Seeding knowledge 

Understanding the power of plants

Featured in

  • Published 20231107
  • ISBN: 978-1-922212-89-4
  • Extent: 208pp
  • Paperback, ePub, PDF, Kindle compatible

D’harawal Elder Auntie Frances Bodkin is a national treasure. A respected botanist and educator, she’s also the author of multiple books, including Encyclopaedia Botanica: The Essential Reference Guide to Native and Exotic Plants in Australia (1986), which details more than 11,000 plant species. Fran grew up learning the stories of D’harawal culture from her mother, and she’s spent her long career combining this Traditional Knowledge with Western approaches to scientific study.

In the 1970s, Fran helped establish the Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan near Sydney. This 416-hectare site is home to more than 4,000 native plant species and is situated in what was once a meeting place for Indigenous peoples; today, it’s also home to a memorial for the Stolen Generations. The D’harawal name for Mount Annan is Yandel’ora, which means ‘place of peace between peoples’. This interview – which has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity – took place on a sunny autumn afternoon on a hilltop at Mount Annan.

Already a subscriber? Sign in here

If you are an educator or student wishing to access content for study purposes please contact us at griffithreview@griffith.edu.au

Share article

About the author

Frances Bodkin

Frances Bodkin is an Australian botanist and D’harawal elder. She is the author of Encyclopaedia Botanica: The Essential Reference Guide to Native and Exotic...

More from this edition

Before I forget again

Poetry I am a ceramic horse in kintsugi  fields. Shards shred my tongue to gold  rivers. Cracked and crazed – from fire  gallops beast. Memory slips  lapis lazuli. I break  curses, gather spells. Nudge  fresh letters in water troughs – watch words bob – shiny  new apples to crunch.

Fly on the wall

In ConversationAnimals are extremely important and extremely neglected in our public discourse. We’re not even paying enough attention to human rights and human justice issues, and we’re paying next to no attention to non-human rights and non-human justice issues. That doesn’t mean that we don’t care – people do care about animals, and they want animals to have good lives – but we’re either unaware of or unwilling to acknowledge all the pain and suffering that animals experience as a result of human activity.

Object permanence

Non-fictionTigger arrived with one eye and a tender but wary disposition, and at first it seemed like the missing eye would be the locus of his mystery. But within a few months of his living in my small apartment, he began presenting strange troubles – back legs listing when he turned a corner, spasms in his resting spine – that were quickly diagnosed as arthritis and diabetes. 

Stay up to date with the latest, news, articles and special offers from Griffith Review.