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Indigenous knowledge sharing and botanical literacies in Early Childhood Education

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Kimberley Beasley discusses a case study of two Western Australian early childhood education classes who welcomed an Indigenous Elder to share their expertise about the native plants in the schools’ bush space. The findings demonstrate the impact Indigenous perspectives had on teacher’s and children’s relationship with the bush and the development of their botanical literacies.

Image courtesy of interviewee. April 2, 2024

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This video video discusses research conducted in a biodiversity hotspot in southwest Western Australia, focusing on the endemic plant life and the importance of incorporating indigenous knowledge into early childhood education. Over half of the plant species in this region are unique and many are at risk of extinction, highlighting the need for their protection and the sharing of knowledge about them.

The study aims to integrate what children and teachers know about local plants and how indigenous perspectives can enhance the curriculum. The indigenous population in the area has faced significant decline in language and cultural transmission due to colonization, leading to a loss of vital ecological knowledge encoded in traditional stories.

The research involved working with two schools in different geographical locations—Bush Hills Primary School and Banksia Beach Primary School—over a year. Elders from the local indigenous community shared their extensive plant knowledge with the children, emphasizing the interconnectedness of humans and nature.

Through hands-on activities and storytelling, the children's understanding of plants deepened, encouraging them to engage with the local ecosystem more actively. The research highlights shifts in children's behavior: they moved from naming plants to understanding their ecological roles and uses.

The study concluded that embedding indigenous knowledge in education enriches learning and fosters a more meaningful connection with the environment. It emphasized the need for authentic partnerships with indigenous communities rather than tokenistic inclusion. Ultimately, the research showcases the potential for successful integration of diverse knowledge systems to promote sustainability in education.

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X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

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If you imagine very large Australia,

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in the very southwest corner of Western Australia, is

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where the research took place.

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Um, so this area, is one of only 34 diversity,

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biodiversity hotspots in the world.

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Um, which means it needs

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to have at least 1500 vascular plants that are endemic.

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Um, so a high percentage of plant life

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that's not found anywhere else in the world.

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Um, so obviously that's irreplaceable.

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Um, more than half of the five

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and a half thousand species of,

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vascular plants in this area are not found anywhere else.

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Um, and 40% of them are, are at risk of extinction.

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So a really important, area

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of the earth in terms of plant life.

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Um, so I wanted to know, what teachers

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and children know about this plant life

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and what it could look like in the curriculum.

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And I also wanted to look at indigenous knowledge

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of those plants and what

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that also might look like, in the curriculum.

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So the population of this area, comprises

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of 3.9% indigenous people.

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And after 230 years of British colonization,

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the indigenous languages of Australia, many

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of them have become extinct

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or are ex extremely, extremely endangered.

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So with that decline in indigenous language comes a loss

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of words and stories

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that encode specific information about local habitats,

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including the plants in that, area.

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Um, the traditional owners of the land

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where the study took place are the noga people.

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Um, like other Aboriginal

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and Torres Strait Islander people, they have developed

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systems and practices that have enabled them to live,

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with an interconnectedness

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to country continuously over a long period of time.

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So the knowledge that that brings is really vital

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for the care and protection of

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that really special local environment.

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So therefore, it needs to be embedded,

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which should be embedded in the curriculum.

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Um, but at the moment it's not.

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Um, so in Australia,

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our school system predominantly reflects Western European

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ways of knowing and understanding over indigenous ways

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of knowing and understanding.

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So an example of this is that in our schools,

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even though we, we live on normal country,

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in this space, we teach about the European seasons,

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even though they're not relevant to the land where we live,

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and sometimes completely make no sense.

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Um, so in Australia, in early childhood education,

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there is a commitment

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to embedding indigenous knowledge in the curriculum.

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And that's mandated, by our government

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through our Australian curriculum.

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And that earliest learning framework.

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Um, it has been suggested that

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that indigenous knowledge is undertaken

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through consultation with traditional owners.

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Um, however that can be problematic

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'cause it can be seen to be tokenistic

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and just doing it like to fill a need or to tick a box.

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Um, so rather than embedding it meaningfully.

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So this kind of brings me to, early childhood education

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for sustainability, which has been around

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for about 30 years in early childhood

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education around the world.

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Um, it looks at sustainability,

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The four pillars of sustainability.

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So not just environmental sustainability,

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but also human social and economic sustainability.

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And it also, sees children

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as really active participants in the process of change.

