Curiosity Constant It's about

STORY BY MAHMOOD FAZAL

PHOTOS BY CHRIS TURNER

As the world becomes rich with digital prosperity, the move away from technology toward nature seems ever more promising.

“I see myself as a botanical educator,” quips Taj Scicluna, also known as The Perma Pixie. She describes herself as a herbal clinician and forager, on a mission to teach.

“I am for lack of a better term obsessed with the plant and vegetative world. And so I try and educate people about having a relationship to the natural world, through herbalism, permaculture, gardening and foraging,” explains Taj. “I have thought, since I was an adolescent, that we're greatly disconnected from our food, from our medicine from pretty much everything that really makes us human in the world.”

Taj grew up in Keilor, a far cry from the lush Macedon Ranges she lives in these days, “I grew up in suburbia and I was greatly disconnected from that world and would seek it out as much as I possibly could.”

Taj laughs before revealing her secret garden, “If I'm honest, I would go down to the back of my house where there was a stormwater drain. And it had more vegetation than everywhere else. It had acacia trees, eucalyptus, rabbits, snakes and things like that. I would go in and sit there. Try and be connected to trees more than people.”

Taj became obsessed with the miraculous power of the natural world. She wanted to know more and began learning, “I'm largely self educated, the internet is one of my favourite tools in the world. It is helped me immensely.”

Taj was inspired by mentors such as Jim McDonald, Judith Berger, Lisa Ganora, she also completed a bachelor’s degree and diploma of permaculture. She says, “for me, it's about constant curiosity. constantly asking questions, why, and how does that happen? And if I keep curiosity in myself alive, then I keep learning.”

“Now I'm working as a village herbalist at Enki in Daylesford, offering herbal consultations, and herbal experiences for people, as well as starting my own online and face-to-face courses.”

Taj is offering these experience at Enki so people can experience herbalism through the senses. “We have a herbal footbath prepared and we have facecloths with herbal hydrosol on them. So people can really feel it on their skin, smell it and experience a world of herbalism sensorially.”

One question stumps her, what is her favourite plant?

“I can whittle it down to two for you; stinging nettle, because it's a nutritive, which means that you can have it daily, and oat straw, the plant oats come from because it helps restore the nervous system. I actually find it quite sweet and delicious if you put with a little bit of milk and honey.”

If you have any questions or would like to get in touch, you can find the Perma Pixie on her website.