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Aboriginal Plant Collectors: Botanists and Australian Aboriginal People in the Nineteenth Century

Amazon.com Price:  $31.96 (as of 02/05/2019 06:16 PST- Details)

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Description

As world exploration expanded Within the 17th century, explorers of Australia were amazed to discover the unique plants and animals they encountered Within the ‘Great Southern Land.’ Back in Europe, scholars craved for exotic specimens to challenge the ways through which they, as scientists, ordered the flora and fauna. An imperative for British colonists used to be to discover and protected natural resources of economic benefit to the Empire. Europeans who investigated the expanding frontier of settlement were impelled to engage with indigenous individuals who were being steadily dispossessed of their land. Plant hunters were a hardy breed of men primarily employed to collect both dried and living plants and send them back to Europe. Aboriginal guides accompanied plant collectors into the field. As hunter-gatherers, the guides had bush skills that were derived from their extensive environmental knowledge and first hand experience of the Australian flora. Within the published accounts of the colonial period, indigenous people working with European explorers and plant collectors have too continuously been portrayed as silent partners. With a purpose to address this imbalance, this book investigates the role of particular Aboriginal groups and individuals Within the botanical discovery of Australia. The bulk of the book is a detailed description of the interaction between particular plant collectors and Aboriginal people through the 19th century. It includes chapters at the work of George Caley, Allan Cunningham, Von Mueller, and the resident plant collectors in Western Australia, South Australia, and Tasmania. Additionally, there are chapters at the inland explorers Leichhardt, Burke, and Wills.

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