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And so within early childhood education su

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for sustainability, there has been a really

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recent international focus on working

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with traditional owners at embedding indigenous knowledge

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with an understanding that lived experience,

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in a particular place enables humans

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to gain a much deeper understanding of that land.

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Um, and a connection with that land is,

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I just wanna talk a little bit about botanical literacies,

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which is what is one of the main parts of the study.

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So the term botanical literacy was first described by Uno,

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in 2009, and he worked with college students in America.

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Um, so I, as a part of this study,

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developed those levels further,

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but for early childhood education.

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Um, and so there's four levels.

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Um, with the research that I'm talking about today.

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The, the children and the teachers all started at the

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nominal level, which means they can name five

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or fewer native plants,

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and they might have some misconceptions about botany.

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And then you move through the functional

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and relational level into the multidimensional level, which

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where is where children can explain plants as a part

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of a larger ecosystem.

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Um, they're curious and intrinsically motivated

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to understand botany,

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and they can make ethical decisions relating to plants.

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There's been a lot of research in early childhood

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education for sustainability.

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Um, I wanna focus a little bit more on the part of that

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that looks at indigenous knowledge,

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specifically in Australia.

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So indigenous knowledge,

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within the formal curriculum in Australia has been endorsed,

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I guess, internationally by the United Nations Declaration

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on the Rights of Indigenous people.

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And then in Australia, we've recognized that

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with our Alice Springs education declaration,

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and it is,

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quite heavily worded in our Australian curriculum as well.

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So we have a lot of initiatives endorsing

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indigenous knowledges.

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What, where you will see research in working

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with traditional owners, quite often in environmental

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science, you'll see environmental scientists working

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with traditional owners in research about the land.

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So this is a, a form of research

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and, practices that we could then take into,

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education.

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So also research tells us

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that in most cultures across the world,

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including Australian Aboriginal,

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Torres Strait Islander cultures,

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plant knowledge has traditionally been passed down,

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through family members or elders or grandparents.

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Um, and that's not happening as much, in most societies.

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But in Australia we have the added, problem,

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I suppose, of colonization.

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And that has led to

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so much indigenous knowledge about plants being lost,

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including the names of plants

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and the medicinal uses of plants.

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Um, and so we tend to use English names or common names

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or botanical names instead of the indigenous names.

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So with that indigenous name of a plant comes this vast body

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of intricate knowledge of the properties of the plant.

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Its healing capabilities, its relationship to the seasons

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and the animals and people.

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So I guess we need to do something like an effort to be able

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to hold onto that knowledge and use that knowledge

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and pass it down.

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Um, and I suppose that's where my research comes in,

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in finding a way to be able to pass down

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that indigenous knowledge about the plants in this really

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special from place.

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From place I worked with two early childhood, classes

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in, the Perth Metropolitan area.

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Um, the, they were chosen

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because of, they had very different geographical locations.

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So one was in the, the, Perth Hills, which is,

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we call it bush, but it's, I guess it's kind of like forest,

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but maybe not a green.

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Um, so lots of trees, lots of scrub.

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So this school was in the Perth Hills.

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They had, about five acres of bush space,

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and they also backed onto National Park.

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So very green, you know, really beautiful nature space.

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So that's, the Bush Hills primary school.

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The other school I worked with was,

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Banksia Beach Primary School.

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So they were very different, very close to the beach,

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very sandy soil, not as many big trees,

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but they had a lot of banksias,

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and quite a, a scrub like space.

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So I wanted to do that for the purpose to see if the

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knowledge of the plants could be really specific

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to a local area instead of just looking at,

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you know, eucalypts across Australia.

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But really specific plant knowledge is what I was hoping

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to see if the children could grow

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that understanding of that space.

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Um, so I visited the classes across a whole year,

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with 16 visits to each school.

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Um, towards the end of the research,

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probably about the 13th visit,

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the traditional owner came into the school,

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and he talked to the children specifically about the plants.

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So I chose, the particular elder

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who I'm gonna call a Marmon,

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which is a pseudonym for the research.

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Um, I chose him because he has a really

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vast plant knowledge.

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Um, and also he was regularly visiting

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schools talking to children.

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So I knew that he was able to do that.

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And I wanted the research to be able

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to be replicated in other schools.

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So most, in most areas have, indigenous businesses

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where you can, you know, source the traditional owner

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for consultation if you want to.

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Um, so he came and, visited the children in the classes.

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I let him know beforehand what plants were in the space

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and what questions the children had.

