Aboriginal Biocultural Knowledge in South-eastern Australia: Perspectives of Early Colonists

by Fred Cahir, Ian D. Clark, Philip A. Clarke

Indigenous Australians have long understood sustainable hunting and harvesting, seasonal changes in flora and fauna, predator–prey relationships and imbalances, and seasonal fire management. Yet the extent of their knowledge and expertise has been largely unknown and underappreciated by non-Aboriginal colonists, especially in the south-east of Australia where Aboriginal culture was severely fractured.

Aboriginal Biocultural Knowledge in South-eastern Australia is the first book to examine historical records from early colonists who interacted with south-eastern Australian Aboriginal communities and documented their understanding of the environment, natural resources such as water and plant and animal foods, medicine and other aspects of their material world. This book provides a compelling case for the importance of understanding Indigenous knowledge, to inform discussions around climate change, biodiversity, resource management, health and education. It will be a valuable reference for natural resource management agencies, academics in Indigenous studies and anyone interested in Aboriginal culture and knowledge.

Genres: History

360 pages, Paperback

Published July 6, 2018

Reviews

[Michael Lever · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perplexing book. Review to follow

[S'hi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scholarly, entertaining, educational and more nourishing (now riching) than merely topical - authors Fred Cahir, Ian D Clark and Philip A Clarke have collected information from a wide range of sources that supports the rediscovery of heritage by traditional custodians through the writing and times of those whom seemed so intent on wiping out the source. Even seasons are not the same set of four imported by Europeans simply to be turned upside down, but timed by the "characters" who signify the changing conditions relevant for food supply and walkabout. These are not mythical creatures but cockatoos and bees, among others. Enlightening!

[Rhonda · Rating 3 out of 5]

An important topic and great to have a book that focuses on south-east Australia (really Victoria), but I'm not sure this adds as much as it should to what is already published and the chapters were uneven in quality. Some of the chapter "conclusions" did not do justice to the topic. Hard to match the simplicity and power of Bruce Pascoe's Dark Emu. The use of initial capitals for Biocultural Knowledge throughout was odd. The book does clearly rely on what colonists saw and reported, but the quality of the observations and the possibility of misinterpretations and misunderstandings, either accidental or deliberate, is not recognised.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love books that help me explore my unknown unknowns. This is one of those books. This book allowed me to jump into a wide variety of different topics of how Aboriginal people lived pre-colonisation from the foods eaten, to cultural and practices to how they built shelters and other structures such as canoes. Easily accessible even for someone like myself who is relatively ignorant of aboriginal society, I'd definitely recommend to anyone who wants to learn more about Australia's first people.

[Kelly D Wiltshire]

My review of this book will be published in an upcoming edition of the journal ABORIGINAL HISTORY