ABSTRACT
Traditional, complementary and alternative medicine is a major industry in Australia and other Western nations, and there is an escalating push from the community and healthcare professionals for more education and research into traditional medicines. Traditional medical practice within Aboriginal Australia encompasses a holistic worldview which perceives good health as a complex system involving intercon-nectedness with the land, awareness of spirit and ancestry, and social, mental, physical and emotional well-being of both the individual and the community. Traditional Aboriginal remedies varied between clans. Just as there was no single Aboriginal language, there was also no single Aboriginal pharmacopoeia. However, in general, most herbal remedies used reflect the types of ailments that Aboriginal people experienced prior to contact with Western society. Aboriginal people of the Pilbara and Gascoyne regions of Western Australia used the crushed leaves of 'Mindharri' or 'Minjaarra' or 'Minjarri' soaked or boiled in water as a body rub for rheumatism and headaches.
