United by our love for the land: how Aboriginal storytelling could help restore common ground.

Nola Turner-Jensen, proud Wiradjuri woman and cultural place restoration linguist, together with Elisa Raulings, botanist and restoration ecologist. 

Millions of trees are being planted across Australia in the race to address climate change and biodiversity loss.  But the way we perceive and value trees, and ultimately care for nature, depends on our culture and training.  If we want to facilitate large scale action, is it time for us to rethink our relationship with trees?

Planting trees at scale and caring for existing trees is essential to combat global climate change and prevent biodiversity loss.  Although many companies have pledged to support the World Economic Forum’s goal of planting 1 trillion trees globally, less than 10,000 hectares are planted annually across Australia, Australia  remains a deforestation front[i] and the health of our Country is rapidly declining[ii]. 

A key barrier to driving action and healing Country is the value different cultures and landholders place on trees.  While Aboriginal and Western cultures both value trees, their approaches to describing, relating to, valuing and honouring the purpose of trees differs profoundly. 

The ‘Connect-Educate-Act’ model was demonstrated to be effective in encouraging zoo patrons to recycle old mobile phones (i).  Similarly, in the Aboriginal education system they have used Cause and Effect Action Learning for longer than anyone on the planet.

Using these behavioural models as a basis, we wondered whether elevating Aboriginal storytelling across Australia might foster greater connections to trees, provide an opportunity to facilitate two-way knowledge exchange and encourage action on trees. 

In this article we explore how Aboriginal people use storytelling and education to drive action to care for trees, using the River Red Gum Spirit as an example, and how this could be applied to encourage Australians to care for trees.

Encouraging emotional connection through Aboriginal storytelling

Western Science, and more specifically many restoration projects, have historically emphasised the ‘educate’ parts of the behavioural model (e.g. sharing knowledge of medicinal benefits of plants, plant form, classification, economic value, carbon offsets and natural capital benefits) as a means to encouraging action for nature.  However the pursuit of facts and education in the absence of a spiritual connection may actually create psychological distance for many individuals and organisations and create a barrier to action, because people cannot see the emotional relationship of trees to their local community or their Kinship.

In contrast, Aboriginal culture encourages the ongoing care of trees (Action) by igniting powerful emotional connections to trees (Connect) through giving it multiple names for all its inner purposes and weaving these purposes within descriptive and dramatic localised stories, celebrations and songs (Education).

Nola is an Aboriginal knowledge holder, and this is her explanation of how in her people’s world, a tree is not just a tree (see also Figure 1). 

“When Aboriginal people read country, nothing is just one thing, and the outside of everything is irrelevant. The exterior is ignored as it only a things shell. 

Everything in our world is born with an inner spirit(purpose). Even stones can birth other stones, which is why they are different sizes.

Aboriginal people look to know and understand the inner purpose (spirit) of all things and how they can honour this purpose.  This spirit can never be changed and even when a canoe is cut from a red gum being (tree), to Aboriginal people it is still a red gum being.

Therefore, they do not say that is a River Red gum Tree and individualise it like is done in the English-speaking world. 

They give multiple spiritual being names that showcase its purpose within the Universal Kinship – Purpose’ such as being a holder of string or canoe?  A provider of food or nectar? Is it a hard or light wood?

Aboriginal people do not have a specific language word for tree, because a tree is not just one thing and so by saying it is one thing does not honour its many gifts.

Let’s take the River Red Gum Spirit, for example – in Aboriginal culture the body of the tree (trunk and branches) are male, and the leaves, blood and blossoms are female.  This spirit is at certain times kissed by their north wind lover in November and December, and it bursts into flower to tell the world their lover has come. 

An Aboriginal calendar of Ceremonies included this tree as its special guest and reason for celebrating in events such as the festival of winds by the women.

It is prized and loved by Aboriginal women for the role it plays in birthing of their babies.  Thick layers of leaves are heaped on steam pits to smoke babies and new mothers, in order for them to grow as strong and old as the River Red Gum.  Each baby is made a Coolamon (original baby cradle) from the skin (bark) of the River Red Gum spiritual being it was born near.

Prized for it’s shade, in drought or dry times the River Red Gum spirit drops excess branches so is a weather indicator for dry times coming, and during these times it was known as a widow maker. 

River Red Gum Spirit is honoured for many purposes – it is known as one of the best trees for long, lasting shallow canoes, which are cut from the belly of the spirit to get the shape.  Twigs were used by healers to beat away poison out of patients, and leaves were cooked with meat to add flavour. Manna oozing from the trunk was collected and eaten, and the dense wood was used to make boomerangs, clubs, coolamons and throwing targets. 

Knowing how to honour the purpose of all things is key to connecting and reading country and encouraging people to act.”

A way forward: underpinning restoration projects with a Connect-Educate-Act model. 

We argue that when it comes to driving action on trees, embracing and elevating the wisdom and storytelling of Aboriginal cultures and honouring the many purposes of trees will foster stronger emotional connections for all Australians.  In turn we hypothesise this increased emotional connectedness will complement existing and emerging knowledge exchange and valuation programs and encourage action on trees.  We propose underpinning restoration projects using this model to establish and test these hypotheses. 

Conclusion

Australia’s Aboriginal people have been using behavioural models such as Connect-Educate-Act to care for Country for more than 60,000 years. 

We are excited by a future in which all Australians and organisations benefit from Aboriginal storytelling and in turn increase their action on nature. 

[i] Keogh, V., Ward, M., Stewart, R., Blanch, S., and Cronin, T. 2023. WWF Trees Scorecard 2023 Technical Report. WWF-Australia, Sydney.

[ii] State of the Environment Report (2022).