Wightman,
Glenn Mitchell (1961 - )
Born at Leongatha, Vic. 6 June 1961.
In
1991 he was a botanist with the Conservation Commission of the Northern
Territory. He had written on the mangroves of the NT and had various
ethnobotanical papers in the NT Botanic Bulletin series.
When interviewed in 2013, Glen said:
"Yeah. "It is pretty simple. I work with Aboriginal people in the Top End of the Northern Territory and the Kimberley of western Australia recording knowledge of plants and animals.
"I mainly work with old people. So any bio-cultural knowledge that elders want to record for the future we just write it all down and put it into books.
"I started in 1982 and sort of went full time on it in 1990.
"We've completed work with people from 33 languages up to date. Probably about 30 because we've done a few languages together. That is across the Top End and the Kimberley.
"We take scientists into the field and bring Aboriginal people into the lab - and vice-versa. Sometimes Aboriginal people come into the Herbarium and work with us looking at particular plants specimens, we also go to the George Brown Botanical Gardens, the Berry Springs Wildlife Park and to the NT Museum at Bullocky Point to check out artefacts and specimens.
"We are really just looking for the best ways to elicit information about plants and animals."
Source:
Extracted from: Hall, N. (1992), 'Supplement
No. 3 to 'Botanists of the
eucalypts - 1978'. CSIRO, Melbourne
https://www.crikey.com.au/2013/07/04/interview-with-glenn-wightman-nts-ethnobiologist-extraordinaire/
Portrait Photo: crikey.com, 4 July 2013
Collecting localities for 'Wightman, G.M.' from AVH (2025)
Data from 1,051 specimens
