Steve Hopper

And the irony of that is, you know, here I am now working with Lynette, with her family, with deeply steeped in continuous oral history on the south coast of Western Australia.

And Noel was another person like that.

He really knew his family's stories and yarns.

And he also knew that I was passionate about eucalypts and other plants.

We went to one of the rocks on which there is wild eucalyptus caesia, so he had a big story about the serpents, spirit serpents there, and we really enjoyed yarning about the place.

And I was at Edith Cowan Uni, where he was elder in residence, with him one day, and we were just looking at a planted eucalyptus cesia, and he said, you know, that should be your tree totem.

So it was a very moving experience, and I grow the plant in my front yard on the shores of King George Sound these days.

have continued now for the best part of 50 years to study and try and understand how this rather beautiful species lives and what it's got to tell us.

And I would just say that Lynette Knapp has been inspirational for me and she's immensely proud of her culture and has such a positive attitude and a generous spirit.

Given all the things that living in Australia as an Aboriginal person

is thrown at you you know i just have this deep admiration for those elders who are capable of moving beyond uh the acrimony and the derogatory comments to say we we really have something powerful and positive to contribute listen to us and work with us steve it's been really beautiful to meet you and hear something about what you've learned over your career with with eucalypts thank you so much for being my guest on conversations

It's been my great pleasure, Sarah, and congratulations to you.

I listen to your program and it's uplifting and enjoyable.