At the Botanic Gardens of Sydney, a decolonisation initiative is underway.
In consultation with traditional custodians, Elders, and local language knowledge holders, horticultural displays will be updated as part of a ‘multi-naming project’ to reflect the First Nations, scientific and English names of plants.
Jake Ferguson is a Bidjigal-Dharawal, Wailwan, Biripi and Bundjalung man who runs bush tucker tours through the Royal Botanic Garden. He says the initiative is a step in the right direction.
“Our language is a part of us,” he said.
“Our language words also bring massive insight … it’s not just a place name but also spiritual knowledge, understanding of the geography of the area.
“Being able to walk through the Botanic Gardens and see the multi-naming on the plants allows for a greater understanding and connection.”
Jake Ferguson leading a bush tucker tour. Source: SBS News / Jennifer Scherer
On Mr Ferguson’s tour, he stops by the Davidson’s Plum, named after John Ewen Davidson, the ‘owner’ of the land at Rockingham Bay in Far North Queensland where the tree was ‘first found’ in the 1860s.
“Ooray” is one of the First Nations names given to the plant, Mr Ferguson tells the group, before inviting everyone to take a bite of its sour fruit.
While the Botanical Gardens of Sydney are still in the early consultation stages of the project, some signs can be found in the gardens already. It’s hoped it will become a meaningful reconciliation initiative.
Across Australia, there are more than 250 First Nations languages, including around 800 dialects, which has led to many plants being given multiple First Nations names.
As a result, the Botanical Gardens of Sydney — made up of The Royal Botanic Garden, the Australian Botanic Garden Mt Annan and the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden — says it plans to undergo a vigorous verification process as the collection holds many native plants sourced locally as well as from across Australia.
A sign at the Royal Botanical Garden in Sydney, showing visitors the First Nations name, common name and scientific name of a plant. Source: SBS News / Jennifer Scherer
“It can be a complex process to find, verify and use the correct scientific, colloquial and First Nations names for trees and other plants,” Royal Botanical Garden curator manager Jarryd Kelly said.
“First Nations plant names are embedded in rich cultural knowledge that reflects diverse plant uses, ecological relationships, seasonal changes, and other significance.”
And it needs to be done in the right way, he says.
Jarryd Kelly says the naming project is complex. Source: SBS News / Jennifer Scherer
“The process of the gardens working with the community to find out the names … it’s actually going deep into the understanding,” he said.
“It’s not just having it at face value, it’s actually having legitimate insight into language, which are the oldest languages on planet Earth.
“The Botanic Gardens is on Farm Cove, one of the first points that first contact was made, so the decolonisation of this area is important. “
Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden was established in 1816 on Gadigal land along the shores of Sydney Harbour. Now the three Botanic Gardens of Sydney contain one of the country’s largest collections of native and overseas plants, but the institution is reckoning with its own role in colonisation.
“The Botanic Gardens is where our flora has been captured,” said Ray Ingrey, a Dharawal person from the La Perouse Aboriginal community and chairperson of the Gujaga Foundation.
“It’s happened since day one with the Endeavour voyage; Sir Joseph Banks and the crew of the Endeavour were collecting plant species during their eight days of their stay at Kamay at Botany Bay.”
The name Botany Bay was coined during this period as the collection of plants there was deemed bountiful.
For the Dharawal people, the flora at Kamay is of great significance. Plants are markers of seasonal change, hold deep connections to ancestors, are prominent in creation stories and provided food as well as medicine.
“Because there was no engagement with Aboriginal people during that time … there was a lot of information that could have been gathered there which was a missed opportunity, but that practice then continued.”
A botanical illustration from Joseph Banks’ manuscript. Credit: Mary Evans / Natural History Museum
Most Australian plants are named by European botanists who studied specimens sent back from early colonial expeditions and titled them through Western scientific conventions.
In the case of Joseph Banks, a British naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences, the banksia was named after him.
“Back in the 19th century, many taxonomists were funded by rich people, which meant many plants and animals were named after the rich patrons,” said Dr Kevin Thiele, a taxonomist and adjunct associate professor at the University of Western Australia.
“But some of those rich patrons were rich because of egregious activities.”
Dr Thiele gives the example of the plant genus Hibbertia, commonly known as guinea flowers.
The spreading guinea flower (Hibbertia procumbens) and George Hibbert. Credit: Wikimedia commons: Kevin Thiele, Thomas Lawrence. This image has been digitally altered.
“George Hibbert was a slave trader, he ran ships across on the trans-Atlantic slave trade and he made a motza out of slavery,” he said.
“He was a rich and wealthy person who could become a patron of the arts and sciences, he had a garden and employed gardeners and was the first person to grow many Australian plants in London.
“Because of his wealth, he was honoured with the genus name Hibbertia, but his wealth was very ill-got.”
other examples throughout history including a rare Slovenian cave beetle, Anophthalmus hitleri , that was named in 1933 after Adolf Hitler; and a Great Barrier Reef coral, Catalaphyllia jardinei, named after Frank Jardine, who was at the forefront of First Nations dispossession in the Cape York Peninsula and Torres Strait Islands.
“As a society, there is a lot in the past that needs to be reckoned with,” he said.
“There are so many ways in which we need to recognise and heal the injustices of the past, and properly recognising and understanding the validity of First Nations names for plants and animals is one small way.”
National Reconciliation Week is held from 27 May to 3 June.
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