Aboriginal Peoples and Terrestrial Invertebrates in Australia

Historical and Cultural Relationships

By: Philip A. Clarke

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Paperback | 19 January 2026

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24.5 x 17.0 x 2.0

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Aboriginal peoples have deep connections with Australia’s terrestrial invertebrates, going back millennia.

This book focuses on these historical and cultural relationships, describing the role of insects and other arthropods as totemic ancestors and spirit beings. It also explores Aboriginal nomenclature, foraging techniques and the use of land-based arthropods and molluscs as food, medicine and for making artefacts.

Through the lens of ethnoentomology, Philip Clarke examines the cultural significance of invertebrates, highlighting their role in shaping Aboriginal identities and their interactions with the unique Australian environment, blending scientific and Indigenous sources. By taking a historical perspective, Aboriginal Peoples and Terrestrial Invertebrates in Australia examines the gaps between the knowledge systems of Indigenous peoples and Western science, to encourage further collaboration and acknowledgement in the future.

This is a companion work to the author’s successful book Aboriginal Peoples and Birds in Australia.

About the Author

Philip A. Clarke is a consultant anthropologist working in native title and Aboriginal heritage. With an academic background in both science and anthropology, his research interests are focused on the ethnosciences, in particular Australian ethnobiology and ethnoastronomy. Philip is the author of Aboriginal Peoples and Birds in Australia and Aboriginal Biocultural Knowledge in South-eastern Australia.

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