Winners of the Traditional Knowledge Innovation Award

‘Fairy circles’ are patches of bare earth that polka-dot Australia’s arid grasslands in desert country. They were thought to be the result of competition between spinifex plants, according to research based on similar landscape features in Namibia. A deep collaboration between the Martu people of the Eastern Pilbara through local Indigenous organisation Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa and non-Indigenous scientists upended this interpretation. The collaboration also disproved the notion that Australia lacks climate and ecosystem data for our desert regions and demonstrated that Indigenous knowledge can lead Australian and international environmental research. The Martu people call these fairy circles linyji. They know linyji to be the home of spinifex termites called Wartunynuma. Linyji have long been used by desert people as temporary water sources, places for seed processing and resin making, and other domestic tasks.

Guided by Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa and ethnoecologist Dr Fiona Walsh, the groundbreaking project wove together Traditional Knowledge with environmental surveying and engineering methods. As a result, shared understanding of the linyji termite pavements has revealed their foundational role in desert art, cultures and ecosystems. The interdisciplinary and cross-cultural project has been hailed as a study that shows how to respectfully weave together Traditional Knowledge with western science, uplifting Aboriginal voices, expertise and communities.

In 1986, John Watson’s finger was bitten off by a crocodile. A Nyikina Mangala man from the Jarlmadangah Burru Aboriginal Community of the Kimberley, John turned to the bark of the Mudjala mangrove tree seeking pain relief. He chewed on a strip of bark and applied it as a dressing to his wound.

When Professor Ron Quinn from Griffith University heard of John’s ordeal, and his use of the Mudjala bark, he was intrigued. An enduring partnership eventuated between the Nyikina Mangala people and Griffith University under the leadership of John and Ron, seeking to identify what active compounds could be present in the bark.

Combining thousands of years of Traditional Knowledge with western science has revealed a novel, natural remedy for the treatment of severe pain. The bark contains two classes of compound: one is effective for inflammatory pain and the other mitigates sciatic nerve injury. The resulting product – a possible topical gel – will be based on the complex mixtures present within the bark paste. John and Ron hope that this gel could be supplied to athletes at the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.

The project is powerful not only for its outcomes, but also its approach in retaining traditional ownership and respect for the integrity of traditional knowledge.