Australian Native Foods

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Quandong For further information regarding Australian native foods research, contact Maarten Ryder at CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems.
maarten.ryder@csiro.au

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maarten.ryder@csiro.au

Indigenous Australians and the Native Foods industry

The native foods industry in Australia is based on traditional Indigenous knowledge of what is edible in the Australian flora. The long history of Indigenous occupation of this continent has resulted in many lifetimes of research and development of the native flora. The accumulated wealth of Indigenous knowledge about the uses of plants has now formed the foundation of the Native Foods Industry. Individual plant species often have multiple uses, including food, medicine, utensils, tools, musical instruments and weapons¹. Indigenous knowledge of food preparation methods is also important. For example, some ingredients must be roasted before they can be eaten safely.

There is some evidence that Indigenous people practiced plant improvement through selection, possibly also cross-pollination and also a kind of horticulture which is quite different from Western cultivation methods. For example, Mary Gilmore records in her diaries² that Aboriginal people (Wiradjuri) in NSW cross-pollinated quandongs, planted selected seed from especially large berries and planted grass seed in the soil after special preparation (burning, which would warm the soil, release nutrients and destroy pathogens, creating a good seed bed).

One cultivation method used by Aboriginal people was the burning of areas of land, mosaic burning practices or ‘fire stick farming’ for promoting grass lands for animal grazing or for edible seed collection. Early Tasmanian settlers noticed that once the Indigenous people were made to stop their burning practices, the forest boundaries would begin to grow back over the land, infringing on the early settlers’ crops or pastures.

In Central Australia, mosaic burning or fire stick farming was performed to ensure maximum availability of food and movement for humans. The result was a “mosaic pattern of burnt and unburnt areas in different stages of recovery”³ which “ensures that at the end of the dry season when the vegetation is very dry and lightning strikes are very frequent, hot widespread fires are prevented. As in Central Australia, a potentially disastrous ‘fire bomb’ has been cleverly defused”³. More information on mosaic burning can be found in Latz (1995)³.

When Europeans settled in Australia, a traditional Aboriginal customs started to change. Being made to live on ‘reserves’ or ‘community’ areas caused loss of country. Culture began to break down. Bonding with and tending to the land was a major part of the Indigenous lifestyle, which was now forbidden by the new white inhabitants. As time went on, with the process of assimilation into the white community, the handing down of traditional knowledge, culture, spiritualism, art, language, flora and fauna began to decline.

The ‘modern’ Native Food Industry brings the potential for Aboriginal people to regain health and social status along with the retention of some of the remembered culture, language and knowledge of plants and animals, although it is now in a different context.

European techniques of harvesting wild native plant species for monetary gain and cultivating native plant food species are new concepts for Indigenous people to embrace. However, cultivating native plant species and wild harvesting have the possibility of bringing many positive benefits to Aboriginal communities.

Wild harvesting practices instill a little bit of the ‘walkabout’ in the people. Gathering was traditionally womens’ business. Now families leave the community when it is time to harvest and go out into the bush and take the younger people with them, which in itself is teaching the youth some of the old ways. The harvesting practices, in effect, promote exercise and health and are a part of a social event. Language is being used, and some parts of the culture are being remembered and passed on. Community members can also benefit economically from the wild harvest of food produce.

Yvonne Latham and Maarten Ryder
September 2004

¹ In recent times, numerous books have been published about Indigenous plant use on a regional basis from different parts of Australia. Examples are:

“Punu : Yankunytjatjara plant use : traditional methods of preparing foods, medicines, utensils and weapons from native plants” / contributors, Pompey Everard ... [et al.] ; compiled and edited by Cliff Goddard, Arpad Kalotas, Jukurrpa Books, Alice Springs, N.T. 2002.

“MalakMalak and Matngala plants and animals : Aboriginal flora and fauna knowledge from the Daly River area, northern Australia” / Biddy Yingguny Lindsay ... [et al.]. Northern Territory botanical bulletin No. 26, Parks and Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory, Darwin, N.T. 2001.

“Anmatyerr ayey arnang-akert = Anmatyerr plant stories” by the women from Laramba (Napperby) community, compiled by Jenny Green, IAD Press, Alice Springs, N.T. 2003

² Gilmore, M. (1934, republished 1985) “Old Days, Old Ways”, Angus and Robertson.

³ P Latz, P. (1995) “Bushfires and Bushtucker”, IAD Press, Alice Springs.

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