Nourishing Matters LISTENBACK 26 feature 10 of the best, most popular eps from 2020-23

This episode is from December 2022 - a great one to reshare ands celebrate in Reconciliation Week '26. Since Gerry and I spoke, the ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and environmental histories and futures that Gerry contributes to as a research partner is well underway

Gerry Turpin is the Senior Ethnobotanist at the Tropical Indigenous Ethnobotany Centre (TIEC) at James Cook University in Cairns. Characteristically modest, he is however rightly recognised nationally and internationally for what his ground breaking, important two-ways work. He is a Mbabaram Traditional Owner who is 'as far as he knows' the first fully trained Indigenous Ethnobotanist in Australia who has helped seed and lead groundbreaking, research that bridges two worlds and empowers Elders and communities to research, record, protect and derive value from their plant and cultural knowledge and to share it in ways they want.

This was the final deep dive, long lens conversation for Nourishing Matters 2022. It's a great bookend for Series 3 - as Gerry and his work were key inspirations to kick-start Nourishing Matters - I and others were blown away by Gerry's keynote presentation at PULiiMA 2019 and the power of his work for culture, community, environmental and food sovereignty. 

Learning how to love, see and better care for country and our unique plants and biodiversity by working with First People's, and their knowledge, in dialogue with Western science is all part of a growing movement and way of working together,  as the urgent need to protect biodiversity and ecosystems with First Nations leadership and protocols grows.

Gerry and his team are leaders in this critical space: they build and record Indigenous Biocultural Knowledge (IBK) with Elders and their communities and enact protocols, research methods and pathways that enable and ensure that plant research is guided by Traditional Knowledge holders with their full, informed and prior consent.  

TIEC is a partnership between Traditional Owners, the Queensland Government (including the Queensland Herbarium), CSIRO, James Cook University's Cairns Institute and the Australian Tropical Herbarium joint venture.  

Listen in and hear from Gerry about how his work has evolved and what his big dreams for the future are that include: 

• to hold an International Indigenous Ethnobotanical Conference in Cairns - huge benefits for Northern Queensland and communities
• to see the Nagoya Protocol ratified by the current Commonwealth Government, to enable stronger protection of Indigenous Biocultural Knowledge rights across all States and Territories 
• to secure more funds to assist him and the TIEC to engage and employ more people to do the urgent work that needs to be done with more Elders before they and their knowledge pass

I first met Gerry in or around 2010 through my Remote Indigenous Gardens Network work.  At that time TIEC was newly established. Since then Gerry and his work have gone from strength to strength.

The Tropical Indigenous Ethnobotany Centre, JCU Cairns    https://www.tiec.org.au/

The Australian Tropical Herbarium   https://www.ath.org.au/

Nourishing Matters 2020-2023 was a project initiative of Foodswell Limited [2013-2025]. If you'd like to get in touch, please email nourishingmattersaf@gmail.com and we're 'occasionally' still active on Instagram @nourishing_matters