Words, oral libraries and environmental responses : an Australian indigenous perspective to climate change adaptation

Climate change adaptation and mitigation continues to be a prevalent discourse in this country and internationally in both the sciences and the arts. While various types and degrees of change are evident, the quantification of these changes including their scope and diversity have challenged conventional sciences. This is demonstrated in their inability to succinctly answer key questions about change including the degree of change and associated patterns and consequences. Most of this discourse is nested in a temporal band comprising the last 100-200 years of data and evidence, and very much informed by Western science perspectives and protocols. Little attempt has been made to engage with Australian Indigenous communities whom possess environmental knowledge of some 10,000-100,000 years albeit embedded in their artistic and oral narrative 'histories'. This paper explores the role and values that Australian Aboriginals, the Indigenous peoples of the Australian content, can offer in shedding new light on this discourse While focusing upon a cross-peri-urban Indigenous investigation, it examines this discourse though the lens of their words, terms, sentences as a vehicle to better understand a longitudinal perspective about climate change adaptation pertinent to Australia.

A novel model of sensitization and oral tolerance to peanut protein

The prevalence of food allergic diseases is rising and poses an increasing clinical problem. Peanut allergy affects around 1% of the population and is a common food allergy associated with severe clinical manifestations. The exact route of primary sensitization is unknown although the gastrointestinal immune system is likely to play an important role. Exposure of the gastrointestinal tract to soluble antigens normally leads to a state of antigen-specific systemic hyporesponsiveness (oral tolerance). A deviation from this process is thought to be responsible for food-allergic diseases. In this study, we have developed a murine model to investigate immunoregulatory processes after ingestion of peanut protein and compared this to a model of oral tolerance to chicken egg ovalbumin (OVA). We demonstrate that oral tolerance induction is highly dose dependent and differs for the allergenic proteins peanut and OVA. Tolerance to peanut requires a significantly higher oral dose than tolerance to OVA. Low doses of peanut are more likely to induce oral sensitization and increased production of interleukin-4 and specific immunoglobulin E upon challenge. When tolerance is induced both T helper 1 and 2 responses are suppressed. These results show that oral tolerance to peanut can be induced experimentally but that peanut proteins have a potent sensitizing effect. This model can now be used to define regulatory mechanisms following oral exposure to allergenic proteins on local, mucosal and systemic immunity and to investigate the immunomodulating effects of non-oral routes of allergen exposure on the development of allergic sensitization to peanut and other food allergens.