Extraordinary Plants with Dr Shane Ingrey and Ray Ingrey
Held on Wednesday, 4 May 2022
Hear Dr Shane Ingrey and Ray Ingrey talk about the extraordinary plants of their Country from knowledge passed down through the generations.
The Captn and Dr Solander ... found also several trees which bore fruit of the Jambosa kind, much in colour and shape resembling cherries; of these they eat plentifully and brought home also abundance, which we eat with much pleasure tho they had little to recommend them but a light acid.
Throughout HMB Endeavour's Pacific voyage, thousands of plants were collected, preserved and named through European scientific conventions. During the Endeavour's anchorage at Kamay, collecting was so fruitful it was named Botany Bay.
Australia's First Peoples have a much older knowledge of these plants. Featured in creation stories, the plants of Kamay were markers of the different seasons and provided food, medicine and materials for the everyday lives of Dharawal peoples.
About the speakers
Dr Shane Ingrey
Shane Ingrey belongs to the La Perouse Aboriginal community. Shane is a Dharawal person and is an expert on the molecular biology of the medicinal plants of Kamay.
He has worked as a cultural heritage officer and is a key member of both the La Perouse community-led Gadhungal Research Program and Dharawal Language Program.
Ray Ingrey
Ray Ingrey is a Dharawal person from the La Perouse Aboriginal community. Ray has a number of leadership roles within his community, including Chairman of the Gujaga Foundation.
Ray believes it’s important “our young ones grow up with a solid cultural foundation and become strong with who they are and where they belong” which will put them on the right path in achieving any goal they set in the future.
This lecture was part of the Eight Days in Kamay program provided through the Gujaga Foundation: a non-profit organisation leading Language, culture and research activities within the La Perouse Aboriginal Community.
With the La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council, Gujaga Foundation, The University of Sydney, National Museum of Australia and Cambridge University's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the Chau Chak Wing Museum was honoured to exhibit three spears taken from Kamay in 1770 alongside 37 contemporary spears documenting the continuing strength of culture of Sydney's First Peoples.
Header image: Melaleuca viminalis, weeping bottlebrush, Myrtaceae from Banks' Florilegium.