The West Australian September 25, 2000 Knowledge quest preserves tradition By Peta Rasdien TAKEN from her family at seven, Sandra Evans never forgot the important lessons her mother and elders had taught her on an Aboriginal reserve on the outskirts of Leonora. When she returned some years later to rejoin them, she built on that knowledge and is thirsty to learn more even now, nearly 40 years later. Mrs Evans, 45, is a bush medicine specialist using the thousands-of-years-old remedies to heal her family and friends and anyone else willing to believe. "As I got older, I realised that these things are very important," she said. "Aboriginal people have to go back to the natural ways of living and being healed. I consider myself lucky, I never lost sight of what is good for us." Goanna and emu fat, the sandalwood and quondong trees and wild pear are just some of the naturally occurring Australian species which can heal everything from arthritic aches to dermatitis to colds and even offer a skin cream. There are other remedies about which she could not talk because it would break the customs of her people. But she indicated they were used to treat more serious ailments. Most of the traditional Aboriginal food was medicinal. Mrs Evans was keen to get a doctorate in bush medicine but hit a brick wall when the universities failed to come up with a course in which she could be assessed adequately on her knowledge. She blends Aboriginal tradition with the benefits of modern day living in developing her creams and oils to cure ills. She uses a microwave oven instead of boiling down the goanna fat in the camp fire as her Koara ancestors would have done. Mrs Evans believed Aborigines needed to go back to the traditional ways if their poor health record was to be improved. Aboriginal medical services should be promoting the traditional ways of healing. � 2000 West Australian Newspapers Limited All Rights Reserved. -- ********************************** 'Click' to protect the rainforest: Make the Rainforest Site your homepage! http://www.therainforestsite.com/ ********************************** ------------------------------------------------------ RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/
