Philip Allan Clarke

Globally, there is increasing evidence that Indigenous peoples have manipulated plant and animal populations over millennia. The Bunya Pine (Araucaria bidwillii Hook.) is a coniferous tree native to subtropical and tropical eastern Australia, which produces 30-100 large, edible seeds within a large cone weighing 5-10 kgs. Endemic Bunya populations...

Australia is home to many distinctive species of birds, and Aboriginal peoples have developed close alliances with them over the millennia of their custodianship of this country. Aboriginal Peoples and Birds in Australia: Historical and Cultural Relationships provides a review of the broad physical, historical and cultural relationships that Aborig...

Collaborations between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous scientific researchers are increasingly mandated by global to local conservation policy and research ethics guidelines. Breakdowns occur due to misunderstandings around expected protocols of engagement and cooperation, which are compounded by lack of broader awareness of differences in cultural v...

During the 1840s European colonists found the naturally preserved body of an Aboriginal man deep within the Naracoorte Caves of South Australia, which were to become a major tourist destination. As an example of a so-called “petrified Aborigine”, the calcified body became a key attraction for nineteenth century tourists to the region, prior to its...

We evaluate the cultural, ecological, and horticultural potential for a distinctively Australian sweet food to provide a means of Indigenous cultural revitalization. Among the world's Indigenous peoples, the Australian Aboriginal use of the sweet exudations (lerps and scales) of plant sap-sucking insects (Hemiptera) is exceptional in many respects....

This paper reviews the Indigenous perception and use of australites as recorded in the Australian ethnographic literature. Aboriginal people perceived australites as having power derived from their Creation ancestors. There are accounts of australites being ritual objects used for healing, rain-making, hunting, sorcery and conveying messages. There...

This paper is a literature-based study concerning avian nomenclature of the Ngarrindjeri language formerly spoken in the Lower Murray River region of temperate South Australia. Ngarrindjeri and modern European Australian classification systems for birds were structurally different. There was no single Ngarrindjeri word that covered all birds. Some...

This paper is a literature review of the use of birds in the Indigenous material culture of the Lower Murray River region in temperate South Australia, as observed in the early years of British colonisation. This record is augmented with additional data from fieldwork in the 1980s and early 1990s. It was found that Aboriginal people in this region...

This paper is an ethnographic study of Indigenous bird foraging post-European settlement of the Lower Murray in rural temperate South Australia. The Aboriginal people of this region have developed unique relationships with the landscape, reflecting the retention of some pre-European Indigenous practices and the development of new traditions. Aborig...

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 Aust...

This paper is a literature review of bird foraging by Indigenous hunter-gatherers in the Lower Murray of temperate South Australia as observed in the early years of European settlement. The record is augmented with additional material from fieldwork in the 1980s and early 1990s. Bodies of knowledge associated with non-European experiences of the bi...

Beliefs in bird spirits are still widely held by the Indigenous people in the Lower Murray of temperate South Australia despite an overall decline in the perceived significance of creation ancestors since British colonization in the early nineteenth century. This paper investigates these cultural beliefs in avian spirits. Birds are seen as possessi...

This chapter discusses the adaptive capacity of coastal urban and peri-urban Indigenous People’s to climate change. It is based on the findings of a National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF) funded project that utilised a series of case studies that engaged key representatives from Indigenous organisations in five coastal locati...

This paper is a literature review of the relationships Indigenous peoples in the Lower Murray of temperate South Australia had with the local avifauna as recorded in the early years of European settlement. Birds were prominent as clan ancestors in their creation stories, being credited with the formation of landforms and the establishment of law an...

For the original residents and 'landscape planners' of the Australian continent, the some 60,000 years of accumulated ecological knowledge of the patterns and transformations of this continent held the memories and ecological knowledge of its Australian Aboriginal custodians and Elders. Much of this extensive oral knowledge is little listened to, h...

This paper is the second of three that collectively provides an account of the Aboriginal ethnobotany of the South East of South Australia. It concerns the use of the flora as food, medicine and narcotics. The plant uses documented include species of importance to hunter-gatherers and those that Aboriginal people utilised after European settlement....

This paper is the third and final instalment in a series that provides an account of the Aboriginal ethnobotany of the South East of South Australia. It concerns the cultural use and perception of the flora as reflected in Aboriginal mythology and language. The role of plants in the regional Aboriginal cultural geography is investigated, drawing fr...

This paper is the first of a series of three that together provide an account of the Aboriginal ethnobotany of the South East of South Australia. It concerns the influences of the seasonal life upon the cultural use and perception of the flora. The plant uses documented include species of importance to hunter-gatherers and those that Aboriginal peo...

With growing international calls for the enhanced involvement of Indigenous peoples and their biocultural knowledge in managing conservation and the sustainable use of physical environment, it is timely to review the available literature and develop cross-cultural approaches to the management of biocultural resources. Online spatial databases are b...

