People, Place, and Plants - An Investigation of Indigenous Landscape Use and Resource Curation in Western Cape York Peninsula

Abstract

<p>This thesis presents the results of an investigation into Aboriginal curatorial practices and landscape use at Weipa, western Cape York Peninsula (CYP), northeastern Australia. It does this via a case study working with the Anathangayth, Ndrua’angaith and Thanakwithi people whose homelands are situated across the Weipa Peninsula. The aim was to highlight the significance of plants in curatorial practices and to show how landscapes have been shaped by gatherer-hunters to support foodways, as well as to engage with ethnography and archaeology to investigate plants in past curatorial practices. Since the proposal of earlier domicultural models in the region, there has been limited subsequent research into these curatorial practices (Cribb, 1996; Cribb et al., 1988; Morrison and Shepard, 2013). This research also helps to address a regional bias towards coastal ecosystems and towards mound sites, but it also shows that there are commonalities in the regional setting in terms of plants valued and ecosystem association.</p><p>Participatory on-Country research and archaeological field surveys were undertaken with Traditional Owners at Weipa. The focus was specifically at the inland setting at Waypandan, to investigate Aboriginal use of a range of ecological niches not subject to previous research to help explain broad land use and curatorial practices across Aboriginal landscapes. The community indicated that the ways plants provide and nourish people is one way to understand the complex social relationship that Aboriginal people foster with the ecological world. This suggests that a domicultural model can be applied to understand settlement patterns, foodways and the kinds of practices associated with use of specific ecosystems. In this way curation is not so much about resource production but social wellbeing and maintenance which highlight the complex social, ecological, and cultural dimensions of Aboriginal landscapes. </p><p>An analysis of core codes that emerged from open coding of oral history interviews and references featured in the Indigenous Biocultural Knowledge (IBK) database explored the ways that specific plants and ecosystems are socially valued. It found that people’s social relationship with plants is connected to a deeper attachment to all things on Country linked to culturally meaningful interactions with local ecologies and keystone places. These places are subtle ecologies that encompass the invisible or fleeting actions of people and are about managing relations with place. A familiarity with the whole landscape acknowledges the deep attachment and history of a given group, and this influences the types of relationships that people have with landscape. Curatorial practices at Waypandan can be identified by key spatial interaction points such as ecosystems in the landscape established by patterns of re-use, and individual and group rights to access resource landscapes legitimately. This was also signposted by the archaeology which showed that people were engaging with places in a variety of ways and that shell, stone, and plants are significant in inland curatorial practices and contributed to the social complexity of foodways at Waypandan.</p> <p>This thesis concludes that research centred on Aboriginal meaning and interpretation offers valuable insight into local foodways particularly as a useful tool for understanding social relationships between people, place, and plants. At Waypandan it was found that when plants and subtle ecologies are viewed as tangible features this helps emphasise the social, ecological, and economic relationships that underpin place creation and can help expand understandings of how Aboriginal landscapes are socially constructed. This in turn sheds light on the curation of landscapes and can help characterise the social, cultural, economic, and technological practices that relate to plant use.</p>