From historical accounts yam pit gardens in northern southwestern Australia were generally located on fertile alluvial soils. Pit construction facilitated the capture of water run-off that was sometimes enriched with alluvium and plant debris, providing a natural self-fertilising, self-mulching and watering process for yam growing. Pit horticulture helped to mitigate against soil erosion, especially on sloping landscapes. This may be seen as an innovative and adaptive method of dry land irrigation or more aptly a form of water harvesting utilising micro-catchments in the form of growing pits to capture variable rainfall.



Historical descriptions illustrate different levels of intensification of yam cultivation in the northern and southern regions where the same species of Dioscorea was cultivated. The climatic conditions in the northern region (e.g. the Irwin District) which differed from those in the south may explain variations in the seasonal harvest regime. The extensive yam fields that were observed in the Murchison region would appear to be more characteristic of a semi-arid, dry land horticultural system than those located in the rich alluvial niches of the Upper Swan, Helena and neighbouring rivers to the north, yet both served a similar function. Historical accounts record variations in the size and circumference of yam holes, possibly explained by differences in soil geography, topography and localised customs.

Ground-covering yam vines – a living mulch

Most cultivated yams of the Dioscorea genus are found in warm tropical climates where climbing vines are usually staked or trellised to provide maximum sunlight for plant growth. From colonial observations of warrain (or atjikoh) cultivation, it would seem that artificial staking was not part of the indigenous horticultural process. Based on our own observations of the ground-covering vines of D. hastifolia in its natural upland habitat at Toodyay, the vine leaves provide a carpet of living mulch that we would suggest helps prevent the loss of soil moisture through evaporation and may also assist in regulating or reducing ground temperature, creating a humid micro-climate conducive to yam growth. We would further speculate that in the cultivated setting this living vine mulch would have been a practical and effective means of conserving ground moisture.

Firing as part of yam-stick horticulture

Anthropogenic controlled burning, sometimes called mosaic or patchwork firing or ‘fire-stick farming’ (Rhys-Jones 1969) was an essential tool in Aboriginal food resource and land management (Hallam 1975, Gott 1982), We are puzzled by Hallam’s (1989:143) vague reference to the protection of yam grounds from firing. This may have been the case in tropical rainforest areas, where yam patches were protected from fire as noted by Jones and Meehan (1989) and Atchison (2000), but we find it hard to believe that the deep rooted D. hastifolia, which goes into dormancy in the hot dry summer season when Aboriginal firing takes place, would have been harmed by anthropogenic patch burning. We maintain that firing would have been an important part of yam cultivation on the alluvial river terraces and lower slopes of hills, in the same way that it was used in the cultivation of yanjet (Typha rhizomes)  https://www.anthropologyfromtheshed.com/typha-root-an-ancient-nutritious-food-in-noongar-culture and other food plants, such as bhorn (Haemodorum, bloodroots) djiridji (Macrozamia), djubak (orchids) and karno (Platysace), see our paper on edible Nyungar root vegetables  https://anthropologyfromtheshed.com/roots-of-contention-noongar-root-foods-and-indigenous-plant-taxonomy.

Firing helped to maintain and improve soil fertility by providing potassium and other essential nutrients that were favourable to yam growth. Anthropogenic burning prior to the first rains would have ensured the yam harvesters a safe and unobstructed access to their yam gardens by removing the entangled, dense and withered vines that carpeted the pits over summer and autumn providing a sheltered habitat for dangerous snakes. A further advantage of burning the yam plots is that the dense vines and native grasses provided herbage and shelter to a range of other reptiles and marsupials which after the firing process became a valued protein source for human consumption.

