Lets sum up what we know in this blog then look at where we need to go next. Trees in Trees, or TinTs for short, are known as accidental woody epiphytes in the academic world. Accidental epiphytes are plants that grow on trees – like orchids or strangler figs – but don’t feed off them. Mistletoe grows on trees too but they are stem parasites and bludge off their hosts. Like the Leafless cherry/ballart except mirrii are root parasites. There are plenty of small accidental woody epiphytes growing in coastal forests because it’s so cool, wet and humid. West of Walgett, where the vast majority of TinTs are found, the climate is hot and dry. We only have a 16 – 18” (400 – 450 ml) average yearly rainfall. The average temperature in summer in 35 degrees Celsius with low all year round humidity.
I don’t think all the TinTs here are accidental (natural) – I think the majority are deliberately planted (anthropological). Most accidental epiphytes around the world grow in tropical zones and are less than 1 meter TALL. Some of the guest trees here are over 1 meter AROUND and have flowers and fruit like any other common scrub tree. Trees in Trees out here do not live alone. They are found around the old Aboriginal camps with other Culturally Modified Trees (CMTs) like scarred trees, traditionally burnt trees and Ringtrees. I think the reason this cultural practice has been forgotten is due to the chaos of colonisation where the Kamilaroi, Euahlayi & Wailwun were dispossessed from their lands and thousands died from European diseases and violence.
I think the Aboriginal ancestors grew native trees in special hollow eucalypts here and watered them with coolamons. Once the seed/seedling has been planted in the rich humus inside old gum trees, it would need occasional watering until the roots reached the ground. Or close enough to draw up moisture through a capillary action gardener’s call ‘wicking’. Some guests live 10 – 15 foot up the trunk but this could be the result of extensive suckering? There is also the possibility that some of the guest species are feeding parasitically on the host tree. This would make them parasites not epiphytes. 99.9% of scrub trees grow in hollow eucalypts but there are rare instances where they are growing in solid non eucalypts as well. How is this even possible – ask the ancestors?
The only oral history we have for this old cultural practice comes from Walgett Elder Allan Tighe who sent me this text in March 2021 “I herd from this area from the old people planted new tree when someone important was born and in the dead parts of trees when some person pass on” . Allan was given this information 50 years ago by the late Reggie Murray, a respected local knowledge keeper. Allan thinks the TinTs are basically a memorial to a significant person who had passed away. The guest tree was not chosen at random but came from the person’s ‘dhe’ or set of hereditary totems. One of the most common totem groups here is the Emu or dinewan. Amongst the dinewan’s sub-totems is the sacred wilga tree (dheal) which is the most common guest tree.
This website costs over $800 per year for yearly hosting, support and maintenance and I also cover expenses for carbon dating material sent to the US. I get no support from any Govt. or Indig. organisations, CSIRO, LLS or any random NGOs/ Environmental groups I’ve approached. I get no help from the local Dharriwaa Elders Group (DEG) or the Walgett Aboriginal Land Council (WALC). I get no replies from the ABC, Skynews or any media except for foreign scientific journal employees at Juniper publishers and Taylor & Francis online. Ive been dumped by the gossips & xenophobes east of Walgett for my interest in all things indigenous. Also by the local black justice crusaders who complain of my white privilege while working $150,000+p.a Aboriginal only jobs. Yes I am aware we are living on ‘stolen’ land as you say, but my generation of farmers didn’t steal it.
So if you are reading this 10 years or more down the track & there is still no mainstream knowledge of the TinTs , you may be wondering why I spent so much time and energy on a lost cause. Why I lost so many friendships following an unlikely passion for these astonishing memorial trees? After all I have no Aboriginal ancestry. Would I go down this path again? Bloody oath I would! I would do it all again over & over for that rush of pure joy that absolutely floors you when you first find these old TinTs. The sheer implausibility of a semi nomadic people growing these chimeras in a semi arid landscape such as this. The only regret I have is that I didn’t get to spend more time around Elders with real knowledge of country such as old Ted Fields, Freddie Walford & Allan Tighe.
Now Instead of research initiatives or any academic interest in the TinTs we have politics, duplication and institutionalised ignorance. The hydrologists from BEES (Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences) at UNSW were paid by the DEG / Dharriwaa to test the Walgett water. They came out here 3 times testing our artesian (bore) water which is about 630 metres deep & already tested regularly by the NSW DPI (Dept. of Primary Industries). They never tested the underground river (paleochannel) water that is only 9 meters deep and was actually used by the ancestors. Except for Jen Silcock & Russell Fairfax no academics have ever been out see any of the 30 odd extraordinary cohabiting trees within a km of the native well. UNSW (University of NSW) has no money to investigate the TinTs or the well water apparently but 10.3 million to throw behind – as it turned out, throw away – on the YES campaign for the voice. Good one …
I have been asking Wendy Spencer, the non indigenous project manager of the DEG to help get the TinTs categorized & protected under the banner of Culturally Modified Trees since October 2020. It’s illegal in NSW to damage CMTs and the fines are upwards of $10,000.The DEG website says this;
Dharriwaa Elders Group (“DEG”) is an Aboriginal cultural organisation which works to support Elders wellbeing, protect Aboriginal cultural heritage, promote local Aboriginal cultural knowledge, values and identity, and manage natural and knowledge resources.
Currently there is no protection for the TinTs and no research planned so the descendants of what Allan Tighe calls the “old clever people” can benefit. We need botanists or anthropologists or archaeologists or arborists or journalists or any Aboriginal knowledge holders to step up. I want to make a short documentary on the TinTs. If I had a dollar for every email Ive written/ every visitor I’ve carted around in my SxS showing the hundreds of CMTs & TinTs here, I could finance it myself. Wendy Spencer tells me she has an ”Ateam now for doco capability” but that “We aren’t planning to be involved” in the making of a short TinT video. So much for protecting Aboriginal cultural heritage & promoting local Aboriginal cultural knowledge.
You can ask Wendy why she wont help on 68282619 or 0427260044 or [email protected] – Or you can contact the ARC (Australian Research Council) [email protected] or [email protected] to ask why there is no support for TinT research. If there is no interest in the TinTs there will be no access after 2025 so get your shit together – Yuwaya Ngarra-li
