A culturally significant tree in Adelaide’s foothills that is thought to be more than 450 years old has been brought back to life through community efforts with Kaurna elders.
Key points:
- The river red gum at Brownhill Creek Recreation Park is thought to be more than 450 years old
- Kaurna land care practices were used to revive the area around the tree
- Hundreds of volunteers have planted native vegetation
The Kaurna shelter tree or Willawilla Karra Kuu is a river red gum that was under stress from weeds, bank erosion and compact soil.
To regenerate the area around the 20-metre tree, senior Kaurna elder Lynette Crocker led the planting of ngampa or yam daisies — a native root vegetable planted there for the first time since colonisation.
“The natural harvest of Kaurna people was the yam daisy and the kangaroo grass,” she said.
“That has to be put back on the landscape for us to make a difference in the future.”
The Brownhill Creek Association, partnering with elders and numerous community groups, started the initiative in 2018 to protect the tree at the entrance to the Brownhill Creek Recreation Park/Wirraparinga.
The group reached out to Kaurna traditional owners after an arborist report made eight recommendations to revive the tree and improve biodiversity around it.
Since then, volunteers and school students have planted 2,800 native plants around the adjacent creek, known as Willawilla in Kaurna language.
Aunty Crocker said she hopes that other councils on Kaurna Yerta take up similar projects to regenerate and protect the land.
“You’ll have healthy people, you’ll have healthy parks, if you heal the country and look at the country as if it were a person,” she said.
“It’s also about the plants, it’s about the animals and it’s about the biodiversity of Adelaide.
“Climate change is everybody’s business.”
Last year, Narungga artist Brad Darkson worked with Aunty Crocker to develop an art installation based on the ngampa.
“The important thing to remember is that the seeds are still in the land… the land already has the knowledge,” Mr Darkson said.
“We just need to start working with country and bringing our practices back to country.
“When we acknowledge our ancestors and our old people, we are also acknowledging these big trees here – these are our ancestors.”
School students that participated in the regeneration program also learnt about the area’s cultural and ecological significance.
A cultural burn is planned for the area with direct seeding of ngampa on a larger scale in the hills nearby.
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