Bush Medicine Knowledge and Use among Young Kriol Speakers in Ngukurr

In Indigenous and Indigenous advocacy discourses it is increasingly common to hear claims such as ‘without our language, we have no culture’. Yet equating language with cultural knowledge is a truism that is rarely investigated, especially using quantitative methods. The study discussed in this chapter considers the use of traditional medicine among young adults in Ngukurr who do not speak traditional Aboriginal languages but rather Kriol. Traditional, or ‘bush’, medicine, is sometimes regarded as a domain of cultural knowledge lost quickly when cultural change and language shift takes place (Webb 1969). To investigate this, sociolinguistic interviews with 14 young adults (aged 23-35) in Ngukurr were carried out in 2013. The cohort revealed a reduced level of taxonomic knowledge of bush medicine compared to elders, but a higher-than-expected level of knowledge retention. In terms of actual usage, the young people showed that most are active users of bush medicine. Additionally, some demonstrate innovations in their application of traditional medicine suggesting it is being retained a vital aspect of health practices in Ngukurr.