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And so for about an hour, he just talked with the children,

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a lot of storytelling,

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dream time stories about the plants, lots

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of hands-on demonstrations.

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And then he walked with the children,

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through the bush spaces and they were able to ask,

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more questions in discussing the findings.

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I wanna just give you examples of three of the plants

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and the changes that happened in the children's behavior

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and understanding about those plants

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'cause it, well, to me

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that's the most interesting thing to talk about.

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Um, so I'm gonna start with a Mary tree.

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So a Mary is a red gum, which is one

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of these plants which is endemic to this area.

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Um, in the Bush Hills primary school,

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they had a lot of Mary trees.

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Um, during the first two visits of the year, which is,

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the end of our summer, the Mary trees were in flour,

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and they have this amazing smell like honey.

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So the children just called them the honey trees,

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because that's what, you know,

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they made a logical name for the trees.

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And so later in the year, the trees produce

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what we call in Western Australia, honky nuts,

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which are these amazing massive gum nuts.

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Um, and the children would use those in play

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and collect them and, you know,

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have battles over who has the most.

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And, the, our native black cockatoos come

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and eat the honky nuts as well.

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And so they've noticed that that was happening.

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Um, so when Marmon came, he told the children,

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dream time stories about the Mary.

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He told them a lot of different uses for the leaves.

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Um, and he also talked about the medicinal uses from

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the sap of the tree.

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One of the children in the class suffered from quite severe

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eczema,

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and Marmon had explained that the sap could be used

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to be able to treat eczema.

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So this child took it upon himself during his playtime to go

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to the tree, take sap from the tree,

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and put it on his eczema.

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And on my final visit, when I was researching

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with the children, the child came

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and told me that the Mary s had made his eggs go away.

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Um, another plant that I wanna talk about is the soap bush,

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which in Noga is called Tbo.

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Um, this is in the Banksy Beach primary school.

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So this is, look, just looks like a very, plain bush.

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And the children would just walk past them, pretty much.

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They would ignore them, you know,

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didn't really see anything special about these bushes,

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until Marmon came and asked for some, cup of water.

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And what he did is he poured the water on some leaves

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and like lathered them.

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And they really, you know, this soapy, soapy substance,

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was made.

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And he explained to the children that, this is how,

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pre colonization that, people would wash themselves

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and they would wash the animal skins

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that they used as clothes.

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And so this then became, one

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of the most favorite things in the playground to do, was

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to make soap from this plant.

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So the children saw

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that interconnection, with the plant.

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And, the final plan I wanna talk about is the banksia,

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which is a really important plant, to the area.

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And so in the Banksia Beach Primary School, at the,

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again, at the beginning of the year, which was the end

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of summer, these trees looked quite dead.

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They get kind of blackish, not many leaves.

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Um, the teacher suggested

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that she thought the trees were dead,

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and they dropped these banksia pods, which are quite large.

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Um, and the children were again, using those

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as a part of their play.

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Um, and that's kind of all they really thought about it.

11:59.585 --> 12:03.645
Um, when Marmon came for the visit, he again explained lots

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of traditional uses.

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Um, one of the most interesting uses

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of the banksia seed pods is that, again,

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before colonization,

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the nunga people would use the bank Sears to carry fire.

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So they would, you know, have the banks cc put on top

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of a stick and carry the fire on that.

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'cause they really, you know, burn for a long time.

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And then carry a bag of, backup banks, sea pods,

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and then transfer the fire from one to another.

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And that's how they would carry fire

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from one camp to another.

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Um, and the other thing that special about banks is,

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is they actually need fire to propagate, which is true

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for a lot of our Australian natives.

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Um, and so what happens is when the banksia pod,

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experiences fire, it opens its follicles

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and releases the seed.

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And so as the noir people would walk, country,

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they would be releasing seeds

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and propagating, the plants.

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So the children wanted to see this happen,

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and so we couldn't have a fire in the school.

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Um, so we ended up putting one in some in the oven,

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at quite a high temperature.

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And we did actually see the follicles open

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and the seeds come out.

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So the children were just so fascinated, by that story

13:10.665 --> 13:14.845
and that a plant, you know, required, fire to be able

13:14.845 --> 13:16.045
to propagate its seeds.

13:16.545 --> 13:20.405
Um, and so I guess from looking at those stories

13:20.465 --> 13:23.765
and the changes in the children's behavior, I compared

13:23.765 --> 13:27.165
that to the levels of botanical literacy,

13:27.235 --> 13:28.325
that I explained earlier.

