Methodology
This study combines Field Linguistics and Language Documentation methods. The team conducted field work, together with a local consultant, Mr Benediktus Delpada, to collect original and ‘first-hand’ data, documented plant species (English and Abui plant names and the scientific name). Besides looking at the medicinal properties and cultural relevance (from the perspective of the Abui people), the team also explored local myths and legends connected with the plants.
Thereafter, the team organised the data in a database which is reflected below.
| Please note that all Abui plant names, reported medical usages of plants and any associated legends or myths recorded below are the intellectual property of the Abui people. |
Collection
Stump of k.o. tropical liana plant / Biel Tuku
| English Plant Name: | Stump of k.o. tropical liana plant |
| Abui Plant Name: | Biel Tuku |
| Scientific Name: | None |
| Etymological Reconstruction: | TBC |
The bark of the biel liana aids recovery from leprosy. A small piece of biel liana is peeled, crushed and put into a cup of water and its juice is drunk.
A story is told of 2 sisters – Fuipada and Tilaalpada. The sisters dug ko ‘ko tuber’. Fuipada, the eldest, dug a tuber which looked like penis, but Tilaalpada, the younger one, cut it short. The storyteller interprets it as such: if Fuipada kept the tuber long, all women in the village could be at risk of sexual abuse since a man with a long penis was likelier to have sex with many women. However, Tilaalpada cut the tuber short because man could only have sex with and marry one woman. After getting the tuber, they wanted to roast them but did not have fire. The sisters negotiated and decided that Fuipada would climb up biel liana to take the fire in Taafang Buku ‘earth of dead people’, while Tilaalpada kept the tubers near the origin of biel liana. After Fuipada found the fire in Taafang Buku, she brought and returned to Tilaalpada to use the fire to roast the tuber and to eat. Because both sisters were worried that future generations would trace and climb the biel liana to take fire, they cut the biel liana eventually.
| Remarks:
Awaiting |