Anmatyerr Plant Stories

This book gives many fascinating sights into the rich taditions of plant use held by the Anmatyerr women of Laramba (Napperby), an Aboriginal community about 200 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs. In their own words, the women describe some of the bush foods that are found in the desert environment of their central Australian homelands—edible fruits and tubers, grubs, sweet things, seeds for making traditional flour, plants for making 'washing medicines', and twigs to make the ashes that are chewed with native tobaccos. The women's stories about plants and the ways they are used are told in the Anmatyerr language, accompanied by English translations. Lavish photographs of the plants, details of silk paintings of plants by the women from Laramba, and two alphabetical listings of plant names—one with Anmatyerr, scientific and common names, and the other with scientific and Anmatyerr names—complete the book.