13:28.585 --> 13:30.965
And what happened is actually all of the children were able

13:30.965 --> 13:33.765
to get to the, the really high multidimensional level

13:34.115 --> 13:38.715
because, they could see like the way

13:38.715 --> 13:39.835
that they were interacting

13:39.835 --> 13:41.955
and the way that they were, were playing,

13:41.955 --> 13:43.435
and using the plants changed.

13:43.655 --> 13:45.715
Um, they were a lot more hands-on with the plants.

13:45.775 --> 13:48.635
So touching them, making, you know, taking sap, making soap,

13:48.635 --> 13:50.955
crushing and smelling, the conversations

13:50.955 --> 13:52.675
around the plants changed from, you know,

13:52.735 --> 13:54.075
what's the name of that plant?

13:54.175 --> 13:57.475
Or what is that to, you know, what,

13:57.475 --> 13:58.555
what can we do with that plant?

13:58.575 --> 14:00.275
How can we use it? How do we look after it?

14:00.655 --> 14:02.515
Um, they could, they were more connected

14:02.545 --> 14:03.995
with the plants, I suppose.

14:04.175 --> 14:06.635
Um, so that showed that they understood

14:06.635 --> 14:09.275
that plants are a part of that interconnected ecosystem

14:09.775 --> 14:12.555
and that humans rely on plants for food, fire,

14:12.555 --> 14:13.875
shelter, and medicine.

14:14.535 --> 14:16.915
Um, we also had follow, we had

14:16.915 --> 14:21.035
to have follow up conversations, with the children,

14:21.205 --> 14:22.755
about the use of the plants.

14:23.035 --> 14:24.195
'cause initially the teachers

14:24.215 --> 14:26.155
and me as a researcher were very

14:26.155 --> 14:27.315
like, you can't touch the plants.

14:27.315 --> 14:29.995
They're very special. Just look, we don't wanna pick them.

14:30.055 --> 14:32.395
And then maron's practices were very hands on

14:32.455 --> 14:34.035
and touch base and use based.

14:34.415 --> 14:37.795
And so then we had to find a balance between, you know,

14:37.795 --> 14:39.675
what, what is okay, what are we comfortable with

14:39.675 --> 14:40.715
and what is okay,

14:40.715 --> 14:42.915
because mama had also talked about only taking

14:42.915 --> 14:44.235
what you need,

14:44.235 --> 14:45.395
because that's, you know,

14:45.395 --> 14:47.075
what indigenous people traditionally do.

14:47.135 --> 14:49.235
So we had to have some conversations around that.

14:51.985 --> 14:55.045
And to answer your question about the settler,

14:55.045 --> 14:57.645
settler colonial practices, that was quite interesting

14:57.645 --> 14:59.485
as well, because what we realized from the,

14:59.485 --> 15:01.805
what we were teaching and what I was researching

15:02.105 --> 15:04.845
and what Marmon was doing is that,

15:05.105 --> 15:07.885
our practices were very western based.

15:08.105 --> 15:12.725
So, you know, mapping, drawing, you know,

15:12.905 --> 15:16.925
not touching, all of these stories were very,

15:17.045 --> 15:18.965
I guess settler practices, whereas,

15:19.515 --> 15:21.645
maron's practices were more interconnected.

15:21.665 --> 15:23.725
So they were very hands-on and interconnected

15:23.725 --> 15:25.645
and showing that relationship with the plants.

15:26.065 --> 15:28.925
So we kind of realized that it was actually our practices

15:28.955 --> 15:30.965
that were hindering or,

15:30.985 --> 15:33.645
or, you know, not helping those children get to that,

15:33.645 --> 15:35.645
higher level of botanical literacies.

15:36.245 --> 15:39.125
I guess looking at the whole research project,

15:39.695 --> 15:40.885
there were a few things that came

15:40.885 --> 15:42.005
out of it that are quite important.

15:42.265 --> 15:46.505
Um, like I said previously, it had been in research,

15:46.965 --> 15:49.785
it had been shown that having a traditional owner come into

15:49.785 --> 15:51.905
a program could be shown as, tokenistic

15:51.925 --> 15:54.425
or just being done to fill a need, which, I mean,

15:54.505 --> 15:55.625
I did invite Mar in

15:55.625 --> 15:58.025
and I did have a need that I was wanting filled

15:58.025 --> 15:59.385
for the children to learn about that.

