Vivienne Hansen

For a long time I've lamented that a lot of the books on Australian flora, bush tucker and bush medicine tend to focus on the Eastern states (which is great...if that's where you're from). However, living in the South West of Australia I have always craved a book just like this, and I'm finally glad to have Hansen and Horsfall's work in my collection.

It is a comprehensive guide to Noongar bush medicine (and to a secondary degree, bush tucker). It's well-indexed and researched, with an obvious care and love for the subject matter coming through the pages. The full colour photographs of each plant are very helpful (I recognised a lot of plants from bushwalking), and the concise, clear descriptions at the beginning - utilising Noongar words where possible - explaining how medicinal plants were used and the six Noongar seasons were fantastic. I didn't know that most bush medicine was used topically, and though I was familiar with the Noongar seasons, it was great to see these referred to throughout, so that instead of being told that a plant just 'flowers in Winter', you might see that it flowers in June/July, or Makuru.

It is very Eucalyptus and Banksia heavy, but that has a simple explanation, they are powerful plants and we have a lot of different variable looking species. This book has a great introduction, is nicely laid out and organised, has an appendix, glossary of medical terms, is in-text referenced and has a great index, all things that are so helpful in a book like this.

This book will not share precise dosages with you. Honestly I think that's for the best, since it's probably best to work with a guide or be properly educated in person on how to handle some of these plants safely, especially if you're not familiar. Some I imagine are a lot safer, like topical pigface, but others can be emetics in strong doses etc. In some cases there are clear warnings. For example, fungi can't be harvested in the wild, and some plants are toxic if not prepared in a painstaking, specific manner.

For me, one of the hardest parts was no problem in the book itself, simply that there are so many plants for which we don't know the Noongar word/s (and this was obvious as they gave Noongar words wherever possible), and it gets me thinking about how us colonialists have just done so much damage. Damage to language, to culture, to people, to knowledge, to wisdom. Some of that is lost forever, but some of it is still shared with us, and that's a gift. It's important to pay attention to wisdom when it's shared with us.

If you're from the South West of Australia and care at all about our culture and the land around us, and the Noongar people who are the custodians of this land, this book will be an asset to your bookshelves. If you're from the outside of the South West of Australia, I'd still recommend it. After all, I learned a lot from bush tucker books focusing on the Eastern states, even though that's not where I'm from.… (mais)