Aboriginal Food - Teacher background
Since European invaders dispossessed Indigenous peoples from their land from the late 1700’s onward, a large number of Aborigines were forced to replace their traditional hunting and gathering with different ways of living including the introduction of unfamiliar foods and medicines.
For over 50,000 years Australian Aborigines had accumulated detailed knowledge on the location and usage of plant and animal foods, medicines, fibrous and industrial plants within the bio-geographic regions they occupied, including seasonal variations occurring naturally. This knowledge was passed from one generation to another. Severe disruption to traditional Aboriginal life has confined hunting and gathering mostly to areas of northern and central Australia, although, even in these places the availability of western foods has had an impact on Aboriginal eating habits.
Since the arrival of Europeans in Australia the health of Aboriginal people has suffered. A diet high in sugar has contributed to malnutrition, diabetes and reduced resistance to infectious diseases. Bush foods provided a balanced and nutritious diet for Aborigines for thousands of years. It was sustain- able and they used what was offered by nature without over indulgence and not needing to alter the landscape for farming or cultivation.
Modern Australian society supports the use of supermarkets, trolleys, packaging, marketing, money, preservatives, transport, checkouts, refrigeration, storage, plastic and waste; a familiar picture, almost seemingly necessary in modern life. The contrast is, while we have all the conveniences a shopper could want today, Australian native food and medicine plants provides a basis for a healthy diet and helps protect and conserve the environment, maintaining biodiversity and caring for the land. It also assists in preserving Australia’s cultural and ecological heritage.
Different procedures were used to make plant foods palatable and safe to eat. Ill effects from plants were produced mostly from misuse of plant parts or mistakes in plant identification causing harmful allergic reactions.
The practical knowledge which Aboriginal people had accumulated regarding the selection and safe use of plant foods and medicines, was not regarded as important nor used by early European colonists, who preferred to cultivate their own customary plant and animal food sources.
Since the 20th century, with widespread interest in the rainforests of Brazil and utilisation of plants for medicines in the western world, there has been a growing interest in Australia’s native plant products. This growth has led to discoveries that many of the native plants traditionally used by the Aborigines for food have a high nutritional value and many contain more antioxidants than commercially marketed fruits.
These discoveries have increased the production of Australian native plant foods with plantations and farms providing fresh produce and value-added products. In the northern rivers area, where rainforests are sub- tropical, over 30 native species useful for human consumption, have so far been identified. Of these the most commercially farmed and viable crops have been the macadamia nut, ti-tree and lemon myrtle. A number of companies have marketed and processed these plants in the form of dried herbs, jams, sauces, chutneys, essences, soaps, body lotions, shampoos and ointments.
Other native plants have not been as fully explored commercially, but there is certainly an ever- widening market for the produce, especially when it is fast becoming the trend to use native plant products in restaurants and home cuisine.
For over 50,000 years Australian Aborigines had accumulated detailed knowledge on the location and usage of plant and animal foods, medicines, fibrous and industrial plants within the bio-geographic regions they occupied, including seasonal variations occurring naturally. This knowledge was passed from one generation to another. Severe disruption to traditional Aboriginal life has confined hunting and gathering mostly to areas of northern and central Australia, although, even in these places the availability of western foods has had an impact on Aboriginal eating habits.
Since the arrival of Europeans in Australia the health of Aboriginal people has suffered. A diet high in sugar has contributed to malnutrition, diabetes and reduced resistance to infectious diseases. Bush foods provided a balanced and nutritious diet for Aborigines for thousands of years. It was sustain- able and they used what was offered by nature without over indulgence and not needing to alter the landscape for farming or cultivation.
Modern Australian society supports the use of supermarkets, trolleys, packaging, marketing, money, preservatives, transport, checkouts, refrigeration, storage, plastic and waste; a familiar picture, almost seemingly necessary in modern life. The contrast is, while we have all the conveniences a shopper could want today, Australian native food and medicine plants provides a basis for a healthy diet and helps protect and conserve the environment, maintaining biodiversity and caring for the land. It also assists in preserving Australia’s cultural and ecological heritage.
Different procedures were used to make plant foods palatable and safe to eat. Ill effects from plants were produced mostly from misuse of plant parts or mistakes in plant identification causing harmful allergic reactions.
