Nick Tree

Nick Tree

Nick Tree, or ‘Babar Jali’, as he is known in Australian indigenous communities, has been independently researching and archiving indigenous knowledge for 28 years, in collaboration with elders. After graduating in psychology in Sydney in 1992, he began investigating post-graduate research in plant based antidepressants. This led him to the botanically rich area of northern NSW, and drew the attention of local indigenous Bundjalung elders, who made contact with him.

He was adopted into a Bundjalung family, and was given direct instruction for 7 years by the last fully initiated Bundjalung grandfather in healing knowledge and law. This family gave him the task and trust to archive and preserve important plant, cultural and spiritual knowledge, for future generations. With the passing of a number of elders, he is now the sole custodian of this knowledge. In 2001 he was adopted as the son of a senior Yolngu songman and elder, from Arnhemland in the Northern Territory, and began archiving and studying ancient songlines, and their implications for world pre-history. After the passing of the songman in 2012, he was able to pass on recordings and knowledge to his family, in particular his grandchildren, who will be future custodians of ceremonial lore.

In 2013, with the encouragement of senior Yolngu lawman Djalu Gurruwiwi, and Bundjalung custodian Lewis Walker, he began the task of building bridges of cultural understanding with the UK/Europe. He is currently coordinating an Indigenous Healing Centre project with several tribes, and will be completing a book on knowledge, secrecy and oral tradition in aboriginal tradition in 2023.