Book Club February 2025 Plants – Past, Present and Future
First Knowledges: Plants – Past, Present and Future
By Zena Cumpston, Michael-Shawn Fletcher, and Lesley Head
Our first book for the inaugural meeting of the newly established FLEC Eco Book Club was PLANTS: Past, Present, and Future. It is one of the six books in the First Knowledges collection, the others being SONGLINES, DESIGN, COUNTRY, ASTRONOMY, and INNOVATION. This series of books is an amalgamation of Indigenous wisdom and knowledge, researched and written by Indigenous scholars and scientists for the 21st-century reader. All of these books are available from the FLEC library.
PLANTS focuses on some of the important staple plants used by Indigenous peoples from different nations, ecologies, and geographies. In each case, we learn how these plants—some still abundant, others not—were used and how their stories were woven into cultural understanding and knowledge, some of which is now sadly lost.
This is a fascinating book that illustrates how Australia’s native plants helped nations thrive for thousands of generations. It also offers hope for more resilient ways of feeding ourselves in a climate-changed future. Throughout the book, there is a poignant sadness about what has been lost; at times, the author’s grief is palpable. However, ultimately, it is a hopeful call to action, urging all Australians to take the time to learn the cultural and ecological history of Australia and to nurture and love Country.
"When you look after Country, your mother, she will look after you."
Some of the main takeaways:
“Country holds all knowledge, and without Country, it is very difficult to pass knowledge on”
Urban areas are still Country.
Indigenous people are the first scientists.
Palaeoecology is the study of how landscapes change over time.
Grass is at the heart of the story of Country.
Abundance was possible through the careful and efficient use of plants.
Cumbungi (bullrushes, Typha) was one of the most important plants used for food across the Murray-Darling river system.
Yams have starchy, edible tubers, grow all over the country, and can have tubers up to a metre and a half deep! They were an important food source.
Women were mainly responsible for caring for yam grounds, but since colonisation, yam grounds have steeply declined.
Grinding stones were passed down through the generations to grind, among other things, Quandong stones for medicines.
Last but not least, my personal favourite, Spinifex. Did you know that there are at least 69 species of Spinifex, it is an extremely versatile plant with dozens of uses and is endemic to Australia. Not just a pretty face on our dunes, so many more uses.
A big thank you for attending our first meeting, we hope you had fun talking plants, books and ideas.