This book is an excellent field guide for those looking at our plants in the South West (Noongar country) who are curious to know how useful they were to Aboriginal and other Australians. Vivienne Hansen speaks from an Aboriginal perspective and links in with the larger Australian community. This link is important to the concept of healing through the natural environment, which entwines medicine, food and the Noongar spiritual world. In short, healthy foods had a medicinal aspect and a spiritual component to give a balance to their lives, which enabled them to live in Australia for around 50,000 years. This is well covered in the introductory section of the book.

The authors have recorded information on over 90 plants that were regularly used by the Noongar people. The book aims to inform all Australians of the traditional knowledge of medicines, so that the past is not lost and these medicines can be an alternative treatment, especially when modern antibiotics are losing their effectiveness. Each of the plants is described in a structured format with their medicinal uses and includes the active constituents.

While the plants are alphabetically listed by name and easily found, many can be grouped under the various genera such as Banksia, Eucalyptus and Melaleuca. Each of these plants has medicines that are genus-specific, regardless of geographical location. Aboriginals relied largely on what plants were available in their own area. This point is emphasised by Vivienne Hansen and makes the book an effective field guide.

The book doesn’t go into explaining the medicines in detail, but demonstrates how the Aborigines relied on the fact that they worked to treat the problem on hand, whether it be internal, respiratory, skin, wounds, burns, eye problems, etc. In reality, Aboriginal diets were used as a preventative measure to minimise health problems.

Through experience Aboriginals worked out that they needed to use fats or water in their medicinal preparations to be effective.

There is increasing interest in research into Noongar medicines, to help understand their active ingredients and healing effects. Already many natural medicines from around Australia have been commercialised and we use them without a second thought. E.g. Eucalyptus products are used for healing wounds, colds, influenza and dysentery, to name a few.

Another aspect to consider is that Aborigines were not exposed to many of the diseases such as typhoid, smallpox, or influenza that were brought in by European colonisation.

Finally, when using this book, I found one of the supporting references Plants and People in Mooro Country (with contributions from Neville Collard) particularly useful. This publication focuses on a small area of the Yellalonga Regional Park, but brings the local plants and their use for medicine, food, tools, housing and spiritual content together.

                                                                 John Gardner