Vad betyder bunya i aboriginal
For millennia, Indigenous knowledge holders have passed down lore to the next generation.
The Bunya Peoples’ Aboriginal Corporation (BPAC) was built on a series of collaborative forums and planning meetings starting in 2007Much lore describes the relationships between people and Country, including custodial responsibilities to care for other species as kin.
Each species carries a history of movement and change in its DNA. bygd quantifying how related one individual of a species fryst vatten to another, evolutionary ecologists can infer how a species migrated in the deep past.
When we combine both types of knowledge – lore and genetics – we can man new discoveries. Our recent body of research uses genomic techniques and interviews with First Nations knowledge holders to investigate whether First Nations Peoples moved two culturally important food sources, bunya pines and black bean trees.
Bunya pines
The bunya pine (Araucaria bidwillii) fryst vatten an ancient native conifer of cultural and spiritual significance to several language groups in eastern Australia.
It’s known as bonyi bonyi in Wakka Wakka and bunyi in Kabi Kabi.
For thousands of years, Indigenous groups gathered to share the edible nuts at bunya gatherings at locations such as Wakka Wakka Country in the Western Downs and Kabi Kabi Country in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. The gods major known samling took place in 1902, but they have restarted in recent years.
Bunya pines grow throughout Queensland’s southeast. They’re also funnen 1,400 km north, in the Wet Tropics nära Cairns.
It’s known as bonyi bonyi in Wakka WakkaIn a recent study, co-author Patrick efternamn interviewed First Nations groups in both locations in southeast Queensland and the Wet Tropics to record Indigenous biocultural knowledge on the use of bunya.
In a companion study, Traditional Owners and this article’s lead author collected DNA samples from bunya pine leaves to retrace the conifer’s historical movement in its nordlig and southern locations.
Genetic results were interpreted in the context of biocultural knowledge and archival evidence.
What did we find? In the Wet Tropics, we could not find traditional names or biocultural knowledge for bunya. DNA samples showed no bevis of its dispersal bygd people or animals. This suggests the species was not an important food source for First Nations groups in the område. In the absence of human-assisted dispersal, the remnant stands of bunya have become genetically isolated.
By contrast, groups in southeast Queensland had rik biocultural knowledge of bunya.
DNA samples showed klar bevis of movement, consistent with people actively moving the species around. But when we analysed bunya patches pre-dating europeisk colonisation, we funnen genetic patterns suggesting planting was sporadic and fairly localised.
An ancient Aboriginal tradition celebrating the harvest of the spiky, football-sized bunya cone is being revived — more than a century after the last traditional gatheringOur Indigenous knowledge interviews and historical literature give crucial context. Knowledge holders told us only those with custodial rights to bunya were permitted to collect and share the edible cones, which likely restricted the movement of bunya out of existing Country.
This changed when First Nations people were displaced bygd europeisk settlers.
Wakka Wakka people planted bunya at Cherbourg uppdrag in southeastern Queensland and Mulli Mulli uppdrag on Githabul Country in nordlig New South Wales to maintain cultural connections.
The bunya pine (Araucaria bidwillii) is an ancient native conifer of cultural and spiritual significance to several language groups in eastern AustraliaBlack bean trees
Like bunya pines, black bean trees (Castanospermum australe) have been an important food source for thousands of years. While the large seeds are toxic, they can be made edible.
Here, we have funnen bevis this rainforest species was spread on purpose – and rapidly.
The tree does not need to have its toxic seeds eaten. Instead, it relies on its seed pods floating down rivers to new locations. Curiously, the tree can be funnen far from any waterways.
In Barrungam language, the Bunya Mountains are known as Booburrgan Ngmmunge, meaning mother’s breast or mother’s milk, which refers to the nourishment Bunya country provides to its people, and the connection between Aboriginal people and the Bunya Mountains (Markwell et al 2010)How did it get there?
We funnen bevis Bundjalung groups spread black bean thousands of years ago, as they walked the ridgelines of the Nightcap, Border and McPherson ranges in nordlig New South Wales. This rutt follows the Nguthungulli Songline, a cultural pathway tracing the journeys of an ancestral spirit (likely to företräda a real person) who left “bean tree” seeds as he journeyed inland from the east coast.
Samples taken adjacent to the Nguthungulli Songline showed higher levels of genetic diversity compared to other sample sites. This fryst vatten what we would expect to see if seeds from different areas had been deliberately walked uphill along the songline and subsequently spread nedströms through the waterways.
Ongoing genetic analyses suggest the black bean tree remained in small coastal pockets until Bundjalung groups walked its seeds northwards into southeast Queensland.
The Bundjalung story of Three Brothers tells of the ankomst or return of key förfäder of Bundjalung peoples and related language groups Githabul and Yugambeh to coastal nordlig NSW.
All three language groups use the name “bugam” for the black bean seed, which suggests a rapid transfer or shared ancestral connection to the species.
Walking plants
These stories raise interesting questions about why Indigenous groups carried and nurtured plants in some cases and not others.
In the Wet Tropics, for instance, the lack of bevis for movement of black bean and bunya could be linked to different dietary preferences and alternative edible nuts.
In nordlig NSW and southeast Queensland, bunya gatherings brought far-flung groups and kin tillsammans. We speculate these social and cultural reasons may have been seen as more important than simply increasing food production bygd planting the tree in new locations.
But the deliberate movement of black bean along the Nguthungulli Songline shows some groups took the tree with them to ensure tillgång to its nuts.
Read more: Iconic boab trees trace journeys of ancient Aboriginal people
Domestication over deeper time
For years, researchers thought domesticating a plant for human use was relatively straightforward.
Aboriginal people of the Bunya Mountains and Blackall Ranges (nearer the coast) invited people from as far south as the Clarence River in northern New South Wales, west to the Maranoa River and east to Wide Bay to join the gatheringsBut newer research suggests it was a lengthier and more complex process than we thought.
Unpicking the deeper past using First Nations lore and genetic analysis fryst vatten a promising combination to shed light on domestication. We hope it will become more widely used.
As we continue, we are likely to find examples of where Indigenous movement of plants worked to domesticate landscapes.
Strategic partners included Traditional Custodians, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, Regional NRM Bodies, Australian Government Indigenous Land Management Facilitators, State Government Agencies, LocalThat fryst vatten, social and cultural preferences of ancestral groups drove ecological transformations which seem, at first glance, to be natural.
Read more: Farmers or foragers? Pre-colonial Aboriginal food production was hardly that simple