15:59.885 --> 16:02.785
But I think because the knowledge was shared as a part

16:02.785 --> 16:05.945
of a year long study and the children had a foundational

16:06.255 --> 16:08.625
knowledge and relationship with those plants

16:08.805 --> 16:13.385
before he came in, his, the indigenous knowledge

16:13.385 --> 16:16.545
and what he gave really enriched the curriculum

16:16.725 --> 16:18.745
and the teachers and the children's knowledge,

16:18.765 --> 16:21.185
and it really strongly impacted the way that the children

16:21.715 --> 16:23.465
interacted with the plants.

16:24.165 --> 16:25.545
So the indigenous knowledge

16:25.825 --> 16:28.505
provided new ways for the children to see the bush space

16:28.605 --> 16:31.105
and, and change their understandings of the history

16:31.105 --> 16:33.225
and importance of the plants in their local space.

16:34.085 --> 16:37.695
Um, again, the, I guess

16:39.125 --> 16:41.205
a new way of looking at pedagogies as well, so

16:41.205 --> 16:44.485
around the western practices and what we were doing

16:44.625 --> 16:47.165
and the indigenous ways of doing things.

16:47.505 --> 16:50.245
Um, so a lot of rethinking, I think needs

16:50.245 --> 16:51.285
to be done around that.

16:51.865 --> 16:55.405
Um, so there, it, there's a contrast in cultural practices,

16:55.405 --> 16:56.485
which I think is okay.

16:56.545 --> 16:59.525
Um, Barbara Rov in her research talks about a constellation

16:59.525 --> 17:00.685
of cultural practices.

17:01.025 --> 17:04.405
So understanding that in one place that is as multicultural

17:04.405 --> 17:06.765
as Australia with such a strong indigenous history,

17:06.975 --> 17:08.805
there are different ways of doing things,

17:08.905 --> 17:10.685
but what we need to do is work out how

17:10.685 --> 17:14.325
to weave those together and infuse them together,

17:14.465 --> 17:17.245
and make sure that we are not, missing out on that,

17:17.245 --> 17:18.325
indigenous knowledge.

17:19.065 --> 17:22.945
Um, the other thing I guess to mention is

17:22.945 --> 17:25.905
that indigenous knowledge, what this research showed is

17:25.905 --> 17:29.225
that it's really specific to a small place.

17:29.845 --> 17:34.345
Um, and so this research couldn't be really replicated

17:34.905 --> 17:38.505
anywhere else because that knowledge is so, place based.

17:39.205 --> 17:40.665
Um, so I guess

17:40.695 --> 17:43.865
what people could do if they wanna replicate it though, is

17:45.035 --> 17:48.895
use authentic invitations to invite traditional owners in to

17:48.895 --> 17:51.525
Talk about what it is they're learning, know already

17:51.715 --> 17:53.725
what they're wanting to look at in the curriculum

17:53.865 --> 17:55.925
and what they're seeking indigenous knowledge of,

17:55.945 --> 17:59.205
and do it in a really more meaningful, authentic way.

17:59.265 --> 18:01.605
And that's really gonna build on,

18:02.165 --> 18:03.805
everyone's knowledge in that space.

18:04.545 --> 18:06.285
Um, the other thing is

18:06.285 --> 18:08.685
that the research opened up new possibilities

18:08.705 --> 18:11.325
for bridging the gap between western systems of thinking

18:11.325 --> 18:12.685
and indigenous pedagogies.

18:13.185 --> 18:14.605
Um, and the infusion

18:14.865 --> 18:17.765
of indigenous knowledge in botany in early childhood in

18:17.765 --> 18:20.685
particular was very effective for increasing the children

18:21.025 --> 18:22.405
and the teacher's plant knowledge.

18:22.945 --> 18:26.725
Um, so I guess like finally, I encourage researchers

18:26.725 --> 18:29.085
and teachers to try and explore new ways to entangle

18:29.185 --> 18:31.965
and infuse our, like western systems

18:32.025 --> 18:34.685
and pedagogies with indigenous ways of knowing, being,

18:34.685 --> 18:35.005
and doing.

00:00 - If you imagine very large Australia, in the very southwest corner of Western Australia, is where the research took place. so this area, is one of only 34 diversity, biodiversity hotspots in the world. which means it needs

00:16 - to have at least 1500 vascular plants that are endemic. so a high percentage of plant life that's not found anywhere else in the world. so obviously that's irreplaceable. more than half of the five and a half thousand species of, vascular plants in this area are not found anywhere else. and 40% of them are, are at risk of extinction. So a really important, area of the earth in terms of plant life.

