204 Miri (Margaret) Raven and Daniel Robinson
An important aspect of implementation is understanding the nature of
Indigenous knowledge and its associated customary laws and beliefs. To this
end, one of our recent papers (Robinson & Raven, 2020) examines and reviews
legal, anthropological and historical texts relating to biodiversity and associated
knowledge to explore Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples’ customary
laws and governance. Understanding the broader place of Indigenous customs,
laws and beliefs, as sitting on the oral-written continuum and expressing through
the Dreaming,
2 provides the foundation for understanding Indigenous Australian
customary laws as they relate to plants and animals. Plants and animals may be
regarded as totemic species that have specific relational significance, and which
have specific customary laws, and rights for specific individuals or families.
Biopiracy and Technological Innovation: Why Protocols
Are Needed
Documenting Indigenous knowledge of plants in Australia began from at least
the late eighteenth century (Clarke, 2003). It was part of the wider processes of
colonisation of Australia based on the notion of discovery (Miller et al., 2010).
This ethnobotanical research involved the documentation and collection of
Australian native plants that Indigenous peoples were known to use. This information has found its way into monographs, books, journal articles and herbariums and museums around the world, with a vast majority of the collections
ending up in England. The first phases of collecting were “primarily driven by
practical needs, with the plants observed in use by Indigenous Australians in the
‘new’ land being investigated for their potential economic benefit to eventual
settlers” (Clarke, 2003, p. 21). These benefits included the use of native plants for
life stock feed and to help settlers supplement their food between supply ships.
The types of collectors (such as settlers, explorers, biologists, pharmacologists,
herbalists, anthropologists, geographers, medical specialists and ethnologists)
(Clarke, 2003) indicate the wide and diverse value of Indigenous knowledge
across various specialist fields.
Similarly, in the Pacific, a colonial history exists whereby European explorers
and early settlers exploited natural resources, and collected specimens for scientific interest for botanical gardens, herbariums and then later in genebanks. In
more recent times, there have been collections by a wide range of ethnobotanists
and anthropologists such as Paul Cox (1991) and Art Whistler (1992), which
have seen many traditional medicines and useful plants from parts of Polynesia
and Melanesia documented and published widely. This, in turn, has resulted in
concern about research continuing based on those earlier collections, and patents
relating to the research, as discussed by several Indigenous authors in the collection by Mead and Ratuva (2007).
The rising recognition of the value of biodiversity, since the early 1990s,
and the influence of technology has meant that plants and animals are considered an important biological resource for the development of products in the
An important aspect of implementation is understanding the nature of
Indigenous knowledge and its associated customary laws and beliefs. To this
end, one of our recent papers (Robinson & Raven, 2020) examines and reviews
legal, anthropological and historical texts relating to biodiversity and associated
knowledge to explore Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples’ customary
laws and governance. Understanding the broader place of Indigenous customs,
laws and beliefs, as sitting on the oral-written continuum and expressing through
the Dreaming,
2 provides the foundation for understanding Indigenous Australian
customary laws as they relate to plants and animals. Plants and animals may be
regarded as totemic species that have specific relational significance, and which
have specific customary laws, and rights for specific individuals or families.
Biopiracy and Technological Innovation: Why Protocols
Are Needed
Documenting Indigenous knowledge of plants in Australia began from at least
the late eighteenth century (Clarke, 2003). It was part of the wider processes of
colonisation of Australia based on the notion of discovery (Miller et al., 2010).
This ethnobotanical research involved the documentation and collection of
Australian native plants that Indigenous peoples were known to use. This information has found its way into monographs, books, journal articles and herbariums and museums around the world, with a vast majority of the collections
ending up in England. The first phases of collecting were “primarily driven by
practical needs, with the plants observed in use by Indigenous Australians in the
‘new’ land being investigated for their potential economic benefit to eventual
settlers” (Clarke, 2003, p. 21). These benefits included the use of native plants for
life stock feed and to help settlers supplement their food between supply ships.
The types of collectors (such as settlers, explorers, biologists, pharmacologists,
herbalists, anthropologists, geographers, medical specialists and ethnologists)
(Clarke, 2003) indicate the wide and diverse value of Indigenous knowledge
across various specialist fields.
Similarly, in the Pacific, a colonial history exists whereby European explorers
and early settlers exploited natural resources, and collected specimens for scientific interest for botanical gardens, herbariums and then later in genebanks. In
more recent times, there have been collections by a wide range of ethnobotanists
and anthropologists such as Paul Cox (1991) and Art Whistler (1992), which
have seen many traditional medicines and useful plants from parts of Polynesia
and Melanesia documented and published widely. This, in turn, has resulted in
concern about research continuing based on those earlier collections, and patents
relating to the research, as discussed by several Indigenous authors in the collection by Mead and Ratuva (2007).
The rising recognition of the value of biodiversity, since the early 1990s,
and the influence of technology has meant that plants and animals are considered an important biological resource for the development of products in the