Indigenous Perspectives

We know that the Kaurna people lived in South Australia long before white settlers arrived to set up colonies. The Indigenous people were able to care for and maintain the land as to sustain food and shelter sources and have a spiritial connection with the Earth (Australian Museum 2012).

The Casuarina Glauca was used by Indigenous people to quench their thirst during droughts as the tree’s leaves can be chewed to reduce saliva flow. They also used the tree as a way of hunting other food sources, like Shipworm grubs (Australian Museum 2012). The Indigenous people were able to push the trunk of the Casuarina Glauca into creeks, encouraging the grubs to attach themselves to the trunk and therefore making it easier for the Indigenous people to collect them.

Indigenous people not only used the Casuarina Glauca as food and to collect food but also as a form of transport. There is evidence, collected by the Australian Museum (2012), that Indigenous people used the bark of this tree to create a canoe from a single piece of bark and that these canoes were then used as a form of transport and for fishing.

Indigenous bark canoe from NSW (Australian Museum 2012) 

[9] Reference

[10] Reference