In July 2023, Ethnobotanist Dr Gerry Turpin, travelled up to his Country - Mbabaram Country, West of Herberton, on the Atherton tablelands in Far North Queensland to talk to us about his profession of Ethnobotany, the importance of being on Country and the role that native grasses and their management play within both culture and ecology. This video details this fascinating interview.
We'd like to thank Gerry sincerely for his time and wisdom, and also give a shout out to filmmaker Josaphine Seale who captured the footage that day.
Mr Gerald Turpin is an Mbabaram man from north Queensland with familial links to Tableland Yidinji, Nadjon and Kuku Thaypan. Mr Turpin began his more than 30-year career with the Queensland Government, with the Queensland Herbarium's Ecological Survey and Mapping team. He is now a senior ethnobotanist and leads the Tropical Indigenous Ethnobotany Centre (TIEC) at the Australian Tropical Herbarium in Cairns. TIEC is an initiative established to support Traditional Owner groups to record and use Indigenous ethnobiological and ethnoecological knowledge for cultural use on Country. The initiative is a partnership between the Queensland Department of Environment, Science and Innovation, James Cook University and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). Mr Turpin works tirelessly with many Traditional Owner groups on Cape York, across Queensland and around Australia. As an Indigenous ethnobotanist, he has a strong cultural commitment to facilitating effective partnerships that support Indigenous communities to protect, manage and maintain their cultural knowledge on the use of plants. Through his work, Mr Turpin has helped ensure that the botanical, biocultural and language knowledge of Traditional Owners is recorded, shared and passed forward to future generations within Indigenous communities. In 2025 he was awarded a Public Service Medal (PSM) Queensland for outstanding public service to Ethnobotany and championing Indigenous science and research.
Carbon_Dating is an experimental artwork designed to seed ‘consensual’ partnerships between Australian native grasses and humans, based upon their shared need to breathe each other’s ‘exhaled’ air.
We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the many lands on which we live, work and create, including our collaborators on Yirrganydji, Barunggam, Jagera/Yuggera, Turbal, Ugarapul, Jinibara, Kabi Kabi and Kombumerri Country. We acknowledge their ongoing connection and custodianship for Country. We pay our deep respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. We recognise First Nations people as the first artists and scientists. Always was, always will be.
The 2024-5 Carbon_Dating exhibition tour is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts QueenslandAssisted by QUT School of Creative Arts, International Art Services (IAS), Native Seeds Pty Ltd, Artfully, and Embodied Media.
Between 2019-23 this project was assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. It was also supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF). The Regional Arts Development Fund is a partnership between the Queensland Government: Cairns Regional Council; Western Downs Regional Council; City of Gold Coast Council; Somerset Regional Council; and ArtsCoast as part of Sunshine Coast Council’s RADF program to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.
Thanks also to QUT (School of Creative Arts, QUT Office of eResearch and Samford Ecological Research Facility). NorthSite Contemporary Arts, Cairns; Dogwood Crossing Gallery, Miles; HOTA, Gold Coast; The Condensery, Toogooloowah; Caloundra Regional Gallery, Caloundra; Native Seeds Pty Ltd and ReBul Packaging.
