SA Insights explores Indigenous plants and medicine innovations

Adelaide Intermediary Program’s SA Insights session, ‘Exploring Indigenous Plants and Medicines’, opened this week with Uncle Jeffrey’s Welcome to Country, followed by a smoking ceremony led by Uncle Yuandamarra and his nephew Jaylan, setting the tone for an engaging evening.

The event explored the importance of building relationships, fostering respect, and creating an environment where two worlds could meet and learn from each other.

The expert panel included Uncle Yuandamarra, owner of Red Centre Enterprises, a First Nations-owned company focused on ethically utilising native Australian ingredients; Dr Susan Semple, , leading collaborations with traditional custodians at the University of South Australia; Dr Alana Gall, Vice President of the Public Health Association of Australia and Indigenous Traditional Medicines representative;  Edwina Lewis, Director of Policy and International Affairs at IP Australia and Prof Christopher Sweeney, Director of the South Australian immunoGENomics Cancer Institute at the University of Adelaide who shared invaluable insights on bridging traditional knowledge with modern practices, ethical commercialisation and its policy implications.

Discussions covered the following:

• Building strong relationships with First Nations communities is crucial for respectful collaboration.
• There’s a pressing need to bridge the gap between Western medicine and First Nations knowledge.
• Successful projects are often driven by First Nations communities themselves.
• Current health policies lack guidance on integrating traditional medicines, highlighting the need for clearer guidelines.
• The patent and trademark system can be problematic because it is based on individual ownership that can lead to commercial exploitation and time limited protections. These things don’t sit well with Indigenous knowledge management systems.
• Contracts including consent agreements or non-disclosure agreements are examples of tools that can help fill some of the gaps in IP protection – they set up protocols between knowledge holders, their communities and others who seek access.
• Moving beyond engagement to truly empower First Nations people in healthcare decisions.

The event also included a tour of the Aunty Lynette Healing Garden supported by the Yitpi Foundation at Waite Campus. Uncle Yuandamarra acknowledged that Australia is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots providing a unique opportunity to lead in plant-based medicine innovation.

The discussion will soon be available as an episode of the MTPConnect Podcast.

 

View the photo gallery here.