The seasonal timing of yam harvesting

It would appear from the early ethnohistorical records and Hallam’s (1975, 1989, 1998) archaeological analysis that there were two main yam seasons. These were (i) after the first rains of autumn (Grey 1840, 1841; Moore 1842) and (ii) in late spring/ beginning of summer (Gilbert 1848 in Meagher 1974; Oldfield 1865, 2005 and Hammond 1933) when according to Oldfield, referring to the Murchison region, ‘they are in perfection.’ Hammond (1933) describes “warryn” or “adtjikoh” as being consumed at the same time as the “Joo-buk” (orchid tubers) that were consumed in mid-late spring (October-November). See https://anthropologyfromtheshed.com/roots-of-contention-noongar-root-foods-and-indigenous-plant-taxonomy

Grey (1839, 1840, 1841) and Moore (1833, 1842) point out that warran harvesting took place after the first rains of autumn when the soil was easier to dig:

‘at the commencement of the rains, when it is ripe and when the earth is most easily dug; and it forms the principal article of food for the natives at that season…’ (Moore 1842: 75)

Moore refers to a long white parsnip-like root that was dug up in wet weather near his house in the Upper Swan. We can only assume from his description that it was warran. (Hammond 1933 records warryn as “white root”). Moore’s diary describes his encounter with a group of local Aboriginal people on his property at MIllendon in late autumn:

‘One of them had a number of frogs… nicely packed up in the bark of the tea-tree, and tied with grass; these he signified they roasted for food, with a long white root, growing like a parsnip, which they dig up in wet weather.’ (Moore, 4th May 1833). 

We would suggest that warrain was also harvested outside these two main seasons but on a smaller-scale “needs” basis. Yam tubers are perfectly built self-storage organs when left in the ground. Aboriginal women were well-acquainted with the phenological cycles of plants and when they were best eaten. They were aware of the subtle changes in taste and nutritional value of different tubers and bulbs at different seasons of the year. These seasonal variations in carbohydrate and sugar levels are noted in our paper on Typha where we explained that the rhizomes were principally harvested in autumn after the first rains when they were easier to dig and when they contained certain sugars, see https://www.anthropologyfromtheshed.com/typha-root-an-ancient-nutritious-food-in-noongar-culture

Atchison and Head (p. 179) confirm that the starch content of Dioscorea spp. also varies seasonally. They note that the starch is replaced by sugars towards the beginning of the growing season:

‘Yam starches are significantly different from other cereal starches in structure and digestibility. The starch content itself changes throughout the dormancy period declining with extended periods of storage and being replaced by sugars such as glucose as the tuber prepares to resprout again (Hariprakesh and Nambison 1996).’ 

This process of enzymatic conversion of stored carbohydrate to sugars has also been noted by Gott (1983:11) with reference to the tubers of murnong (Microseris sp.) that were a favourite staple of Aboriginal groups in Victoria and South Australia. She states that when the plant is ‘just breaking dormancy in late autumn …[it] has already converted more than a third of its inulin reserve to the soluble sugars fructose and glucose.’

“It is generally considered the province of women to dig roots”

‘It is generally considered the province of women to dig roots, and for this purpose they carry a long pointed stick [wanna] which is held in the right hand and driven firmly into the ground, where it is shaken so as to loosen the earth, which is scooped up and thrown out with the fingers of the left hand, and in this manner they dig with great rapidity. But the labour in proportion to the amount obtained is great. To get a yam about half an inch in circumference and a foot in length they have to dig a hole above a foot square and two feet in depth; a considerable portion of the time of the women and children is therefore passed in this employment.’ (Grey 1841: 292-293).

The wanna or wooden digging stick (also sometimes called “yam-stick” according to Chauncy in Brough-Smith 1878: 255) was an indispensable digging tool used by Aboriginal women. It was a long hardwood crowbar (with a fire hardened point) rounded on one side and flattened on the other. It was individually manufactured, maintained and carried by its female user.

Oldfield (1865, 2005: 55) provides one of the few detailed accounts of how  Dioscorea yam was harvested. Although he is referring to the Watchandie (or Nhanda) of the Murchison/ Champion Bay area where the yam was known as ad-ju-co, his description could well apply to the yam-digging activities of Nyungar women.

