Aims and background

Underground storage organs (USOs) have long featured prominently in human diets. They are reliable year-round resources, especially valuable in seasonal climates. We review a significant but scattered literature and oral recounts of USOs utilised by Noongar people of the Southwest Australian Floristic Region (SWAFR). USOs are important to First Nations cultures in other geophyte-rich regions with Mediterranean climate, with specialist knowledge employed, and productive parts of the landscape targeted for harvest, with likely ecological interactions and consequences.

Methods

We have gathered Noongar knowledge of USOs in the SWAFR to better understand the ecological role of Noongar-USO relationships that have existed for millennia.

Results

We estimate that 418 USO taxa across 25 families have Noongar names and/or uses. Additionally, three USO taxa in the SWAFR weed flora are consumed by Noongar people. We found parallels in employment of specific knowledge and targeted ecological disturbance with First Nations’ practice in other geophyte-rich floristic regions. We found that only in 20% of cases could we identify the original source of recorded USO knowledge to an acknowledged Noongar person.

Conclusion

This review identified that traditional Noongar access to USOs is taxonomically and geographically extensive, employing specific knowledge and technology to target and maintain resource rich locations. However, we also found a general practice of ‘extractive’ documentation of Noongar plant knowledge. We identify negative implications of such practice for Noongar people and SWAFR conservation outcomes and assert ways to avoid this going forward, reviving Noongar agency to care for traditional Country.

中文翻译：

---

原住民与澳大利亚西南部地下储存器官的互动，地中海气候 全球生物多样性热点

目标和背景

长期以来，地下储存器官 (USO) 在人类饮食中占有重要地位。它们是全年可靠的资源，在季节性气候中尤其有价值。 我们回顾了澳大利亚西南植物区 (SWAFR)的Noongar人使用的重要但分散的文献和对 USO 的口头叙述 。USO 对其他地中海气候的地球植物丰富地区的原住民文化很重要，他们运用了专业知识，并且以收获为目标的景观的生产部分，可能会产生生态相互作用和后果。

方法

我们收集  了 SWAFR 中关于 USO 的 Noongar知识，以更好地了解Noongar -USO 关系已经存在了数千年的生态作用。

结果

我们估计 25 个科的 418 个 USO 分类群具有 Noongar 名称和/或用途。此外，SWAFR 杂草植物群中的三个 USO 分类群被 Noongar 人食用。我们发现在使用特定知识和有针对性的生态干扰方面与原住民在其他富含地球植物的植物区系的实践有相似之处。我们发现，只有 20% 的情况下，我们可以向公认的 Noongar 人确定记录的 USO 知识的原始来源。

结论

这项审查发现，传统 的Noongar 对 USO 的访问在分类和地理上是广泛的，采用特定的知识和技术来定位和维护资源丰富的位置。然而，我们还发现了一种对Noongar 植物知识进行“提取”文档的一般做法 。我们确定了这种做法对Noongar 人民和 SWAFR 保护结果的负面影响，并提出了避免这种情况的方法，恢复 Noongar 机构以照顾传统国家。