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First Peoples’ knowledge leads scientists to reveal ‘fairy circles’ and termite linyji are linked in Australia

In the past, when scientists encountered and studied ‘new’ environmental phenomena, they rarely considered the existing knowledge of First Peoples (also known as Indigenous or Aboriginal people). The scientific debate over the regularly spaced bare patches (so-called fairy circles) in arid grassland...

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Autores principales: Walsh, Fiona, Bidu, Gladys Karimarra, Bidu, Ngamaru Karimarra, Evans, Theodore A., Judson, Thelma Milangka, Kendrick, Peter, Michaels, Alice Nampijinpa, Moore, Danae, Nelson, Matilda, Oldham, Carolyn, Schofield, Josef, Sparrow, Ashley, Taylor, Muuki Karimarra, Taylor, Desmond Purungu, Wayne, Lee Nangala, Williams, Carol Milangka
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10089917/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37012380
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-01994-1
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author Walsh, Fiona
Bidu, Gladys Karimarra
Bidu, Ngamaru Karimarra
Evans, Theodore A.
Judson, Thelma Milangka
Kendrick, Peter
Michaels, Alice Nampijinpa
Moore, Danae
Nelson, Matilda
Oldham, Carolyn
Schofield, Josef
Sparrow, Ashley
Taylor, Muuki Karimarra
Taylor, Desmond Purungu
Wayne, Lee Nangala
Williams, Carol Milangka
author_facet Walsh, Fiona
Bidu, Gladys Karimarra
Bidu, Ngamaru Karimarra
Evans, Theodore A.
Judson, Thelma Milangka
Kendrick, Peter
Michaels, Alice Nampijinpa
Moore, Danae
Nelson, Matilda
Oldham, Carolyn
Schofield, Josef
Sparrow, Ashley
Taylor, Muuki Karimarra
Taylor, Desmond Purungu
Wayne, Lee Nangala
Williams, Carol Milangka
author_sort Walsh, Fiona
collection PubMed
description In the past, when scientists encountered and studied ‘new’ environmental phenomena, they rarely considered the existing knowledge of First Peoples (also known as Indigenous or Aboriginal people). The scientific debate over the regularly spaced bare patches (so-called fairy circles) in arid grasslands of Australian deserts is a case in point. Previous researchers used remote sensing, numerical modelling, aerial images and field observations to propose that fairy circles arise from plant self-organization. Here we present Australian Aboriginal art and narratives, and soil excavation data, that suggest these regularly spaced, bare and hard circles in grasslands are pavement nests occupied by Drepanotermes harvester termites. These circles, called linyji (Manyjilyjarra language) or mingkirri (Warlpiri language), have been used by Aboriginal people in their food economies and for other domestic and sacred purposes across generations. Knowledge of the linyji has been encoded in demonstration and oral transmission, ritual art and ceremony and other media. While the exact origins of the bare circles are unclear, being buried in deep time and Jukurrpa, termites need to be incorporated as key players in a larger system of interactions between soil, water and grass. Ecologically transformative feedbacks across millennia of land use and manipulation by Aboriginal people must be accounted for. We argue that the co-production of knowledge can both improve the care and management of those systems and support intergenerational learning within and across diverse cultures.
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spelling pubmed-100899172023-04-13 First Peoples’ knowledge leads scientists to reveal ‘fairy circles’ and termite linyji are linked in Australia Walsh, Fiona Bidu, Gladys Karimarra Bidu, Ngamaru Karimarra Evans, Theodore A. Judson, Thelma Milangka Kendrick, Peter Michaels, Alice Nampijinpa Moore, Danae Nelson, Matilda Oldham, Carolyn Schofield, Josef Sparrow, Ashley Taylor, Muuki Karimarra Taylor, Desmond Purungu Wayne, Lee Nangala Williams, Carol Milangka Nat Ecol Evol Analysis In the past, when scientists encountered and studied ‘new’ environmental phenomena, they rarely considered the existing knowledge of First Peoples (also known as Indigenous or Aboriginal people). The scientific debate over the regularly spaced bare patches (so-called fairy circles) in arid grasslands of Australian deserts is a case in point. Previous researchers used remote sensing, numerical modelling, aerial images and field observations to propose that fairy circles arise from plant self-organization. Here we present Australian Aboriginal art and narratives, and soil excavation data, that suggest these regularly spaced, bare and hard circles in grasslands are pavement nests occupied by Drepanotermes harvester termites. These circles, called linyji (Manyjilyjarra language) or mingkirri (Warlpiri language), have been used by Aboriginal people in their food economies and for other domestic and sacred purposes across generations. Knowledge of the linyji has been encoded in demonstration and oral transmission, ritual art and ceremony and other media. While the exact origins of the bare circles are unclear, being buried in deep time and Jukurrpa, termites need to be incorporated as key players in a larger system of interactions between soil, water and grass. Ecologically transformative feedbacks across millennia of land use and manipulation by Aboriginal people must be accounted for. We argue that the co-production of knowledge can both improve the care and management of those systems and support intergenerational learning within and across diverse cultures. Nature Publishing Group UK 2023-04-03 2023 /pmc/articles/PMC10089917/ /pubmed/37012380 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-01994-1 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Analysis
Walsh, Fiona
Bidu, Gladys Karimarra
Bidu, Ngamaru Karimarra
Evans, Theodore A.
Judson, Thelma Milangka
Kendrick, Peter
Michaels, Alice Nampijinpa
Moore, Danae
Nelson, Matilda
Oldham, Carolyn
Schofield, Josef
Sparrow, Ashley
Taylor, Muuki Karimarra
Taylor, Desmond Purungu
Wayne, Lee Nangala
Williams, Carol Milangka
First Peoples’ knowledge leads scientists to reveal ‘fairy circles’ and termite linyji are linked in Australia
title First Peoples’ knowledge leads scientists to reveal ‘fairy circles’ and termite linyji are linked in Australia
title_full First Peoples’ knowledge leads scientists to reveal ‘fairy circles’ and termite linyji are linked in Australia
title_fullStr First Peoples’ knowledge leads scientists to reveal ‘fairy circles’ and termite linyji are linked in Australia
title_full_unstemmed First Peoples’ knowledge leads scientists to reveal ‘fairy circles’ and termite linyji are linked in Australia
title_short First Peoples’ knowledge leads scientists to reveal ‘fairy circles’ and termite linyji are linked in Australia
title_sort first peoples’ knowledge leads scientists to reveal ‘fairy circles’ and termite linyji are linked in australia
topic Analysis
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10089917/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37012380
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-01994-1
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