Slave traders' names are still stamped on native plants. It's time to 'decolonise' Australia's publi
Slave traders’ names are still stamped on native plants. It’s time to ‘decolonise’ Australia’s public gardens
Brett Summerell
For too long we’ve dismissed Indigenous knowledge of the natural world. At Sydney’s botanic garden, signage is starting to reflect Aboriginal names
Fri 30 Sep 2022 16.00 EDT
Like all botanic gardens, the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney is a classic artefact of the activities that took place during the colonisation of Australia in the 18th and 19th century. It was established to create a patch of landscape that mirrored those found in the United Kingdom, with the aim of “discovering” and documenting the floral biodiversity of New South Wales (in itself a name reflecting the perspective of those holding power).
Of course, this was powered by the economic driver to find plants that held potential for new and existing industries – a scenario that was mirrored across Australia and throughout the world by colonial forces of the time.
As a result, the names of effectively all Australian plants were defined by white – primarily male – botanists, based on the presumption that they were not known by humans prior to their discovery. Many are named using Latinised terms to describe various features or locations, and a number are named after (usually white male) politicians or patrons.
We are finally becoming more aware that this is a preposterous scenario. My colleague Dr Kevin Thiele recently highlighted the case in which the plant genus Hibbertia is named after George Hibbert, who made his fortune from slave trading.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/01/slave-traders-names-are-still-stamped-on-native-plants-its-time-to-decolonise-australias-public-gardens
Hibbertia!
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