What did the authors of Plants: Past Present and Future learned most from writing this book?
As authors, we each come with different experience and knowledge. We learned to thread our work together to tell a story we hope is greater than the sum of its parts. Our individual passions for plants and the knowledge they embody has allowed us to come together to realise and make new connections. We enjoyed the challenge of speaking to a wide audience. The journey of this book has enabled us to see our work in a wider context, and make exciting new connections between our varied interests and expertise.
We asked: What should everyone know about plants that they may not have known before, taking inspiration from the book and providing a glimpse of what readers can expect?
- Within these pages the reader is taken on a journey to explore the multitude of ways plants have been the cornerstone of life for Australia’s First Peoples, and how this knowledge must be better understood as part of our shared future.
- Plant use and plant knowledge were part of the earliest settlement of Australia 65,000 years ago. Innovations and continuities in the plant realm have been the foundation of Australia’s First Peoples’ longevity as the oldest living culture in the world.
- Since European colonisation, this plant knowledge has been taken and used across a huge range of fora without proper recognition, attribution and benefit to First Peoples.
- Scientists use a range of different methods to understand land and plant management practices of diverse First Peoples over time. These include pollen and charcoal preserved in sediment cores, plant residues on archaeological remains, and analysis of records in museums and historical archives.
- Settler/colonial narratives of Aboriginal peoples in Australia fail to recognise or acknowledge the transformative influence that First Peoples have had, and continue to have, across this continent through their knowledge of plants.
- Aboriginal knowledge of plant use and plant knowledge is an important aspect of food security into the future as a direct result of the many pressures of climate change.
— Plants: Past, Present and Future by Zena Cumpston, Michael Fletcher, Lesley Head, Margo Neale (Editor) (Thames & Hudson Australia) is out now!
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Plants
Past, Present and Future
What do you need to know to prosper as a people for at least 65,000 years? The First Knowledges series provides a deeper understanding of the expertise and ingenuity of Indigenous Australians.
Plants are the foundation of life on Earth. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have always known this to be true.
For millennia, reciprocal relationships with plants have provided both sustenance to Indigenous communities and many of the materials needed to produce a complex array of technologies. Managed through fire and selective harvesting and replanting, the longevity and intricacy of these partnerships are testament to the ingenuity and depth of Indigenous first knowledges. Plants: Past, Present and Future celebrates the deep cultural significance of plants and shows how engaging with this heritage could be the key to a healthier, more sustainable future.
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