Bush Food

 Activity 1: View the following clip and answer the

questions that follow:

http://www.abc.net.au/btn/story/s3775984.htm

1. In your own words describe what bush tucker is.

Bush tucker is food native to Australia and is used by Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples
2. What Australian state are the kids from in the BTN Bush Food story?
They are from Queensland
3. Why is it important to Rod that he teaches the kids in his family about
Aboriginal culture, customs and bush foods?
It is important to rod that children learn aboriginal culture, customs and bush food
because the world has become so modern that Aboriginal people’s traditional cultures
are starting to be forgotten.
4. Yulagi are also referred to as...
a. Wild mushrooms
b. Wild bananas
c. Wild limes
5. Describe what a witchetty grub tastes like.
A witchetty grub tastes like an egg but runny.
6. How is a didgeridoo hollowed out?
A didgeridoo is hollowed out by using termites.
7. What do Indigenous people use native plants for?
Indigenous people use native plants for medicine or making instrument
8. Have you tried bush tucker? If so, what did it taste like?
No, I haven’t
9. How does learning about bush tucker benefit the younger generations?
It helps keep Aboriginal knowledge, culture and customs alive in future generations
10. What did you learn from this story?
I learnt a lot about types of bush tucker and what native plants are used for.

 Activity 2: View the following clip and answer the questions that follow:

http://www.abc.net.au/btn/story/s3527750.htm

1. What special ingredients does Kylie Kwong’s new menu feature?

Kylie Kwong’s new menu features organic bush tucker grown from a high school.
2. Give some examples of the ingredients she is using.
She’s using Australian bush foods and wild weeds.

3. In your own words, describe what bush tucker is.

Bush tucker is food native to Australia and is used by Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples. Certain bush tucker plants can also be used as medicine.

4. Explain the bush tucker program being run at Renmark High School.
 The bush tucker program being run at Renwick high school teaches students how to
grow and care for different types of bush tucker.

5. What native foods are the students growing?

Students are growing cutjera (desert raisins or bush tomatoes), marsdenia (bush
bananas) and passion berries
6. What have the students learnt about growing Indigenous plants?
Students have learnt about the ways the plants need to be planted and how to help
them grow and care for them.
7. Which Indigenous food is also known as the desert raisin or bush tomato
a. Marsdenia
b. Quandong
c. Kutjera
8. What happened to the school’s crop of passion berries?
They accidently overwatered the berries.
9. What are the students making with the indigenous ingredients?
They are making carrot and wattle seed cake, pumpkin carbonara with desert flakes,
pear and pasha tartlets and chicken, quandong and chili sausage rolls.
10. What do you think are the benefits of growing and using bush tucker?
I think the benefits of growing and using bush tucker are that it teaches kids about
Australia’s culture and history and it is also a good experience to learn from.

 Activity 3: Research: Indigenous

bush tucker – Think, Pair, Share Activity

Discuss in pairs what you know about bush tucker and give examples of them. Conduct
further research on one type of bush tucker and then record your findings in the following
table.

Scientific and Quandong/ Santalum Acuminatum

common name
Appearance/anatomy It is a small, red and round fruit. Has a large seed inside of it
Shape, size, colour
Where is it found? It is found in the arid and semi-arid regions of all Australian
Name the traditional mainland states
custodians of this Amata is a nation in southern Australia where quandongs are
land typically found.
Use Ripe quandong fruits would be eaten raw or dried for later use.
How is it used? Typically, the fruit would be separated from the stone and rolled
into small balls. Quandong can also be used to aid with foot
massages or cure a toothache.
 Taste Quandongs have a sweet taste with a slightly sour and salty
What is the flavour aftertaste and also has a mild aroma of lentils and earthy fermented
like? touches. Aboriginal people would eat it both fresh and dried.
How is it eaten?
Photograph of bush
tucker or labelled
diagram

 Activity 4: Read the Bush Food Pamphlet attached to this post. Make brief notes under
the following headings:
Equipment, skills and experience
 A knowledge of the seasonal changes in environment and ecology of animals and
plants is just as important as skills and weapons.
 New technology is decreasing the use of traditional methods of hunting and
gathering food
Reading the environment
 Aboriginal peoples know a lot about what is edible and what isn’t, where and
when to find it and how to capture or gather it
 Aboriginal peoples had six seasons, where non-aboriginal people could only
recognise two. They also did not use calendars and relied on seasonal changes to
know when to do certain activities.

Food gathering groups

 In Aboriginal society family is the basic economic unit.
 Aboriginal families sometimes joined forces to search for food and when there
were ceremonies large groups of people came together and would share and
exchange food.
 Men hunt large land and seas animals and fish, women gather vegetables,
shellfish, eggs and hunt small animals.
 Children also accompany the women when they are gathering food.

Food and religious life

 Food is closely intertwined with spiritual life of aboriginal people.
 Aboriginal people believed that land, animals and plants are a part of a vast
system created by the ancestral spirits of the Dreaming
 Every food was created by a ancestral spirit and some are even ancestral spirits in
another form.
  Certain people or groups of people have special links with certain foods which are
their totems. They are not allowed to kill or eat their totems unless there are
special circumstances

Life on the tropical coast

 The richest area of land exploited by the aboriginal peoples is the northern tropical
coast.
 There are a great variety of food sources both on land and in the water. They have
many plants and vegetables to gather from and animals in land and water are
plentiful.

Life in the desert

 There are two low land regions in Australia
 Water sources vary, there may be huge pools and also small soaks.
 Rain in the desert is unreliable, knowledge of waterholes and soaks in essential for
the aboriginal people living in the desert.
 There are not many large mammals found in the desert, the main source of meat is
lizards and introduced rabbits.
 By watching the rain aboriginal people could tell where there would be a water
source and what types of food could be found
 These days aboriginal peoples have water supplied from pumps, bores and
windmills. They go hunting in a car and take lots of water.

Life in the temperate south east

 Information about the food that south eastern aboriginal peoples ate mostly came
from European explorers
 During most seasons there was a large quantity and variety of food available.
 Yams were an important part of their diet
 Aboriginal people in NSW have an oral history of gatherings and feasts

Aboriginal cultivation and farming techniques

 Places were carefully set on fire to help maintain the area. The fire would
encourage regrowth and new shoots were a food source for animals being hunted
 When collecting tubers or yams a bit is left in the ground to placate the food
spirits
 Seeds from fruit eaten were also scattered for more fruits to grow
 Many plants have to be treated before eaten as some are indigestible or even
poisonous.
Outline two cooking methods used by Aboriginal people

Two cooking methods used by Aboriginal people is roasting on hot coals to cook small
animals, it is also the initial stage when cooking a large animal. For example, kangaroos are
thrown on a fast burning fire where the fur singes and then the kangaroo has the rest of its -
fur scraped off and intestines taken out. Then it is returned to the fire to be slowly cooked
Another method is steaming in a ground oven. A ground oven is a pit dug in the ground
where ash and coals steam the food. Oven sizes can vary depending on what they are
cooking.
 Activity 5: Read the following article:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-06/australian-bush-foods-under-threat-just-as-industry-
develops/10950522

Why do you think it has taken so long for Australian bush foods to be recognised in the
community? Explain in a short paragraph.