There are two plants from which Yagwoia engender salt (h/yale):  h/yale aalycale (Coix giganteae) and waquye (Impatiens platypetala). Both are planted together, preeminently next to and in between streams, either in the fringe or in more remote forest regions where Yagwoia salt-making sites are located. With the focus on the cosmo-ontological problematic of the quiddity of “matter” in the Yagwoia life-world, this paper details and interprets the meanings of human activities which engender the transubstantiation of the two plants into salt.

Jadran Mimica is a Senior Lecturer, Anthropology, The University of Sydney.