In the recorded mythology of Aboriginal Australia there is frequent mention of the Skyworld as the upper part of a total landscape that possessed topography linked with that of Earth and the Underworld. The heavens were perceived as a country with the same species of plants and animals that existed below. In Aboriginal tradition, large trees were s...

Australian Aboriginal ethnoastronomical traditions were recorded from a wide variety of sources in different periods. While the corpus of mythology concerning the heavens is diverse, it is unified by beliefs of a Skyworld as land with its own topography, containing plants and animals familiar to those living below. Spirits of the dead reside alongs...

In Aboriginal Australia, the corpus of cosmological beliefs was united by the centrality of the Skyworld, which was considered to be the upper part of a total landscape that possessed topography linked with that of Earth and the Underworld. Early historical accounts of classical Australian hunter-gatherer beliefs described the heavens as inhabited...

There are many ways to explore a culture other than your own. Early on in my career as an anthropologist I choose to use ethnobotany as the ‘window’ through which to gain insights into Aboriginal Australia. Ethnobotany is a diverse field of study that is concerned with the relationships between human cultures and the flora. In the past, it was main...

This paper provides an account of hunter-gatherer use of plants as sources of food, medicine and artefact-making material in the Adelaide region of South Australia. The historical record of Aboriginal life in this region has major gaps, which the current work has addressed using information gained from comparisons with cultures in contiguous areas.

This paper considers an Indigenous perspective on the rapidly transforming Australian environment and the impact of world climate change. It is largely based upon a National Climate Change Adaptation and Research Facility (NCCARF) research project, in progress, that is seeking to translate a south-eastern Australian Indigenous perspective of how cl...

Prior to the irreversible social and environmental changes to Australia brought on by European settlement, Aboriginal hunter-gatherers relied upon strategies to survive that were heavily built around their understanding of country, and in particular their detailed knowledge of ecological processes. The plants and animals that, together with the min...

Climate change is expected to have social, economic and environmental impacts on urban and peri-urban Indigenous communities inhabiting coastal areas throughout south-eastern Australia. These impacts include a loss of community and environmental assets, including cultural heritage sites, with significant impact on the quality of life of populations...

Climate change is expected to have social, economic and environmental impacts on urban and peri-urban Indigenous communities inhabiting coastal areas. These include a loss in community and environmental assets, including cultural heritage sites, with significant impact on the quality of life of populations inhabiting these areas. This paper will...

Plants are a fundamental part of the landscape that human cultures occupy and transform. In Australia, the flora has had a broad impact on the lives of Aboriginal hunter-gatherers, having provided them with the essential materials for making their food, medicine, narcotics and stimulants, as well as the means for manufacturing their weapons, tools,...

This paper uses a cultural anthropological approach to investigate an indigenous Australian perspective on atmospheric phenomena and seasons, using data gained from historical records and ethnographic fieldwork. Aboriginal people believe that the forces driving the weather are derived from Creation Ancestors and spirits, asserting that short term c...

This paper describes some of the commonalities and differences of Australian Aboriginal ethnoastronomical traditions recorded from a wide variety of sources in different periods and provides a sample of the available material. Although the mythology concerning the heavens is diverse, it is unified by beliefs in a Skyworld where spirits of the decea...

Before European settlement, the Murray River Valley provided a natural enclave for Aboriginal river culture, where hunters and gatherers utilised aquatic-based technology and lived in relatively high population densities. This chapter outlines the distinctiveness of Murray River culture in South Australia when Europeans first arrived and aims to de...

Colonists who arrived in Australia from 1788 used the bush to alleviate shortages of basic supplies, such as building materials, foods and medicines. They experimented with types of material that they considered similar to European sources. On the frontier, explorers and settlers gained knowledge of the bush through observing Aboriginal hunter-gath...

This book explores the impact of indigenous people upon the European discovery of Australian plants during the nineteenth century. Explorers were amazed at the unique plants and animals they encountered in the ‘Great South Land’. This land of gum trees and kangaroos became known as New Holland, then later as Australia. Back in Europe, scholars crav...

Early European records of indigenous Australian mythology describe the activities of Ancestral Creators and spirits. British colonisation was intense in the southern temperate regions, which became “settled Australia.” Here, Aboriginal mythology has undergone significant transformations in response to major social and cultural changes. Knowledge of...

Each human culture develops a set of relationships with the land it occupies. We can discover much about a people by looking closely at their association with plants, which are fundamental parts of the landscape that cultures occupy and transform. In Aboriginal Australia, the flora physically provides people with the means for making food, medicine...

When Europeans came to settle around Lake Eyre in the late 19th century, they discovered a widely dispersed Aboriginal population whose lives revolved around the lake, whether it was wet or dry by Philip A. Clarke ale European settlers to the Lake Eyre region desolate, for the Aboriginal hunters and gatherers who lived it was home. For the indigeno...

