At this point in our journey together, it should come as no surprise that I love learning all about plants! But while I’m often examining them under a microscope or reading about their physiology, it’s just as fascinating to understand the ways that plants shape our cultures and traditions. Today we’ll learn about a few ways in which Aboriginal peoples interact with native Australian plants, with an emphasis on everyone's favorite aspect: food!
This week, I decided to learn more about traditional uses of native plants by Aboriginal Australians. Aboriginal Australians, along with Torres Strait Islanders, are the indigenous peoples of Australia. As with Native Americans in the United States, there's a wide variety of different groups and cultures encompassed within the term ‘Aboriginal’. I’ll be focusing mainly on the Gadigal people, the traditional owners of the land that is now Sydney’s city center. Aboriginal traditions are fundamentally shaped by the Australian landscape, in which plants play an essential role. Understanding how Aboriginal peoples interact with plants thus tells us lots about their rich cultural heritage.
To learn more, I visited the Royal Botanic Garden, one of my favorite spots in Sydney.
