Explore the vast range of titles available.

Aims and backgroundUnderground 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.MethodsWe have gathered Noongar knowledge of USOs in the SWAFR to better understand the ecological role of Noongar-USO relationships that have existed for millennia.ResultsWe 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.ConclusionThis 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.

Protection of biodiversity, human assets, and cultural heritage pose significant challenges to contemporary planning of bushfire mitigation activities. Current mitigation approaches are not always appropriate, and mismanagement is a source of distress for Indigenous peoples. Increased understanding of Indigenous fire knowledge and increased Indigenous participation may provide insight into more appropriate and inclusive land management for fire mitigation. We analysed contemporary Noongar and Western fire practitioner approaches within an Indigenous fire knowledge (IFK) framework to explore knowledge and aspirations for small reserves in the Southwest Australian Floristic Region (SWAFR) global biodiversity hotspot. We recorded an extensive knowledge base, characterised by a highly nuanced approach to burning, held by the Noongar coauthors. We explore potential approaches to applying this knowledge to build collaborative fire mitigation strategies with mutually beneficial outcomes for biodiversity, cultural heritage, and human assets.

Through a lens of Human Niche Construction theory, we examineNoongar(an indigenous people of south western Australia) relationships with southwestern Australian flora and suggest influences of these relationships on contemporary botanical patterns in this global biodiversity hotspot. By conducting a review of historical and contemporary literature and drawing upon the contemporary knowledge ofNoongarElders, we examine the merits of five key hypotheses of human niche construction theory in relation to this large cultural group. We find compelling evidence that supportsNoongarniche construction, but caution that further research is required to test its likely ecological and evolutionary outcomes. We suggest that further collaborative, multi-disciplinary research that appliesNoongarand Western science will lead to a greater understanding of the biological assets of southwestern Australia.