Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/20872
Title: | Towards Intimate Relations: Gesture and Contact Between Plants and People | Contributor(s): | Ryan, John C (author) | Publication Date: | 2012 | Open Access: | Yes | DOI: | 10.4225/03/58520761a545a | Handle Link: | https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/20872 | Abstract: | The Christmas Tree ('Nuytsia floribunda') is a small tree that flowers brilliantly in yellow-orange in the middle of December and only grows in the Southwest corner of Western Australia. It is the world's largest parasitic plant and one of the first Australian flowers recorded by the crew of the Dutch vessel 'Gulden Zeepaert' in the early seventeenth century. For the Nyoongar, the Aboriginal people of the Southwest, the Christmas Tree is the final resting place of the soul of the deceased before embarking to the afterlife. Although spiritually significant, the Christmas Tree has also been used as a food. Writing in the 1880s, Ethel Hassell reported that 'Nuytsia' root was eaten like candy: "[Aboriginal people gave me] one of the roots to taste, telling me it was called mungah. The outer skin was pale yellow but easily stripped off leaving a most brittle centre tasting very like sugar candy". As Hassell further relates, a ghoulish creature called a gnolum, in the form of a very tall and thin man enticed boys away by offering them 'mungah' roots. | Publication Type: | Journal Article | Source of Publication: | Philosophy Activism Nature (9), p. 29-36 | Publisher: | PAN Partners | Place of Publication: | Australia | ISSN: | 1443-6124 | Fields of Research (FoR) 2008: | 200502 Australian Literature (excl. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Literature) | Fields of Research (FoR) 2020: | 470502 Australian literature (excl. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander literature) | Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2008: | 969999 Environment not elsewhere classified 959999 Cultural Understanding not elsewhere classified 970120 Expanding Knowledge in Language, Communication and Culture |
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2020: | 280116 Expanding knowledge in language, communication and culture 280114 Expanding knowledge in Indigenous studies |
Peer Reviewed: | Yes | HERDC Category Description: | C1 Refereed Article in a Scholarly Journal |
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Appears in Collections: | Journal Article School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences |
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