Through places like AIATSIS, we can wake up the people with knowledge… There might be precious mysteries to help us understand ourselves again. We can look to the past to find our way.’ — Wanta Jampijinpa Pawu-Kurlpurlurnu (Steve Jampijinpa Patrick), Lajamanu, NT
Below is my attempt to ‘wake up the people with knowledge’ – turns out AIATSIS is not interested in ‘precious mysteries’ involving the wider Kamilaroi nation if they fail to meet standards of ‘academic rigour’
Im often following up Indig media stories to see if the researchers will help me with the TinTs. Recently I was looking at the AIATSIS website & clicked the research links thru to the submissions page. From previous experience with this bureaucracy – I knew they never reply to emails EVER. So I fed in 2 of my previously published online journal articles from last year. I was trying to find someone to talk to about TinTs & possibly collaborate on another paper but wasn’t sure how to make contact. We had wild storms & a 2 day power blackouts here that week so I didn’t get back to the website.
On the 10th Feb 2015 Dr Robyn Smith replied (Larrakia Country Research Publications Officer Communications, Media, Publishing & Shop) “Thank you for your article submissions to Australian Aboriginal Studies.I will respond to you via the Scholastica portal, but I wanted to explain my response in a little more detail so you understand why the articles were ‘rejected’.
“In short, they fail to meet the academic rigour required for the journal, which is peer reviewed and must meet certain standards.It is clear you have extraordinary knowledge in this area and have taken a great deal of time and effort to document various aspects of it as well as seek the input of Aboriginal people on whose country this is evident.”
Robyn went on to ask if there was someone who can help you “knock the articles into academic shape?” (I wish) Also I should be writing in the 3rd person & the abbreviation of Trees in Trees should be Ts-in-Ts not TinTs (Really would that help sell the concept?)
Here is my reply on the 11th of Feb
Hi Robyn, sorry miscommunication on my part. Those 2 articles/ short communications have already been published last year as has the pdf Ive attached – Corpus publishers.
– Corpus Journal of Arboriculture and Horticulture (CJOAH) Volume 1 Issue 1, 2024
The one below I sent you was published by Juniper publishers
https://juniperpublishers.com/jojwb/articleinpress-jojwb.php (Juniper publishers)
(volume 5 issue2)
This was my 1st attempt – Trees in Trees a Report from Remote Australia -T& F online that title was suggested by the editor btw
https://doi.org/10.1080/15592324.2023.2286392 (Plant Signaling & Behavior Volume 18, 2023 – Issue 1 – Taylor & Francis online
I am also 2nd author of an Australian Journal of Botany paper published last year called ‘Unusual, human-mediated prevalence of epiphytes in a semi-arid environment, north-western New South Wales, Australia’ which might be more up your alley? 3 of the authors are from the local Walgett/ Lightning ridge Aboriginal community that I used to work with.
What you don’t seem to understand is that Im the only one pushing for this cultural practice of growing trees in other trees to be recognised. The most important ethno-botanical discovery in a century & no one gives a shit? You really think ‘academic rigour’ is so important that you would disqualify those 2 papers on the style in which they are written? How many Aboriginal people do you think actually study Australian Aboriginal Studies?
14th Feb 2025 Oh! Understood – many thanks. Dr Robyn Smith Larrakia CountryResearch Publications OfficerCommunications, Media, Publishing & Shop (CMPS)
What l dont understand is why international journals will publish my articles but AIATSIS wont? Are you interested in Aboriginal culture as its expressed on the trees? Kamilaroi Euahlayi & Wailwun people were growing trees in other trees out here – what are you going to do to encourage research or mainstream publicity into this practice? Surely you are not going to ignore those 4 published papers/ articles? Please get back to me with a plan, Jane
24th Feb 2025 I’m not going to debate you, Jane. Dr Robyn Smith Larrakia CountryResearch Publications OfficerCommunications, Media, Publishing & Shop (CMPS)
Robyn Im not wanting debate Im wanting help. Im a working farmer – this morning I mustered about 7000 acres to yard approx 3000 dorper ewes & lambs – that is my job. Your job as a Research Publications Officer I expect is to research Indigenous culture. I cannot bring this cultural phenomenon to light on my own. There are 1080 or so TinTs on my website – when I retire in the next couple of years NO ONE will know where they are. If you cant help me, surely someone at AIATSIS you know who would be interested? Do you have any Kamilaroi Yuwaalaraay or Wailwun descendants? There are no other people in the world who have done this – do you not think it amazing? Or do you think the TinTs are the result of birdshit basically? Can you/ someone at AIATSIS help me research this or not
NO REPLY since 24th of Feb so I will that to mean NO WE WONT
If Aboriginal institutions like AIATSIS, Elders groups & Land councils won’t recognise the work of the ancestors, who will? Dr Robyn Smith has a Masters in cultural heritage but is more interested in colonial massacres than CMTs. Robyn is from Larrakia country (Darwin NT) but there are plenty of Kamilaroi academics but they’ve never contacted me or been to see the CMTs. Here are some Indig. academics claiming K/Gamilaroi descent – Carlyn Waters, Melitta Hogarth, Joshua Waters, Amy Thunig, Marcus (Woolombi) Waters, Tracey Cameron, Macarlya Waters & Corey Tutt – WHERE ARE YOU?
Sadly academic ignorance & apathy has led to the dumbing down of Indig culture in Australia. In order to demystify or simplify the diverse cultures of 250 different nations they have been condensed into WTC talks, dot paintings & didgeridoos. Planting trees in other trees and keeping them alive for many years around the traditional campsites was an extraordinary & globally unique practice. However none of this botanical genius of the wider Kamilaroi nation will never be known by the general public or the even the local community. Below is a wilga in box TinT from Ford’s bridge (Ngiyampaa) which has a 13 -14 “rainfall. The 44 gal drum next to it is a dog kennel so the house must be nearby. The white settlers in low rainfall zones built their homes where the Aboriginal people had their historical camps for the scarce water resources.
Thankyou to Sandra Winsor for pics – one of the only true believers who has a wilga TinT in her veg patch & a rosewood TinT at the garden gate at Gulargambone Station where she lived for years.
Now back to an earlier blog where I speculated that the Wailwun may have used discarded fencing material to protect a TinT – TOTALLY FALSE – sorry. I took my 90 yr old mother out to show her the place on “Marungle” where she grew up & she said they used to lambmark there. The chicken wire & pine stakes that were embedded in & around the wilga in blackbox TinT were part of a temporary yard. Tetanus outbreaks in the soil around permanent sheep yards caused graziers to build temporary yards elsewhere to mark (castrate, de-tail) merino lambs. This is the TinT below – while the TinT is cultural the wire & wood stakes are not
Here is a nearby wilga TinT or Ts-in-Ts (thanks Robyn) & another blackbox which has engulfed the old fencing wire
Sadder than the AIATSIS rejection of my 2024 previously published international journal articles is the loss of my old black kelpie LooLoo.
Looloo left today, killer of native wildlife
& teacher of pups to roundup sheep (after hours)
Smotherer of many merinos over the years ‘helping’ backpackers
& champion fence flattener with dorpers.
A good dog life by any measure.