‘The roots of this plant are very long, for when the women have dug round them to the full reach of their arms, they always break off the part thus freed, leaving the remainder in the ground, and how much further it extends it is impossible to ascertain. However, the part thus secured is generally about three feet in length, varying from a half to two inches in diameter …. The labour of extracting these roots from the ground must be very severe, for they grow in a hard red soil, in which women have to dig with no better implement than a pointed stick. These holes, which render travelling very dangerous in countries where they abound, are from six to eight inches in diameter at the top, the depth being limited to the extent to which a woman can stretch her arms, so as to be able to remove by her hand the soil loosened by the wip-pa (digging-stick). … They are in perfection during the latter part of spring and the fore part of summer…’ (Oldfield 1865, 2005: 55).

Ethnohistorical sources refer to the cooking of the warrain by ‘roasting or baking on hot embers’ (Oldfield 1865, Chauncy 1878, Roth 1902 and personal communication with Nyungar Elder William Warrell in 2000). Oldfield states:

The method of cooking these yams is the same as practised in preparing every other kind of food, animal or vegetable, for eating, i.e., roasting or baking on hot embers, and when thus cooked they are very mucilaginous, of a sweet flavour, and grateful even to the palate of fastidious Europeans (Oldfield 1865). 

Chauncy (in Brough-Smith 1878: 245-6) describes the warran yam as having ‘… a delicate sweetish flavour when roasted in hot ashes, something like that of a chestnut, and is much sought after.’  Daisy Bates (1912) documents “dookurn warrain” as ‘cooking or cooked warrain.’  Similarly, Austin (cited in Roth 1902: 6) refers to:

Many kinds of roots and yams were eaten; among the latter, the wor‑rain, showing thick yellow blossoms, was very common, growing down to a depth of quite 3 feet, and running from the thickness of the finger to that of the wrist. An island (? Leschenhault Island) in Shark’s Bay, used literally to be covered with it. All meats, and the majority of the vegetables, were eaten roasted, some of the latter being prepared with great care, the bulrush roots, in particular, a very nourishing dietary, being most methodically slowly cooked in the ashes. (Austin cited in Roth 1902: 6)

A senior Nyungar Elder from the Moora region, the late William Warrell, said that his grandmother Ollie Warrell had told him that women used to dig up warrain yams immediately after the autumn rains but if they were hungry they could dig them up at other times as well. He stated that:

‘It was carefully prepared by cooking in the ashes until it was soft and sweet.’ (William Warrell personal communication 2000). 

When we asked if it was eaten raw, he said ‘No, never.’ When we asked him what it tasted like, he could not recall having eaten it.

There have been no scientific studies ever conducted on the nutritional value of cooked D. hastifolia yam. To our knowledge there has only been one study of the nutritive value of the raw D. hastifolia yam. This was conducted by Pate and Dixon (1982:221, Table 5.11) and it showed that the stem tuber (when tested in late spring before summer dormancy) contained 86.0 % water (in fresh weight), 4.9% protein (in dry matter) and 2.0 (medium content) starch value.

Yam harvesting – gender specific or cooperative labour?

Phillip Chauncy in the early 1840’s in the Upper Swan region observed men and women harvesting yams on occasion. He writes:

‘I have seen both men and women sinking in loose sandy soil for an edible root called warran, one of the dioscoreae, which generally grows about the thickness of a man’s thumb, and to the depth of four to six or eight feet… It is dangerous to travel on horseback through the country where it grows, on account of the frequency and depth of the holes, which are not more than about eighteen or twenty inches in diameter. I have sometimes been made aware of their proximity by seeing small quantities of sand jumping up before me, and, on going to see the cause, have suddenly come on a small hole among the scrub, so small that I could scarcely believe a human being could be at the bottom of it in a stooping position, with the knees on each side of the head. In this position the native dextrously throws the sand by a sudden jerk of the hand backwards, under the arm and up behind the shoulder. The only bald natives I ever saw are the warran diggers, who are said to wear the hair off the head by pressing it so frequently against the sides of these holes. (Chauncy in Brough-Smith 1878: 245-6)

