The KaiKai Book

Indigenous Australian Bushfoods

Forget exotic fruit and veggies flown in at great expense from faraway locations, some of the most unusual produce is grown right here in our backyard – and Graham’s out to prove it. He’s travelling to Chillingham, on the NSW North Coast, to meet a man called Buck who specialises in growing native bush tucker. His garden is so impressive, people from all over the world visit to sample his produce and Graham’s stopping by for a taste test.

Australia is famous for lamingtons and the beloved meat pie, but researchers want to transform our traditional cuisine to include native bush foods like Illawarra plums, pindan walnuts and wattleseed. While Indigenous communities have long known the benefits of bush tucker such as bunya nuts, lemon aspen, riberries, desert limes and Cape York lilly pilly, the foods remain largely untapped for Australian's food industry. The University of Queensland (UQ) and the Australia Research Council's Training Centre for Uniquely Australian Foods wants to change that and is working in partnership with Traditional Owners to turn the foods into branded products.

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Wik boys head out bush during the season of Kaarp (wetseason) for some bush fruits known in language as 'may yoorp'. These berries are very sweet and are part of a healthy bush-tucker diet. The boys then enjoy a fun afternoon in the peak of Kaarps big wet at a local waterhole just outside their community of Aurukun. This film is part of the Aurukun Indigenous Knowledge Centres Bio-Cultural project called 'Woyan-Min' (the Wik-mungkan translation to English is 'the good way'). Supported by the Aurukun Shire Council, State Libraries Queensland and Education Queensland.

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