Hartley Briggs, Member of the Goulburn River Clans Australian. Aboriginal bush medicine made from Old Man Weed, 2019. On loan from Min-Jaara Cultural Association.

Hartley Briggs, a member of the Goulburn River Clans, applied the cultural knowledge and skills of his ancestors to make this health tonic from a local river plant known as Gerk Wurrung Dorook or ‘Old Man Weed’.

The bottle’s label, designed by Briggs, explains the tonic’s many health benefits, from reducing fatigue and trauma to healing wounds and relieving headaches. When something in nature is given a name that characterises it as an old person, it shows that it is greatly revered.

Briggs was the inaugural recipient of the Indigenous Victorian Aboriginal Cultural Research Fellowship at the Library.

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This is to acknowledge the passing of this artist and to show our respect for the contribution of his cultural knowledge to this project.