00:42 - so I wanted to know, what teachers and children know about this plant life and what it could look like in the curriculum. And I also wanted to look at indigenous knowledge of those plants and what that also might look like, in the curriculum. So the population of this area, comprises of 3.9% indigenous people. And after 230 years of British colonization, the indigenous languages of Australia, many

01:10 - of them have become extinct or are ex extremely, extremely endangered. So with that decline in indigenous language comes a loss of words and stories that encode specific information about local habitats, including the plants in that, area. the traditional owners of the land where the study took place are the noga people. like other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, they have developed

01:32 - systems and practices that have enabled them to live, with an interconnectedness to country continuously over a long period of time. So the knowledge that that brings is really vital for the care and protection of that really special local environment. So therefore, it needs to be embedded, which should be embedded in the curriculum. but at the moment it's not. so in Australia,

01:55 - our school system predominantly reflects Western European ways of knowing and understanding over indigenous ways of knowing and understanding. So an example of this is that in our schools, even though we, we live on normal country, in this space, we teach about the European seasons, even though they're not relevant to the land where we live, and sometimes completely make no sense. so in Australia, in early childhood education, there is a commitment

02:20 - to embedding indigenous knowledge in the curriculum. And that's mandated, by our government through our Australian curriculum. And that earliest learning framework. it has been suggested that that indigenous knowledge is undertaken through consultation with traditional owners. however that can be problematic 'cause it can be seen to be tokenistic and just doing it like to fill a need or to tick a box.

02:41 - so rather than embedding it meaningfully. So this kind of brings me to, early childhood education for sustainability, which has been around for about 30 years in early childhood education around the world. it looks at sustainability, The four pillars of sustainability. So not just environmental sustainability, but also human social and economic sustainability. And it also, sees children

03:08 - as really active participants in the process of change. And so within early childhood education su for sustainability, there has been a really recent international focus on working with traditional owners at embedding indigenous knowledge with an understanding that lived experience, in a particular place enables humans to gain a much deeper understanding of that land. and a connection with that land is, I just wanna talk a little bit about botanical literacies,

03:36 - which is what is one of the main parts of the study. So the term botanical literacy was first described by Uno, in 2009, and he worked with college students in America. so I, as a part of this study, developed those levels further, but for early childhood education. and so there's four levels. with the research that I'm talking about today. The, the children and the teachers all started at the nominal level, which means they can name five

04:07 - or fewer native plants, and they might have some misconceptions about botany. And then you move through the functional and relational level into the multidimensional level, which where is where children can explain plants as a part of a larger ecosystem. they're curious and intrinsically motivated to understand botany, and they can make ethical decisions relating to plants. There's been a lot of research in early childhood

04:32 - education for sustainability. I wanna focus a little bit more on the part of that that looks at indigenous knowledge, specifically in Australia. So indigenous knowledge, within the formal curriculum in Australia has been endorsed, I guess, internationally by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous people. And then in Australia, we've recognized that with our Alice Springs education declaration,

04:57 - and it is, quite heavily worded in our Australian curriculum as well. So we have a lot of initiatives endorsing indigenous knowledges. What, where you will see research in working with traditional owners, quite often in environmental science, you'll see environmental scientists working with traditional owners in research about the land. So this is a, a form of research and, practices that we could then take into,

05:24 - education. So also research tells us that in most cultures across the world, including Australian Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander cultures, plant knowledge has traditionally been passed down, through family members or elders or grandparents. and that's not happening as much, in most societies. But in Australia we have the added, problem, I suppose, of colonization.

05:47 - And that has led to so much indigenous knowledge about plants being lost, including the names of plants and the medicinal uses of plants. and so we tend to use English names or common names or botanical names instead of the indigenous names. So with that indigenous name of a plant comes this vast body of intricate knowledge of the properties of the plant. Its healing capabilities, its relationship to the seasons and the animals and people.

06:16 - So I guess we need to do something like an effort to be able to hold onto that knowledge and use that knowledge and pass it down. and I suppose that's where my research comes in, in finding a way to be able to pass down that indigenous knowledge about the plants in this really special from place. From place I worked with two early childhood, classes in, the Perth Metropolitan area. the, they were chosen

06:44 - because of, they had very different geographical locations. So one was in the, the, Perth Hills, which is, we call it bush, but it's, I guess it's kind of like forest, but maybe not a green. so lots of trees, lots of scrub. So this school was in the Perth Hills. They had, about five acres of bush space, and they also backed onto National Park. So very green, you know, really beautiful nature space. So that's, the Bush Hills primary school.

