherers, they seasonally moved through different zones in the landscape, which meant they had to know a broad range of remedies, and the seasonality of each plant species, due to it’s effectiveness & availability.
Indigenous Australians view ill health as a result of three causes: a natural physical cause, a spirit causing harm, or sickness due to sorcery. I must also note, that the impact of colonisation & the following dis-placement & dis-connection from traditional lands & families has been significantly devastating in the use of traditional practices, including traditional medicines & in modern Australia it is time we started learning more of the herbal medicines, ceremony & healing songs! In Alice Springs, the Akeyulerre Healing Centre offers a stand-alone, culturally safe place where traditional knowledge & practices can be shared & practiced, it is open to all people (find out more at: interrentye.org.au). Similar to Alice Springs, local elder women in the West Australian Kutjungka Community at Balgo Hills have formed the Palyalatju Maparna Health Committee which also provides bush medicines to local & surrounding communities. The Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Women’s Council Aboriginal Corporation employs traditional healers to support about 25 communities in the tri-states of NT, SA & WA. “In today’s world the two systems of traditional & western medicines are blending together in beneficial harmony, using the best features of each system & compensating for certain weaknesses in each”, according to Chan in her speech at the WHO congress on traditional medicines recently.
Bush medicine has spiritual significance for Aboriginal people, as it is natural, comes from the land, connects to identify & spirituality, plus playing an important role in peoples health & well-being. Bush medicine is also connected to the holistic world view such as a way that the interplay between the physical, emotional, social & spiritual aspects is crucial in attaining well-being. Keep an eye on my blogs, as I will be writing more on my top specific bush medicines of Goat’s foot (Ipomoea pes-caprae), Kangaroo apple (Solanum laciniatum & aviculare), Passionflower (Passiflora foetida), Snake vine (Tinospora smilacina), Emu bush (Eremophila sp.), Desert mushrooms (Pychoporus sp.), Kakadu plum (Terminalia ferdinandiana), Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus sp.) and Tea tree (Melaleuca alternifolia), until then.
Yours in Health & Well-being,
Sharon
References are available upon request.
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