There is a widely accepted view, still held by some, that the male/female division of labour was rigidly-defined in Aboriginal society to the point where women were the exclusive collectors/ harvesters of root foods and men were hunters. However, there were times when these roles overlapped and also when men and women joined forces, such as in the harvesting of yams. Although Hallam (1975) perpetuates the idea of Nyungar yam harvesting as being an exclusively female-occupation, this is not necessarily borne out by historical ethnographic evidence, for example, Chauncy’s observations (above) in the Upper Swan area in the early 1840’s where men and women worked cooperatively in the yam harvest. Also, the naturalist John Gilbert reported that he was unable to arrange any male Aboriginal guides from the vicinity of Drummond’s “Hawthornden” estate in Toodyay to accompany him on a collecting expedition to Wongan Hills in October 1848 because they were busily engaged in yam-digging. He writes: ‘their Season of meeting in great numbers to dig the edible Root called by them Wargae is now in full force…’ (Wagstaffe and Rutherford 1954 in Meagher 1974: 33).  Wargae here refers to warrain. This term has different renderings, depending on the recorder, for example, the linguist Von Brandenstein (1988: 131) spells it as “wuagarn.” According to Hallam (1998: 14) ‘When they were abundant in fertile soils, yams could provide the basis for large meetings of people for social and ceremonial occasions.’ The cultivated yam (warrain), would have provided a relatively dependable carbohydrate supply to underwrite these important occasions.

The cultural importance of the warrine yam was sometimes reflected in the names of topographic features, such as the tributaries of rivers and creeks, for example, Wariin Brook (a tributary of the Helena River), Waranine Brook (a tributary of the Dale River) and “Warrine-garing” (along Jimperting Brook, Toodyay). The yam was also totemically represented in the names of selected individuals. Hallam and Tilbrook (1990: 300) provide the names of Nyungar people from the Guildford/Upper Swan and York areas whose names identified them to country where yams were found and possibly reflected their status as the proprietors/ custodians of these lands. Their names were Warryneyung (a female), Worraingwert (a male) and Warrain (a male), all deriving from the term for yam – warryne, worraing or warrain. 

Human agency in the promotion of yam tuber growth

The question arises as to whether the yam fields and yam grounds described in the early historical and archaeological sources were located in the plant’s natural habitat or had, at some point in prehistory, been translocated from their original environment to a new habitat. Hallam seems convinced that the latter took place when she states:

‘the alluvial flat environments in which these yams were primarily grown by Aborigines were very different from those of their natural habitat of open woodland with granitic and balsatic soils’ (Hallam 1989 in White 2011:88).

If the geographic distribution of the D. hastifolia yam was extended by human agency outside its original range and cultivated, is this not suggestive of indigenous agriculture?

If translocation did take place, this would have resulted in a number of practical advantages such as making it easier to access the yam plots, reducing travel time from camp, reducing the relative amount of time and energy spent digging out the yams. Harvesting yams in their upland stony habitat where they grew in open woodland or vegetation thickets would have been a more onerous task as it necessarily involved tracing the fragile twining stems of the vine down through a rocky substrate to locate the yam that was often buried over two feet down.

From a practical viewpoint the lower slopes and river terrace environment, such as at the Upper Swan region, would have enabled yam cultivators a greater control over essential water capture and soil conservation, and the cultivated friable soil would have contributed to a higher tuber yield per unit of time than in the stony upland areas. Atchison (2012: 69) with reference to the procurement of Dioscorea yam tubers in northern Australia notes that ‘the rockiness of the substrate’ of the ecological niche can critically affect ‘yield per unit time, and thus the calorific efficiency of yam digging.’ This same principle would have applied to the cultivation of D. hastifolia.

