Mbabaram Medicinal Plant project

The Mbabaram community led a bush medicines research project along with partners, the National Institute of Complimentary Medicine (NICM), Western Sydney University, NSW. The aims were to empower our community to investigate the biomedical value of our bush medicines/products; revive our traditional medicine knowledge and practice; enhance cultural engagement and community empowerment; formulate agreements with community to help protect against bioprospecting and loss of intellectual property; develop bush medicines for commercial, health and cultural benefits. NICM researchers visited our community and met Elders and Traditional Owners, and in return, our land Managers visited the labs at NICM to see how the academics do research. The benefits arising from this project for both academic and community partners included building trust for future collaboration; cross-cultural learning about scientific methods and traditional medicine; maintaining the relevance of traditional knowledge in the modern world; and community discussions around bush medicine product development for commercial enterprise.