Nexus - 0108 - New Times Magazine-pages

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you are, buy there - you can do it. their rice-grass outon the Dunes, that’s their from the river. They have pretty intricate sys- They did another strange thing in Thom- main grass. And they're experts. tems of floodwater-trapping with litle bury. They pooled all their money into a Sometimes we bring in new crops, cer- fences and mounds, so the floods come up, single bank account and they all carry a tainly. But sometimes we’re working with flood the fields, leave the silt - almostlike the cheque book and see how little money they people who are the originators of the crops. old Egyptian culture. They have a very an- can write every month. I think the surplus is Sunflowers, Jerusalem artichokes, beans, cient agriculture down there, fiveor six thou- as high as $8-9,000 dollars a month. It pro- peppers and chiles all originated in these sand years old, older than the earliest Egyp- vides for everybody, plus that surplus. They peoples, particularly the Papago group. tian records. support two of their number in service to an Aboriginal settlement and pay themawage “They havea very ancient agriculture down there, five to stay there and pay the fees for anybody who wants to go to university to improve or six thousand years old, older than the earliest their education - people are able to take Egyptian records... ” another two or three years training aS adults, essere ener They have a very large capital surplus —————— a and bought a little farm in Gippsland and a N: So you've been learning a lot about cul- It’s amazing how far they took agricul- coastal patch of land down in Bass Strait on tivation from them directly? ture. You go up steep ravines into the hills one of the islands, so they have a holiday BM: Yes, by their traditional methods and and there'll be thousands of little stone- place. Because of this big saving in food, we've been looking a lot more closely at the walled fields in which they grew agave - and energy and travel and also by pooling in- archaeology of they who were the precursors a special agave only found in those fields, come, they achieve a surplus of capital while of the Papago. I worked in Geronimo’s coun- there are no wild ones like it. They trim it all they work on a lot of projects. try, with the Chiricahuas, but they’re sadly off until it looks a bit like a short pineapple N: You've worked with Aboriginal communi- all gone now, and the Chiricahuas are re- and then they pile tonnes of it into pits and ties yourself. settled now over in Florida. Geronimo re- cook it; hot stone pits. BM: My work with Aboriginal communities sisted occupation and moved the whole of his There were thousands and thousands of was chiefly through the Aboriginal section of tribe away from the ancestral grounds. But people there with a pretty sophisticated agri- T.A.F.E. in South Australia. S.A. has a lot of you can find traces of their agriculture in the cultura] base. Since white Americans over- Aboriginal communities, from the Bight at Chiricahuas. ran most of that country the Indians are now Ceduna right up to Oodnadatta and there are N: How do you get clear water in aridareas? penned into much smaller and poorer reser- four or five tribal groups. BM: Well, there are various methods. There vations and they can’t leave the desert for the We've seen a lotof trees and a lot of food are very sophisticated runoff systems to hill country. Continues Over gointoeach settlement we worked with. We bring the flood water set up a city farm and city training programs from the washes out into and at one stage we were putting 12 back- the fields and they’re yards a weck into urban Aboriginal house- very ancient and very holds. It made tremendous difference both to skilled in their construc- the monetary position of Aboriginal groups tion. Then just before the and to their health. Some of them have been fields, at the bottom of able to give up their diabetic tools once they the waddies, or the sand- got onto fresh fruit and vegetables. banks - or the arroyos, as That's becn a good time, we’ve always we say there - they dig enjoyed the work, although at firstit was very wells. Above the wells slow to take off. But after a few years every- are actually water filled body trusted us and we were welcomeevery- pans too, at flood time. where - we didn’thave to rebuild that trustin But in the really dry each settlement. period, everyone tradi- N: Has that been the case overseas where tionally leaves the desert you've been working? and goes into the moun- BM: In American Indian groups, yes. I tain foothills to the per- started with the Paiute nation, and some Hopi manent springs. Then came in ~ and I’ve worked since with the you hang out up in the Papago or Sand People in the Sonora desert foothills andcollect your and with the Cherokee people on their reser- pine nuts and deer and vations. We've had a lot of fun. all. And when the rains N: Are you mainly using plants that are come back you go to native to land that you’ re working with? your fields in the centre BM: With the Papago we’re working with of the desert. That's the plants that they actually developed. They Sand Indians. developed beans and all your chiles and The same Pima peppers and a lot of desert species -cat’sclaw group as the Papago live and all sorts of special plants - so they’re a along the river and they great agricultural people. They still grow have water all the time, their traditional crops. The Paiute still plant so they water their beds Ww Simes Mylil i 1999