The cultivation of yams on the lower slopes and alluvial terraces would have required considerable time and energy input (as noted by Grey 1841) but it would have been more economically productive and rewarding in the rich lowland alluvial soils where soil and water management using micro-pit catchments would have ensured a greater predictability of the tuber crop. We have no information on whether the same yam plots were accessed every season or on a rotational basis allowing time for the soil to regenerate. We may never know whether D. hastifolia was once a domesticated cultivar resulting from its continuous cultivation by Aboriginal people over thousands of years. One can only speculate that this native yam over time would have evolved a larger tuber, augmented productivity and possibly enhanced nutritional content as a result of continuous cultivation. Gott (1982: 10), referring to southeastern Australia, emphasises that human agency (such as tilling, burning and fertilising the soil) in the cultivation of murnong (yam daisy) and other root vegetables promoted an increase in productivity over time and changes to plant phenotypes (Gott 1983 in White 2011:89).

Denham (2007: 2) who has written extensively on yam cultivation in New Guinea and Australia supports the idea of the beneficial effects resulting from cultivation on the yam phenotype but alerts the reader that these changes are contingent on the continuation of cultivation. As Denham writes:

‘The effects of land management, plant exploitation and resultant distributions on plant phenotype can be assessed for Dioscorea hastifolia (Sylvia Hallam) and murnong (Beth Gott). The tubers of these plants, like many others, exhibit phenotypic responses depending upon the type of soil in which they are growing. Where soils are loose and friable, tubers are larger; whereas tubers are smaller in shallow, stony and compacted soils. For most tuberous plants in Australia, the recurrent digging of tubers from a perennial plant will have loosened the surrounding soil and encouraged greater tuber growth. Phenotypic responses can be anticipated in successive harvests of these perennial tubers, but these have nothing to do with planting, intergenerational selection or domestication. These phenotypic responses are elastic, they require the maintenance of anthropically modified soil environment; once modifications to the soil environment cease, tubers revert to wild type.’ (Denham 2007:2).

If this is the case, then the size, structure and possibly even the taste of the tubers of D. hastifolia that was once cultivated by southwest Aboriginal people in pre- and early colonial times may have been very different to those growing in their wild upland habitat today. If the traditional warrain plots were harvested twice a year, as ethnohistorical and archaeological sources suggest (Grey 1840, Moore 1842, Oldfield 1865, Hammond 1933, Hallam 1989), then the seasonally patterned movements of Aboriginal people within their territorial estates may well have accommodated a semi-sedentary existence or what Hallam refers to as largely sedentary settlements in the fertile riverine areas of the Upper Swan where warran (yam) and yanjet (Typha bulrush rhizomes) abounded together with other food resources. Grey (1841) also describes largely permanent settlements based on a yam economy in the Murchison area.

The agricultural debate about whether Australian Aboriginal people were once “farmers” or “foragers,” “hunter-gatherers” or “agriculturalists” continues in academic institutions to this day. In some contexts they are referred to as ‘complex hunter-gatherers,’ ‘affluent hunter-gatherers’ or ‘mobile foragers.’ Notions of sedentism, surplus, domestication, intensification of production, population density and social and political complexity which are criteria often applied by archaeologists to differentiate Aboriginal hunter-gatherers or foragers from agriculturalists have caused endless arguments in the literature. We do not intend to enter this controversial arena here, except to say that some of the notions used to differentiate “agriculturalists” from “foragers” in the Aboriginal context are highly Western-centric and are founded on evolutionary hierarchical models that tend to exclude groups such as those conventionally labelled as “hunter-gatherers” but who practice, what we consider to be, unfamiliar forms of agriculture.

Yam pit horticulture as practised in Western Australia may have been a relatively low maintenance agricultural activity and depending on region possibly supporting a semi-sedentary – or even a largely sedentary as suggested by Grey (1841) and Hallam (1989)) – existence in areas where yams were cultivated and abundant. With the exception of periodic burning and harvesting and replanting, yam pit horticulture was a self-sustaining system (self mulching, self-fertilising and self-watering using rainwater management) and would not have required constant year round presence or surveillance. This flexibility enabled the proprietors of the yam lands and their families to attend to other food resources located within their estate or home range and to prepare for, or participate in, social and ceremonial activities within or outside their own country. They would have had a highly organised and seasonally regularised schedule of economic, social and ceremonial activities based on animal and plant phenological cycles well-known to them within their localised ecosystems.

