Editorial Insights

Rebecca Harcourt, Managing Editor

I’d like to start my editorials from now on by acknowledging that I live and work on the land of the Garigal Clan of the Wannanginni Guringai people, who are the ancestral custodians of Bulbararing, Allagai and Tdjudibaring, and pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging.

I’ve decided to do this as I feel it’s an appropriate start to this issue whose theme is Influence and action: botanic gardens as agents of change. As a member of the botanic garden community, I think it’s important that I ‘walk the talk’, so to speak, and make changes to my actions that might influence others to do the same.

This mindset was inspired by the recent Congress in Melbourne, which I was lucky enough to attend. It didn’t matter where in the world the attendees worked, or the size of their garden – everyone I spoke to or heard speaking at a session was trying to make a positive difference through their actions. As Dr Paul Smith, Secretary General of Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) said when I asked him about the role of regional gardens in the global agenda, ‘It’s down to individuals. Everyone can do something.’

Several articles in this issue illustrate Paul’s statement. For example, Toby Golson from the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra describes his (Toby’s) efforts (and those of his colleagues) to conserve the threatened species, Macadamia jansenii. In the Hort Section, Sydney horticulturalist Eliza Tyson’s thought-provoking article raises the issue of how we, both as individuals and as a garden community, need to reframe the narrative around plant ‘discovery’ and the interpretation of botanical collections according to, and in collaboration with, First Nations knowledge and people. This issue’s book review, by Virginia McNally from the University of Melbourne, also highlights the influence an individual can exert by their actions. The book is a memoir entitled Evergreen: The Botanical Life of a Plant Punk by Tim Entwisle, Director and Chief Executive of Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria.

Another point that struck me while at the Congress was the combined strength and influence of the various networks of botanic gardens. These include networks such as BGANZ and others like the Australian Seed Bank Partnership (ASBP), the Australian Network for Plant Conservation (ANPC), the Council of Heads of Australian Botanic Gardens (CHABG), BGCI and the International Plant Sentinel Network. The strength and influence of these networks is evident in articles from the new convenors of BCARM and BGEN, and in an article that reflects on the Congress’s Germplasm Conservation Symposium by authors from ASBP, ANPC, and CHABG, among others.

This issue’s Feature Interview is with Dr Paul Smith from BGCI. Paul, and others at the Congress, helped me understand how individuals and individual botanic gardens, as well as the global botanic garden community, can be influencers and agents of change. I hope the articles in this issue inspire you to be an influencer and agent of change as well.

I’d love to hear from you with any feedback on this issue or suggestions for future themes. Please feel free to email me at managing.editor@bganz.org.au.