One of my favourite trees

This is one of my favourite trees - kaan-ya or Nuytsia floribunda (WA Christmas Tree.) This species is sacred to the local Noongar people:

‘When I die I shall go through the sea to Kurannup where all my moorurtung (relations) will be waiting on the shore for me, waiting with meat and drink for me…Kurannup is the home of my dead people and I must go to them, and my kaan-ya must be free to rest on the kaan-ya tree (Nuytsia floribunda) before it journeys through the sea. Since Nyitting (cold) times (long time ago) all Bibbulmun kaan-ya have rested on this tree on their way to Kurannup; and I have never broken a branch or flower, or sat under the shade of the tree because it is the kaan-ya tree only winnaitch (forbidden, sacred).’ (Noongar informant Joobaitch, see Bates in Bridge 1992: 14).

According to Daisy Bates:

‘No living Bibbulmun ever sheltered or rested beneath the shade of the tree of souls; no flower or bud or leaf of the tree was ever touched by child or adult; no game that took shelter beneath it was ever disturbed.’ (Bates 1938 in Bridge 1992: 153)

Nuytsia floribunda – Photo by Ken Macintyre.

There are conflicting views about the relationship Noongar people had with this tree and whether they made use of it, but from what I have heard, the spirits of the dead rested in its branches before moving on. If this is the case this tree would be considered sacred - and I tend to think Aboriginal people wouldn't have interfered with it.

You can find out more about it from this article: Traditional significance of Nuytsia floribunda