Growing appetite for nutrient-rich native Indigenous Australian foods

0 Comments read Climate Change, Environment & Development, Health & Science, Indigenous, Travel
Lilly Pilly and Davidson Plum are some of the native Indigenous Australian produce being used in traditional and modern cuisine, cosmetics, pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries. Photo Credit: ©Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 03.10.2023 (IPS): Growing up in Sydney, Kalkani Choolburra, a Girramay, Kuku Yalanji, Kalkadoon and Pitta Pitta woman from Far North Queensland, would frequently travel with her family up and down Australia’s eastern seaboard. Her grandfathers and uncles would bring fresh catch of dugong, her favourite bush food, and she would go hunting for the short neck turtle with her aunties and female cousins.

The traditional or subsistence hunting of dugongs and turtles has been an important part of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Indigenous Australians) people’s social and cultural lives. Its meat has been a vital source of protein for these communities, who have sustained themselves on the native flora and fauna for thousands of years.

Now, national and international chefs are incorporating some of these native Indigenous produce — notably Kakadu plum, Davidson plum, lemon myrtle, wattle seed, quandong, finger lime, bush tomato, muntries, mountain pepper, saltbush – into their dishes ranging from sushi and samosa, pizza and pies to cakes and muffins.

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Protect biodiversity to secure traditional medicine sources

0 Comments read Climate Change, Environment & Development, Health & Science
Fostering conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, empowering indigenous communities, and building evidence on the efficacy and safety of traditional medicine knowledge could help with narrowing the health gap. Photo Credit: ©Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 25.08.2023 (SciDev.Net): Traditional medicines and their natural sources must be protected from threats such as illegal wildlife trade to secure their role in narrowing the global health gap, say scientists.

For millions of marginalised communities, traditional medicine is the only recourse for meeting their primary healthcare needs, especially in remote and rural areas that lack access to formal healthcare systems. The World Health Organization (WHO), which held its first-ever Traditional Medicine Global Summit in Gandhinagar, India, last week (17-18 August),  estimates that 80 per cent of people in most Asian and African countries use some form of traditional medicine for primary healthcare.

“Developing countries need not look towards developed countries to provide solutions, rather they can embrace what they already have – indigenous knowledge…grounded in generations of experience,” said Ritu Bharadwaj, principal researcher in the UK-based climate change research group of the International Institute for Environment and Development. Continue reading →

Climate change worsening HIV control in Asia Pacific

0 Comments read Climate Change, Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Brisbane, 28.07.2023 (SciDev.Net): Climate change-driven extreme weather events, sea level rise, changes in temperature, and air and water pollution are impacting control of HIV in the Asia Pacific region, a science gathering heard.

The warning comes amid unprecedented heatwaves, as the UN warns the world has already warmed by 1.1 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times.

“Those most affected by climate change are also those most prone to communicable diseases,” said Kiyohiko Izumi, team leader for HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Western Pacific Regional Office. “Climate change and related disasters as upstream factors can affect all aspects of HIV, primarily leading to the increased vulnerability to HIV and decreasing coping ability,”

Izumi was speaking at a session on how climate change is impacting the control of HIV in the Asia Pacific region, organised by WHO during the 12th International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Science, held in Brisbane, Australia, this week (23-26 July).

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