The practical knowledge which Aboriginal people had accumulated regarding the selection and safe use of plant foods and medicines, was not regarded as important nor used by early European colonists, who preferred to cultivate their own customary plant and animal food sources.
Since the 20th century, with widespread interest in the rainforests of Brazil and utilisation of plants for medicines in the western world, there has been a growing interest in Australia’s native plant products. This growth has led to discoveries that many of the native plants traditionally used by the Aborigines for food have a high nutritional value and many contain more antioxidants than commercially marketed fruits.
These discoveries have increased the production of Australian native plant foods with plantations and farms providing fresh produce and value-added products. In the northern rivers area, where rainforests are sub- tropical, over 30 native species useful for human consumption, have so far been identified. Of these the most commercially farmed and viable crops have been the macadamia nut, ti-tree and lemon myrtle. A number of companies have marketed and processed these plants in the form of dried herbs, jams, sauces, chutneys, essences, soaps, body lotions, shampoos and ointments.
Other native plants have not been as fully explored commercially, but there is certainly an ever- widening market for the produce, especially when it is fast becoming the trend to use native plant products in restaurants and home cuisine.
Lesson 1
What are bush foods? Examples gums, wattle, reptiles, moths, honey ants, turtles, fish, grubs, kangaroo, emu etc
Brainstorm where we go to get our food?
Australian Aborigines went shopping without a supermarket. What do you think they ate?
Name some traditional foods eaten by the Aborigines?
Eg kangaroo, emu, snake, goanna, wattle seeds, fruits etc.
Source an aromatic plant eg lemon myrtle. Have students crush leaves and smell. Draw leaf and describe aroma.
Tasting session
Source some rainforest fruits eg Davidson‟s plum, finger lime, lilli pilli, tamarind etc. Students taste raw fruits and record results onto worksheet.
Waste
Aborigines created and used only natural products. Investigate Australia‟s waste problem today. Where does our waste go today?
What can we do to minimise waste?
Brainstorm where we go to get our food?
Australian Aborigines went shopping without a supermarket. What do you think they ate?
Name some traditional foods eaten by the Aborigines?
Eg kangaroo, emu, snake, goanna, wattle seeds, fruits etc.
Source an aromatic plant eg lemon myrtle. Have students crush leaves and smell. Draw leaf and describe aroma.
Tasting session
Source some rainforest fruits eg Davidson‟s plum, finger lime, lilli pilli, tamarind etc. Students taste raw fruits and record results onto worksheet.
Waste
Aborigines created and used only natural products. Investigate Australia‟s waste problem today. Where does our waste go today?
What can we do to minimise waste?
Australian Aborigines and Diet
Why did Aboriginal health begin to deterioriate after British colonisation in Australia?
Reasons:
Reasons:
- degradation of the land by white people &
Its affects on Indigenous peoples and their
Connectedness to the land - Colonials fenced Aborigines out of their usual
hunting and gathering spots - Introduction of diseases and unfamiliar foods
high in sugar & less nutritious.
Early naval and overland explorers to Australia ate...
- Research what plants early naval and overland explorers to Australia used to survive on, eg Captain Cook, Governor Phillips, Matthew Flinders, Bourke & Wills, Leichhardt etc.
- Name the plants & where they grew?
- Was the plant used for food or medicinal
purposes? - Is the plant still used today?
- Is it marketed commercially?
- Name the plants & where they grew?
Reasons for growing Aboriginal Food
Reasons for Growing Australian Native Food, Medicine & Industrial Plants
- Protect the environment
- Conservation of native species
- Cultural importance of bush resources
- Enhance biodiversity
- Preserving Australian Indigenous culture
- Preserving ecological heritage
- Promotion of Australian native plants into everyday cuisine
- Native and endemic sustainable plant food production
- Dietary health benefits
Examples of foods https://www.graftonpublicschool.com.au/Libweb/Aboriginal%20Units/Bush%20Garden/bush_foods_for_kids.pdf
Davidson’s Plum (Davidsonia pruriens)
Description: This has a slender trunk with the main foliage at the top of the tree. It has long serrated edged hairy leaves. The tree grows a blue-black, roundish plum with a fleshy pink to purplish red centre. The fruit contains two small seeds.
Uses: A tasty fruit was eaten. Today, the fruit is commonly made into jams, sweet and savoury sauces and coulis and is frequently found served in wild food restaurants.