This paper is an ethnobotanical study of Indigenous relationships with Australian plants of the Poaceae family. The plant use categories discussed include artefact making, food and medicine. Grass is an important feature of the cultural landscape that Aborigines modified with their fires. Examples are given of its symbolic value with Aboriginal cul...

Since European settlement, Aboriginal peoole living in rural areas of southern South Australia have had a unique relationship to the landscape, reflecting both pre-European indigenous traditions and post-European historical influences. Aboriginal hunting, fishing and gathering practices in the twentieth century were not relics of a pre-European pas...

Australian ethnobotany maintains a common area of interest for a wide range of specialists, some of whom study the physical properties of plants and their potential for use by the wider community, while others focus upon the Indigenous cultural importance of plant species. Rather than being just an antiquarian pursuit, Australian ethnobotany offers...

Australian Aboriginal people see the social and physical aspects of their world as very closely interwoven. They believe that during a creation period, known in English as the "Dreaming," their spiritual Ancestors performed heroic deeds, and in doing so molded a relatively featureless landscape into the present form. These ancestral beings had huma...

The book considers the how Australian Aboriginal people relate to the Australian landscape, both culturally and physically. An Australian-wide overview of Aboriginal culture is provided, from the arrival of their ancestors over 50,000 years ago until the present. Aboriginal people have had impact upon the shape of Australia as Europeans first exper...

The early Aboriginal fishing technology of the Lower Murray region of South Australia is described and compared with other areas in southeastern Australia where fish was a dominant dietary component of hunters and gatherers. This is a study of cultural geography, the chief concern being a description of hunting and gathering techniques and their si...

Aboriginal people in the coastal region of South Australia had a broad relationship with whales. This is reflected in their hunting and gathering economy, mythology and totemism, and with their historical interaction with the first Europeans who arrived to hunt the whale. This paper provides a cultural geographical view of Aboriginal associations w...

For many indigenous communities living in former European colonies, cultural change occurs on several fronts, such as with language loss, cessation of religious practices, decline in artefact and art traditions, the movement away from key places in the landscape, and the loss of biological distinctiveness through intermarriage and population declin...

The Aboriginal collections in the South Australian Museum are very much a product of the historical relations between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. They also reflect the development of the discipline of anthropology itself. It is convenient to treat the collections in terms of four main periods: colonial (1800 to 1890s), ethnographic survey...

For over a century, the South Australian Museum has been deeply involved in and committed to the collection, study, display and interpretation of Indigenous cultures in the Australasian region. The Museum holds ethnographic collections from across Australia, in particular from South Australia and from the central and northern regions of the contine...

The ethnographic record of Aboriginal mythology in the Lower Murray cultural region of South Australia is dominated by accounts of male ancestral heroes, particularly Ngurunderi, Waiyungari and Nepeli. The analysis of the ethnographic accounts of the Waiyungari mythology in this paper gives greater understanding of the cultural landscape and provid...

In the historic and ethnographic record for Aboriginal culture in the Lower Murray, there is a body of mythology, on spirit beings, that does not directly relate to a creation period or as is sometimes referred to, the 'Dreaming'. Although not generally associated with land transforming events in the mythology, these beliefs are nonetheless reveali...

For many areas of Australia, particularly southern and eastern Australia where the impact of European settlement upon Aboriginal culture has been the most intense and pervading, the accounts of the astronomical beliefs are chiefly based on sources from the early 19th century. This type of information is often unreliable, being compiled by observers...

The diet of the early Aboriginal people who lived in the temperate region of South Australia was diverse. Here, the available plant food categories included fruits, seeds, nectar, sugar lerp, gums, greens and tubers. Some of these were staple foods that were depended upon when more highly favoured seasonal foods were not readily available. Early Eu...

This paper provides an overview of recorded accounts of Aboriginal beliefs from southern South Australia concerning the cosmos. This study is restricted to discussing a pre-European system of beliefs. Star maps are provided for the Adelaide and Lower Murray areas.

In July 1836 the first settlers of the South Australia Company landed on Kangaroo Island, officially founding the colony of South Australia. These were not the first people to inhabit the island. A small community of European, American and Aboriginal people were living there beyond colonial control from 1802 and perhaps earlier. These were men who...

The ethnographic record of Aboriginal mythology in the Lower Murray cultural region of South Australia provides a number of accounts which describe the activities of the main 'Dreaming' ancestor, Ngurunderi. Rather than attempting to standardise the cultural data, this diversity is used here to examine Aboriginal perceptions of the landscape that r...

This paper discusses the importance of underground plant parts as sources of food, medicine, string fibre, narcotics, pigments and drinking water in southern South Australia. Information was obtained from contemporary Aboriginal accounts and historical sources. In spite of an earlier view of the flora of the region as providing meagre food resource...