SERIES 34 | Episode 04
We meet Veronica Perrurle Dobson AM, a highly respected Eastern Arrernte Elder living in Mparntwe. Veronica is a senior knowledge holder of Indigenous plant uses and language.
“I’m Veronica, and I love the land that I’m on and love the land that I came from… and I love doing this type of stuff, you know talking about what I know, the knowledge that all my own people have given me. I respect them for that, and I think that young people need to do the same.”
“Plants are important. It gives you shade and shelter, also gives you food, gives you medicines, gives you whatever you need. All the land that’s around here and the hills and that are part of us, so we need to respect it and respect other people as well.”
Veronica was awarded an Order of Australia in 2011 for her work as a linguist, naturalist, and ecologist, as well as national NAIDOC Female Elder of the Year Award in 2015.
Veronica’s traditional country is Ltyentye Apurte (Santa Teresa), an Eastern Arrernte community 85km south-east of Mparntwe, where she spent much time learning from her grandparents and particularly her mother. Veronica moved into Mparntwe as a young woman and in the decades that followed, she played a significant role in recording and translating Eastern Arrernte language.
“I was involved in working at the Institute for Aboriginal Development. I started as a cleaner there and one of the people that was working on language asked me what language I spoke. I told them Eastern Arrernte. So, I started working with him on writing a lot of the stuff that was collected over time from the old people that had passed and people that are still alive and we wrote a dictionary. It took us ten years to write a dictionary. We have got a language that we survived with and can identify with. Without a language that you can identify with, who are you?”
Veronica often spends time at Olive Pink Botanic Garden, where she collaborated to establish a bush medicine garden.
“All that knowledge belongs to my people and I just like letting people know that the foods and things that we ate was important for us as well as for the land itself and to people’s totems.”
“Land is important. We have to look after the land, because mining and all that type of stuff seem to kill off areas of land and also kill off a lot of plants and some plants are disappearing and I think they need to think more about not doing those things.”
“The land, the language, and the plants and what’s on the land… it’s all part of you. It’s you know, it’s not one thing or another, everything seems to be all together. That’s how I see it and that’s how I was taught to see it by my elders.”
Featured Plants |
|---|
MULGA | Acacia aneura | |
DESERT CASSIA | Senna artemisioides subsp. filifolia | |
RUBY SALTBUSH | Enchylaena tomentosa | |
PINTYE-PINTYE | Pterocaulon serrulatum | Highly scented leaves and purple flowers. Medicine used for flu and nasal problems. |
UNTYEYE | Hakea divaricata | Nectar-rich flowers, added to cordial drunk by young children. Thick bark from mature trees is gathered, burned, ground into a powder and either used as a powder or mixed with water or fat to create a paste. This is used as medicine to treat skin irritations, including children’s milk rash and nappy rash. |
UTNERRENGE | Eremophila longifolia | The leaves are used for ceremonies and as a medicine – including for mothers and babies after birth. |
ATNYERE | Ventilago viminalis | |
ANGELTHE | Cynanchum floribundum | The leaves, stems, flower and young seeds are eaten like a vegetable – either cooked or raw. |
Filmed on Arrernte Country | Mparntwe (Alice Springs), NT