Description: This has a slender trunk with the main foliage at the top of the tree. It has long serrated edged hairy leaves. The tree grows a blue-black, roundish plum with a fleshy pink to purplish red centre. The fruit contains two small seeds.
Uses: A tasty fruit was eaten. Today, the fruit is commonly made into jams, sweet and savoury sauces and coulis and is frequently found served in wild food restaurants.
Lemon-scented Myrtle (Backhousia citriodora)
Description: A tall, bushy tree, 3-8m high, with lemon scented leaves up to 10cm in length. Large bunches of perfumed, small white flowers grow on the ends of branches, mainly in summer. The essential oil citral is responsible for the strong aroma of lemon in the leaves.
Uses: Used for medicinal purposes because of its anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties. Warm leaves were used as an inhalant and the heated leaf could be placed on infected areas of the body.
Today, lemon myrtle is grown commercially. The oil and dried or fresh leaves are used for hair products, soaps, cleaners, antiseptics, hand towel wipes and body lotions. Used in cough lollies, the leaves can also be used in chicken and fish dishes, in drinks, deserts and syrups.
Description: A tall, bushy tree, 3-8m high, with lemon scented leaves up to 10cm in length. Large bunches of perfumed, small white flowers grow on the ends of branches, mainly in summer. The essential oil citral is responsible for the strong aroma of lemon in the leaves.
Uses: Used for medicinal purposes because of its anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties. Warm leaves were used as an inhalant and the heated leaf could be placed on infected areas of the body.
Today, lemon myrtle is grown commercially. The oil and dried or fresh leaves are used for hair products, soaps, cleaners, antiseptics, hand towel wipes and body lotions. Used in cough lollies, the leaves can also be used in chicken and fish dishes, in drinks, deserts and syrups.
Broad Leaved Palm Lily (Cordyline petiolaris)
Description: Long and smooth green leaves. Tiny purple flowers followed by red berries that hang in clusters. Mostly 2m to 4m tall (some mature plants grow 6-7m).
Uses: The red berries were edible when fully ripe.
Description: Long and smooth green leaves. Tiny purple flowers followed by red berries that hang in clusters. Mostly 2m to 4m tall (some mature plants grow 6-7m).
Uses: The red berries were edible when fully ripe.
Blue Flax Lily (Dianella caerulea)
Description: Long grass-like leaves with light and dark blue or mauve flowers and purple berries.
Uses: Ripe berries were eaten raw or cooked. The roots were pounded into flour and roasted on hot rocks then eaten.
The fibre from the leaves was used to make waistbands, sandals, nets, traps and baskets.
Description: Long grass-like leaves with light and dark blue or mauve flowers and purple berries.
Uses: Ripe berries were eaten raw or cooked. The roots were pounded into flour and roasted on hot rocks then eaten.
The fibre from the leaves was used to make waistbands, sandals, nets, traps and baskets.
Small leaved Tamarind (Diploglottis campbelli)
Description: A large tree to 25m tall, heav- ily leaved with a tri-seed pod containing 3 round red fruits.
Uses: The pleasant tasting acidic fruit was eaten raw.
Description: A large tree to 25m tall, heav- ily leaved with a tri-seed pod containing 3 round red fruits.
Uses: The pleasant tasting acidic fruit was eaten raw.
Cooking techniques
Australian Indigenous Food Preparation
&
Cooking Techniques
Plant Foods
Traditionally, it was the women who collected the plant foods and thus the women who held most of the knowledge about plant locations and seasonal availability. Various plants required different procedures to render them palatable or safe for eating.
Preparing
Washing tended to remove poisonous elements and the bitter taste of some of the vegetables.
The vegetables would be placed in a dilly bag and hung in running water, which would percolate through the sieve or dilly bag, leaching out the dangerous elements.
Grinding was necessary, for example with seeds and involved the rather straight forward movement of a small flattened and rounded stone pressed with the hands onto a flat stone slab, on which a little water was occasionally sprinkled. The seeds were broken up between the stones and mashed into a dough.
Pounding was carried out using a stick or a stone and it was alternated with roasting of the vegetable. This tended to remove the acrid taste of some of the roots which, unless prepared in this way, would be unpalatable.
Straining of certain vegetable plants was achieved by using a dilly bag or a bundle of fine grass. Sometimes even a hole in the sand was used and the water drained away.