Yam pit horticulture which utilised the technology of the fire-hardened digging stick (wanna) and a long-evolved specialised knowledge of anthropogenic fire management enabled the original inhabitants of the land to change, adapt and cultivate fertile niches within their local environment. It would seem that Nyungar and Yamatji people discovered through their own innovations the benefits of a form of sustainable dry land pit horticulture, remarkably similar to the agricultural practice known as “Zai” or “Tassa” used by traditional and modern farming communities in the semi-arid regions of northwest Africa, such as in Mali and Burkina Faso.

Part 5: The traditional North African model of pit agriculture

The traditional “Zai” technique is currently undergoing a revival with great success in dry land crop production in parts of Africa. Vegetable staples, such as sorghum, maize and millet, are to this day being successfully cultivated using this method. The technique involves digging pits, using a steel mattock or hoe, each pit measuring about 20-40 cm in diameter and 10-20cm deep and spaced about 60-80 cm apart (Essama 2005:1). The shape, size and depth of the zai pit varies according to region, soil type, rainfall and local cultural traditions. The pits are prepared prior to the wet growing season and mulch consisting of decayed plant matter and animal manure is added to improve soil fertility and prevent moisture loss. After the first rains when the soil is moist, the organic matter is covered with a thin layer of topsoil and the seeds are inserted into the centre of the pit. The Zai method is a proven and highly sustainable dry land agricultural system with many benefits, some of which have been outlined by Essama (2005) as follows:

‘The advantages of Zaï are that it: (i) captures rain and surface/ run-off water; (ii) protects seeds and organic matter against being washed away; (iii) concentrates nutrient and water availability at the beginning of the rainy season; (iv) increases yields; and (v) reactivates biological activities in the soil and eventually leads to an improvement in soil structure. The application of the Zaï technique can reportedly increase production by about 500% if properly executed.’ (Essama 2005)

It is our view from the ethnohistorical descriptions of D. hastifolia tuber cultivation that there may have been similarities in the methods of water capture, nutrient enrichment and prevention of soil erosion to that of “zai” pit farming that was practised traditionally (and to this day) in parts of arid and semi-arid northwest Africa. Like the African zai” holes in which seeds (such as sorghum) were planted, the warrain holes in which tubers were harvested and the heads replanted, varied in size, depth and spatial patterning, depending on soil quality, elevation, gradient, repeated usage of the same area over time and local customary practices. By trapping and conserving rainwater, the zai and warrain pit systems were taking advantage of intermittent and unpredictable rainfall. The yam pits served as micro-catchments ensuring that the tubers received maximal water and nutrient enriched run-off during the growing season. We can only conjecture that this type of ecologically sutainable, indigenous tuber horticulture of Western Australia that employed scientific and cultural knowledge accumulated over many thousands of years of empirical observations and trial-and-error would have improved the predictability and productivity of this once important food staple of northern southwest Australia.

Conclusion



Yam pit horticulture was an efficient dry land farming technique where scarce and variable water resources were conserved in basin-like depressions in the ground and directed towards the tuber roots. Excess water that was not utilised by the plant would collect in the surrounding ground, and at deeper levels, thereby conserving ground moisture. This water-harvesting technique may have created micro-climates advantageous to tuber growth. Yam holes, especially on gently sloping ground, would have prevented erosion and increased the soil fertility by trapping plant debris and rich topsoil that otherwise would have been lost as run-off after heavy rainfall. These sunken depressions in the landscape must have functioned as a type of irrigation. Yam pit horticulture would have involved a deep and specialised scientific knowledge of the phenological cycles of the D. hastifolia yam plant and its tuber morphology, taste and nutritional value at different times of the year. There is no doubt in our minds its cultivation involved conscious and deliberate strategies to promote tuber growth (size and thickness) and to regularise and increase crop predictability. It was a self-maintaining horticultural system that, apart from the burning and harvesting activities, did not require all year-round human surveillance but left the yam cultivators free to attend to other seasonal plant and animal resources on their estate. These would have provided a wide range of nutrients and possibly a well-balanced diet.

