Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the First Peoples of Australia, maintain one of the oldest living cultures in the world. Archaeological research points to more than 60,000 years of habitation. Before European colonisation there were more than 250 languages, each with its own land, Country, and its own knowledge.

The Torres Strait Islanders, from the islands between Australia and Papua New Guinea, have their own Melanesian culture, which differs from that of Aboriginal people on the mainland.

Colonisation from 1788 brought disease, violence, loss of land and the removal of children from their families. Much knowledge was lost or hidden. From the 1970s Aboriginal communities took healthcare back into their own hands. In 1971 the first Aboriginal Medical Service was founded in Redfern, Sydney.

For many Aboriginal peoples health means more than a healthy body. It is about the wellbeing of the whole community, and about connection with family, ancestors, culture and Country: the land you come from and care for.

In Australia this holistic understanding is called social and emotional wellbeing. Illness can arise when those connections are broken, for example through loss of land or the breaking of family ties.

The Dreaming, with its own names in many languages, describes how ancestral beings created the land, the plants, animals and laws. Knowledge of plants and healing is also connected with it.

Knowledge passes from generation to generation through stories, songs, dance and art, and through getting to know the land. Some knowledge is for women only or for men only, and some is for initiates only.

In Central Australia the ngangkari are the traditional healers of the Anangu. They are chosen as children and learn from elders for years. The ngangkari who work with the NPY Women’s Council treat people in more than 25 communities and work together with hospitals and doctors.

Bush medicine, the knowledge of medicinal plants, is often held by elders, and many communities are now working to record it on their own terms.

The knowledge is mainly oral. An important book by the communities themselves is Traditional Bush Medicines: an Aboriginal Pharmacopoeia of 1988, compiled by Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory.

In 2013 Traditional Healers of Central Australia: Ngangkari appeared, in which the ngangkari themselves talk about their work in their own words.

The Australian institute AIATSIS holds a large collection on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, with attention to the communities’ rights to their own knowledge.

Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services provide care throughout Australia that fits people’s culture. Some hospitals work with ngangkari and other traditional healers.

Bush medicine is experiencing a revival, and some products, such as the Kakadu plum and tea tree oil, are known worldwide.

At the same time there is a struggle over ownership of knowledge. Communities want a say in how their knowledge is used and want to share in the proceeds.

The plant knowledge is enormous and differs by region. Tea tree (Melaleuca alternifolia) was used by the Bundjalung in northern New South Wales: they crushed the leaves and used them on wounds and for coughs. Eucalyptus is used for colds and fever.

Emu bush (Eremophila) is used in smoking ceremonies, in which the smoke of smouldering leaves cleanses and protects. Old man weed serves for colds and skin complaints. Gumbi gumbi is drunk as a tea.

Pituri, a plant containing nicotine, was chewed and traded over great distances.

Much Aboriginal knowledge is sacred or secret, and not meant for outsiders. Respect that.

Do not use Aboriginal symbols, art or ceremonies without permission. For bush food and bush medicine, choose products from Aboriginal businesses.