Grating of certain vegetables was often necessary, perhaps prior to washing them. Graters could be made from pieces of rough bark or very rough grasses.
Other common plant food for Indigenous people on the NSW North Coast included yams (Dioscorea transversa), figs (Ficus platypoda), pig face (Carpobrotus glaucesens), geebung (Persoonia falcata), black nightshade berry (Solanum nigrum), native guava (Eupomatia laurina), mistletoe (Amyema spp.), eureka or bush lemon (citrus limon).
Cooking
To cook both animal and plant food, the Aborigines used roasting, baking, boiling or grilling; methods we use today. Meat was certainly preferred fresh and cooked. The meat was cut into pieces and the cutting methods varied from area to area.
Roasting was a relatively straight forward method and involved placing the animal or the vegetable to be cooked on and/or within the hot ashes of the fire.
Baking methods varied slightly among clans but generally, heated stones were used. After the stones were heated in the fire they were removed along with the ashes and a hole was quickly dug in the fire place. Native ginger leaves were used to line the hole and upon these the pieces of meat were laid with the hot stones and ashes packed amongst them. On top of this, more leaves or bark of the tea-tree were laid and lastly, the layer of earth and stones placed on top. This created a ground oven which cooked or baked the food slowly.
As an alternative, heated stones were placed inside the animal to be baked.
Boiling of food was done where there were large natural utensils found. Eg bark troughs, palm frond bases or large shells.
Grilling was achieved in two ways. A grill was formed from four upright forks supporting two main cross -pieces on which several sticks were laid. The height from the ground varied. Fish, eels and some red meats were cooked in this way. Another method was to construct a miniature hut with curved sticks instead of uprights, lower to the ground.
&
Cooking Techniques
Plant Foods
Traditionally, it was the women who collected the plant foods and thus the women who held most of the knowledge about plant locations and seasonal availability. Various plants required different procedures to render them palatable or safe for eating.
Preparing
Washing tended to remove poisonous elements and the bitter taste of some of the vegetables.
The vegetables would be placed in a dilly bag and hung in running water, which would percolate through the sieve or dilly bag, leaching out the dangerous elements.
Grinding was necessary, for example with seeds and involved the rather straight forward movement of a small flattened and rounded stone pressed with the hands onto a flat stone slab, on which a little water was occasionally sprinkled. The seeds were broken up between the stones and mashed into a dough.
Pounding was carried out using a stick or a stone and it was alternated with roasting of the vegetable. This tended to remove the acrid taste of some of the roots which, unless prepared in this way, would be unpalatable.
Straining of certain vegetable plants was achieved by using a dilly bag or a bundle of fine grass. Sometimes even a hole in the sand was used and the water drained away.
Grating of certain vegetables was often necessary, perhaps prior to washing them. Graters could be made from pieces of rough bark or very rough grasses.
Other common plant food for Indigenous people on the NSW North Coast included yams (Dioscorea transversa), figs (Ficus platypoda), pig face (Carpobrotus glaucesens), geebung (Persoonia falcata), black nightshade berry (Solanum nigrum), native guava (Eupomatia laurina), mistletoe (Amyema spp.), eureka or bush lemon (citrus limon).
Cooking
To cook both animal and plant food, the Aborigines used roasting, baking, boiling or grilling; methods we use today. Meat was certainly preferred fresh and cooked. The meat was cut into pieces and the cutting methods varied from area to area.
Roasting was a relatively straight forward method and involved placing the animal or the vegetable to be cooked on and/or within the hot ashes of the fire.
Baking methods varied slightly among clans but generally, heated stones were used. After the stones were heated in the fire they were removed along with the ashes and a hole was quickly dug in the fire place. Native ginger leaves were used to line the hole and upon these the pieces of meat were laid with the hot stones and ashes packed amongst them. On top of this, more leaves or bark of the tea-tree were laid and lastly, the layer of earth and stones placed on top. This created a ground oven which cooked or baked the food slowly.
As an alternative, heated stones were placed inside the animal to be baked.
Boiling of food was done where there were large natural utensils found. Eg bark troughs, palm frond bases or large shells.
Grilling was achieved in two ways. A grill was formed from four upright forks supporting two main cross -pieces on which several sticks were laid. The height from the ground varied. Fish, eels and some red meats were cooked in this way. Another method was to construct a miniature hut with curved sticks instead of uprights, lower to the ground.