07:09 - The other school I worked with was, Banksia Beach Primary School. So they were very different, very close to the beach, very sandy soil, not as many big trees, but they had a lot of banksias, and quite a, a scrub like space. So I wanted to do that for the purpose to see if the knowledge of the plants could be really specific to a local area instead of just looking at, you know, eucalypts across Australia.

07:35 - But really specific plant knowledge is what I was hoping to see if the children could grow that understanding of that space. so I visited the classes across a whole year, with 16 visits to each school. towards the end of the research, probably about the 13th visit, the traditional owner came into the school, and he talked to the children specifically about the plants. So I chose, the particular elder

08:05 - who I'm gonna call a Marmon, which is a pseudonym for the research. I chose him because he has a really vast plant knowledge. and also he was regularly visiting schools talking to children. So I knew that he was able to do that. And I wanted the research to be able to be replicated in other schools. So most, in most areas have, indigenous businesses

08:25 - where you can, you know, source the traditional owner for consultation if you want to. so he came and, visited the children in the classes. I let him know beforehand what plants were in the space and what questions the children had. And so for about an hour, he just talked with the children, a lot of storytelling, dream time stories about the plants, lots of hands-on demonstrations. And then he walked with the children,

08:52 - through the bush spaces and they were able to ask, more questions in discussing the findings. I wanna just give you examples of three of the plants and the changes that happened in the children's behavior and understanding about those plants 'cause it, well, to me that's the most interesting thing to talk about. so I'm gonna start with a Mary tree. So a Mary is a red gum, which is one of these plants which is endemic to this area.

09:17 - in the Bush Hills primary school, they had a lot of Mary trees. during the first two visits of the year, which is, the end of our summer, the Mary trees were in flour, and they have this amazing smell like honey. So the children just called them the honey trees, because that's what, you know, they made a logical name for the trees. And so later in the year, the trees produce what we call in Western Australia, honky nuts,

09:40 - which are these amazing massive gum nuts. and the children would use those in play and collect them and, you know, have battles over who has the most. And, the, our native black cockatoos come and eat the honky nuts as well. And so they've noticed that that was happening. so when Marmon came, he told the children, dream time stories about the Mary. He told them a lot of different uses for the leaves.

10:04 - and he also talked about the medicinal uses from the sap of the tree. One of the children in the class suffered from quite severe eczema, and Marmon had explained that the sap could be used to be able to treat eczema. So this child took it upon himself during his playtime to go to the tree, take sap from the tree, and put it on his eczema. And on my final visit, when I was researching

10:26 - with the children, the child came and told me that the Mary s had made his eggs go away. another plant that I wanna talk about is the soap bush, which in Noga is called Tbo. this is in the Banksy Beach primary school. So this is, look, just looks like a very, plain bush. And the children would just walk past them, pretty much. They would ignore them, you know, didn't really see anything special about these bushes, until Marmon came and asked for some, cup of water.

10:57 - And what he did is he poured the water on some leaves and like lathered them. And they really, you know, this soapy, soapy substance, was made. And he explained to the children that, this is how, pre colonization that, people would wash themselves and they would wash the animal skins that they used as clothes. And so this then became, one of the most favorite things in the playground to do, was

11:21 - to make soap from this plant. So the children saw that interconnection, with the plant. And, the final plan I wanna talk about is the banksia, which is a really important plant, to the area. And so in the Banksia Beach Primary School, at the, again, at the beginning of the year, which was the end of summer, these trees looked quite dead. They get kind of blackish, not many leaves. the teacher suggested

11:46 - that she thought the trees were dead, and they dropped these banksia pods, which are quite large. and the children were again, using those as a part of their play. and that's kind of all they really thought about it. when Marmon came for the visit, he again explained lots of traditional uses. one of the most interesting uses of the banksia seed pods is that, again, before colonization,

12:12 - the nunga people would use the bank Sears to carry fire. So they would, you know, have the banks cc put on top of a stick and carry the fire on that. 'cause they really, you know, burn for a long time. And then carry a bag of, backup banks, sea pods, and then transfer the fire from one to another. And that's how they would carry fire from one camp to another. and the other thing that special about banks is, is they actually need fire to propagate, which is true