The question that still remains is: If this indigenous-evolved horticultural practice has been so well documented by the early colonial recorders, then why is it that Nyungar (and Yamatji) people have not been acknowledged in the mainstream literature as traditional “hunter-gatherer-horticulturalists?” It is our view that a ‘hunter-gatherer-horticultural’ model would be a more appropriate designation than the widely accepted and promoted ‘hunter-gatherer’ or ‘forager’ label.

In this paper we have suggested that there may be functional similarities between the dry land pit horticultural methods such as the “zai” technique” used by traditional agriculturalists in northwest Africa and the methods once used in northern southwestern Australia. The anthropogenic techniques of pitting the landscape for the purpose of capturing essential water resources and nutrients to ensure plant growth should be investigated and revived as an effective means of conserving water for agriculture in our variable and drying climate. 

All plant specimens photographed in this work have been obtained from our property at Toodyay. It should be noted that it is an offence to collect any native plant or plant product from Crown Land without the appropriate license from the Department of Biodiversity and Conservation.

Our manuscript is still a work in process. We are open to comments and would be grateful to any readers who may have additional information that would contribute to an understanding of how indigenous tuber horticulture was practised in those regions where Dioscorea hastifolia was once cultivated by Nyungar and Yamatji people. 

This paper is based on research compiled over many years by research anthropologists Ken Macintyre and Dr Barb Dobson. The information derives from archival ethnohistorical sources as well as information sourced from contemporary Nyungar Elders and spokespersons. We would like to thank all Nyungar people (past and present) who over the years have assisted us by providing cultural information without which this paper would not have been possible. In particular we would like to acknowledge the assistance of Mr Iva Hayward-Jackson, Nyungah Land and Culture Protector and heritage consultant and co-author of this paper for his input and feedback on the ideas presented here. 

We would like to alert anyone who is intending to consume Nyungar bush tucker that many indigenous foods are toxic or bitter tasting without the proper processing and preparation. See https://anthropologyfromtheshed.com/beware-bush-food-can-be-dangerous/

ANNOTATIONS

1. Joobaitch (or Jubytch) from the Swan-Guildford area of Perth called the native Dioscorea yam warrain or warrein (as recorded by Bates in the early 1900’s). Hope (1916) also records the term used by Nyungar Elder Tommy Bimbar (1916) as warrain. Nyungar words usually have a number of variant spellings owing to it traditionally being an oral, not written language. Even the name of the people of southwestern Australia Nyungar can be spelt variously as Nyoongar, Noongar, Nyungah or Nyungar depending on individual or group preference. When unfamiliar sounds were rendered into the written word by the early colonial recorders, their different renderings reflected dialectical and regional variations in the Nyungar language and/or the recorder’s own cultural linguistic background and orthographic preference.

2. From our personal observations of the yam (D. hastifolia) growing in upland, stony, loamy soil environments, such as on the hill slope on our property at Toodyay, is that the plant searches out a moist niche, often growing in depressions and crevices between and under rocks during its growing season (around May to September). The yam is deeply buried and very difficult to dig, even with a steel crowbar, owing to the rocky granite terrain which provides a perfect mulch together with bark and other vegetative matter. Yam tubers take advantage of subsurface reservoirs of water that collect at the base of granite outcrops and rocky hollows and the surface rock provides a mulch that traps moisture, providing a favourable environment for yam tuber growth. The plant may be found in a semi-shaded location where it is associated with open woodland and shrubs that provide a natural trellis for its climbing vines. 



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