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We are Australia’s only national institution focused exclusively on the diverse history, cultures and heritage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia. 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.’ […]

Since I chose not to sign up for any social media it came as a shock to read what the racist cretins of this country had to say about Micaela Hambrett’s article “Culturally modified trees ‘a national treasure’ in outback NSW”. Originally published online by the ABC in November last year, the article is now […]

The Grampians in Vic. are alight again & threatening farms and small towns like the fires there in Feb earlier this year. The Aboriginal word for this place is “Gariwerd” and there are many ancient rock paintings as well the threatened Greater glider & Brush tailed Phascogale living there. ‘Precious environmental assets’ going up in […]

Much has happened since I wrote the Iast blog so I hope I don’t forget anything important. Ive been walking up around Cumborah again and found some astonishing trees. The problem is that since the 3G shut down there is bugga all mobile service up there so no geotags on my phone photos. When this […]

(Professor Stephen D. Hopper AC BSc (Hons) PhD Hon DSc FLS FTSE … not Charlie Windsor) I met Steve Hopper over in W.A at the Kwodjet Goorliny Symposium in Albany (Noongar boodja) back in May.  He’s the top Australian botanist/ ecologist of his generation with a particular interest in indigenous knowledge systems and conservation as […]

I lost my old dog Looloo this week but it turned out she wasn’t dead but hidden under a large plastic trough. Why she had dug under there or why she didn’t bark to let me find her I don’t know. A dog’s lifespan is short compared to ours while our life span is short […]

Some of the trees I’ve come across in the last month should reset our collective consciousness as to what the ancestors were capable of. The big Gali gurranaa camp at Cumborah should also put to bed the last of the academic theories on bird shit causing Trees in Trees. Botanist and expert in arid zone […]

Gali-birraa = WWWs (whitewood water wells) I’ve been watching the whitewoods a lot lately and checking to see if any are holding water. You can’t speculate about how trees were used pre-colonial times until you have either Indig. cultural memory or you can establish a pattern. It was the same with the TinTs but this […]

Its farmers who are now rediscovering NSW’s enduring CMTs & finding ways to safeguard them. We aren’t getting much help with state Govt. legislation lagging well behind what is required. The only CMTs protected within NSW’s guidelines are the ordinary scarred trees. Ringtrees, TinTs, culturally burnt trees, birthing trees, translocated trees/ shrubs etc – are […]

Just back from Albany W.A and a symposium on the Walking Together project led by Prof. Stephen Hopper & the Menang, Goreng  Merningar Elders. The walking together project went for 4 years and was partially sponsored by Lotterywest to explore traditional noongar land management techniques & cultural collaboration. Priscilla, Jen & I spoke (despite my […]