12:38 - for a lot of our Australian natives. and so what happens is when the banksia pod, experiences fire, it opens its follicles and releases the seed. And so as the noir people would walk, country, they would be releasing seeds and propagating, the plants. So the children wanted to see this happen, and so we couldn't have a fire in the school. so we ended up putting one in some in the oven,

13:02 - at quite a high temperature. And we did actually see the follicles open and the seeds come out. So the children were just so fascinated, by that story and that a plant, you know, required, fire to be able to propagate its seeds. and so I guess from looking at those stories and the changes in the children's behavior, I compared that to the levels of botanical literacy, that I explained earlier.

13:28 - And what happened is actually all of the children were able to get to the, the really high multidimensional level because, they could see like the way that they were interacting and the way that they were, were playing, and using the plants changed. they were a lot more hands-on with the plants. So touching them, making, you know, taking sap, making soap, crushing and smelling, the conversations around the plants changed from, you know,

13:52 - what's the name of that plant? Or what is that to, you know, what, what can we do with that plant? How can we use it? How do we look after it? they could, they were more connected with the plants, I suppose. so that showed that they understood that plants are a part of that interconnected ecosystem and that humans rely on plants for food, fire, shelter, and medicine.

14:14 - we also had follow, we had to have follow up conversations, with the children, about the use of the plants. 'cause initially the teachers and me as a researcher were very like, you can't touch the plants. They're very special. Just look, we don't wanna pick them. And then maron's practices were very hands on and touch base and use based. And so then we had to find a balance between, you know,

14:37 - what, what is okay, what are we comfortable with and what is okay, because mama had also talked about only taking what you need, because that's, you know, what indigenous people traditionally do. So we had to have some conversations around that. And to answer your question about the settler, settler colonial practices, that was quite interesting as well, because what we realized from the,

14:59 - what we were teaching and what I was researching and what Marmon was doing is that, our practices were very western based. So, you know, mapping, drawing, you know, not touching, all of these stories were very, I guess settler practices, whereas, maron's practices were more interconnected. So they were very hands-on and interconnected and showing that relationship with the plants. So we kind of realized that it was actually our practices

15:28 - that were hindering or, or, you know, not helping those children get to that, higher level of botanical literacies. I guess looking at the whole research project, there were a few things that came out of it that are quite important. like I said previously, it had been in research, it had been shown that having a traditional owner come into a program could be shown as, tokenistic or just being done to fill a need, which, I mean,

15:54 - I did invite Mar in and I did have a need that I was wanting filled for the children to learn about that. But I think because the knowledge was shared as a part of a year long study and the children had a foundational knowledge and relationship with those plants before he came in, his, the indigenous knowledge and what he gave really enriched the curriculum and the teachers and the children's knowledge, and it really strongly impacted the way that the children

16:21 - interacted with the plants. So the indigenous knowledge provided new ways for the children to see the bush space and, and change their understandings of the history and importance of the plants in their local space. again, the, I guess a new way of looking at pedagogies as well, so around the western practices and what we were doing and the indigenous ways of doing things. so a lot of rethinking, I think needs

16:50 - to be done around that. so there, it, there's a contrast in cultural practices, which I think is okay. Barbara Rov in her research talks about a constellation of cultural practices. So understanding that in one place that is as multicultural as Australia with such a strong indigenous history, there are different ways of doing things, but what we need to do is work out how to weave those together and infuse them together,

17:14 - and make sure that we are not, missing out on that, indigenous knowledge. the other thing I guess to mention is that indigenous knowledge, what this research showed is that it's really specific to a small place. and so this research couldn't be really replicated anywhere else because that knowledge is so, place based. so I guess what people could do if they wanna replicate it though, is use authentic invitations to invite traditional owners in to

17:48 - Talk about what it is they're learning, know already what they're wanting to look at in the curriculum and what they're seeking indigenous knowledge of, and do it in a really more meaningful, authentic way. And that's really gonna build on, everyone's knowledge in that space. the other thing is that the research opened up new possibilities for bridging the gap between western systems of thinking and indigenous pedagogies.

18:13 - and the infusion of indigenous knowledge in botany in early childhood in particular was very effective for increasing the children and the teacher's plant knowledge. so I guess like finally, I encourage researchers and teachers to try and explore new ways to entangle and infuse our, like western systems and pedagogies with indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing.

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