| I remember feeling
very frustrated in primary school when our teacher told us that
Aboriginal children grew up learning to use all their senses,
to be far more alert to the details in nature, and to know the
usefulness of different plants. I wanted to know why did we
not learn from them and include it in our eductaion too, but
no further mention was ever made by any of our teachers.
Far more recently I was talking with an Aboriginal who told
me there are many remedies using native plants that the old
people of his tribe still know of but will not share with anyone
because of the way some of their information has been abused.
When they die, the young man told me, the cures will die with
them. There has already been an enormous loss of information
as native peoples have been displaced from their homelands or
died of introduced diseases and other causes over the last couple
of centuries of European occupation in Australia.
Still, we do have some information handed down to us both
from aborigines who have managed to stay in touch with their
culture and from the early white explorers who took notes on
the Aboriginal societies of the time.
'Wild Food in Australia' by A. B. and J. W. Cribb, 'Bush Heritage'
by P.and S. Symons and 'Bush Medicine' by Tim Low offer the
following insights. Cures of course varied between different
tribes throughout the country.
Rheumatism cures included cunjevoi juice, which is also recommeded
to relieve the pain induced by the leaves of stinging tree (Dendrocnide,
a member of the stinging nettle family). The stinging tree leaves
themselves have also been used - I can't help wondering (having
been stung more than once) if this was a genuine cure or a means
to stop people from complaining about their rheumatism.
Various Eucalyptus species, the related Melaleuca, plus the
native Hibiscus and a few other species were used to relieve
symptoms of coughs and colds.
Headaches were cured by various means, but perhaps sometimes
the sufferer would prefer to keep the headahce. Cribb and Cribb
report that the leaves of a climbing plant (Clematis glycinoides)
was crushed and vigorously sniffed. The result is a pungent
smell and an 'unexpected burning sensation in the nasal passages.
Headaches are soon forgotten as the patient wonders whether
the top of his head has been blown off.' A gentler cure was
the inner bark of the bat's wing coral tree (Erythrina vespertilio).
Sap from the vine Flagellaria indica was used to relieve sore
eyes.
Diarrhoea was treated by eating the pseudo-bulbs of an orchird
(Cymbidium madidum), native rasberry (Rubus) leaves, the gum
of eucalypts or the root (after soaking in hot water) of the
shrub Grewia retusifolia.
Snake-bite was treated in some areas by a poultice from a
coolibah tree (the coolibah of 'Waltzing Matilda' fame - Eucalyptus
microtheca). Also used for this purpose plus fomentation for
bites of stingrays, spiders etc. were the leaves of a native
convolvulus Ipomoea pes-carpae.
The itching of insect bites was treated with the juice from
young bracken stems.
Heavy bleeding could be retarded by firmly pressing crushed
and heated leaves of the Peanut tree (Sterculia quadrifolia)
over the wound. The leaves of the mat rush (Lomandra longifolia)
were used as bandages for sores and abcesses.
Pregnancy is said to be avoided by eating the fruit of the
Quinine bush (Petalostigma pubescens) or the leaves of a native
'cherry' Exocarpus latifolius.
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