Introduction Why did Noongar people ferment Macrozamia sarcotesta? Was it to detoxify it? It is our view that over many thousands of years of trial-and-error and empirical scientific observations that Noongar people developed their own unique and sustainable food processing techniques, in particular the controlled anaerobic fermentation of the fruit (seed covering, outer rind) of Macrozamia … Continued
Consultations were held between Noongar Elders and Fremantle Ports’ representatives in 2009. Numerous ideas were generated as a result of workshops facilitated by consulting anthropologists Ken Macintyre and Barb Dobson at Fremantle Ports. All the Elders agreed that a map of pre-contact indigenous Fremantle should be created which showed the original topographic and vegetation features … Continued
Cultural knowledge determines what we eat, the timing of eating and how food is prepared. Probably in the distant past when the original inhabitants of this land were adapting to their new environment, they ate certain plant products (roots, berries, gums and fruits) that made them ill or even killed them. From these trial-and-error experiments … Continued
Throughout human history all cultures have been captivated by a belief in invisible parallel worlds inhabited by small beings. We can call them fairies, elves, gnomes, leprechauns, woodatji or jinns. They all serve the same function – to control behaviour and to give a rational explanation of the “unexplainable.” The Sasak villagers of Western Lombok … Continued
“Light time” could be described as a Noongar way of time reckoning using a system of daily categories based on the intensity of light from dawn to dusk. ‘Wanting to know the ideas of the blacks of the origin of mankind, I got him [Mokare] this evening after some difficulty to understand my questions, when … Continued
History is highly dependent on how we interpret the past and what we want to believe now (Macintyre and Dobson 2015). As long as we can remember there has been a controversy over the meaning and origin of the name Toodyay. We have been led to believe by our local Council that the name derives … Continued
In our paper on bardi grubs we mooted the possibility that indigenous people of southwestern Australia practised the earliest known form of insect husbandry. It is not hard to imagine that these same people also practised a type of incipient agriculture, as noted by Grey (1841: 294) with his reference to the cultivation of yunjeedie … Continued
In 1996 while researching healing practices in Western Lombok, I had the good fortune to meet one of the last remaining Belian Daraq (blood physicians) who practiced a form of wet cupping (blood letting) using a buffalo horn or tanggeq. This technique was known as betanggeq. Tools of the trade include a buffalo horn (tanggeq) (pictured … Continued
Acacia gum was by far one of the most important nutritional substances.
“… in the Faroe Islands, Siberia, and among the Ipiutak of Alaska, for example, diving birds are thought to ferry spirits of the dead to the next world, situated under water rather than in the heavens”