Library Guides: Indigenous Food: Overview

Source: Black, S. (2020).

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Brief, basic information laid out in an easy-to-read format. May use informal language. (Includes most news articles)

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Lengthy, detailed information. Frequently uses technical/subject-specific language. (Includes most analytical articles)

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Indigenous Food | Overview: Articles

About Native Australian food (SBS Food, 2008)
"It's estimated there are up to 5,000 native food species (almost 20 per cent of Australia’s native flora and fauna) that were utilised by the Aboriginal people.... Traditional bush tucker is innovative and unique: food sources extend from the swollen abdomens of honey ants to witchetty grubs; goanna to nectar-bearing flowers such as the bottlebrush." (SBS Food, 2008)

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Reference / citation: SBS Food (2008) or (SBS Food, 2008)
Reference list / Bibliography: SBS Food. (2008). About Native Australian food. Retrieved from https://www.sbs.com.au/food/article/2008/07/01/about-native-australian-food
Key ingredients: Native Australian (SBS Food, 2017)
A list of ingedients traditionally used by Australian aboriginals and / or Torres Straight Islanders (SBS Food, 2017)

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Reference / citation: SBS Food (2017) or (SBS Food, 2017)
Reference list / Bibliography: SBS Food. (2008). Key ingredients: Native Australian. Retrieved from https://www.sbs.com.au/food/article/2013/05/31/key-ingredients-native-australian

Not passive victims: Indigenous Australians respond to climate change (Nursey-Bray, 2019, August 30)
"Climate change is disproportionately threatening the cultures and health of Indigenous peoples globally. With intimate knowledge of Country, Indigenous Australians are actively adapting to challenges, finding opportunities for new initiatives and alliances to strengthen cultural practices." (Nursey-Bray, 2019, August 30)

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Reference / citation: Nursey-Bray (2019, August 30) or (Nursey-Bray, 2019, August 30)
Reference list / Bibliography: Nursey-Bray, M. (2019, August 30). Not passive victims: Indigenous Australians respond to climate change [Culture]. Foreground: Cities, Places and the People Who Make Them. Retrieved from https://www.foreground.com.au/culture/not-passive-victims-indigenous-australians-respond-to-climate-change/
65,000-year-old plant remains show the earliest Australians spent plenty of time cooking (Florin, Fairbairn, & Clarkson, 2020)
"Australia’s first people ate a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts and other plant foods, many of which would have taken considerable time and knowledge to prepare, according to our analysis of charred plant remains from a site dating back to 65,000 years ago." (Florin, Fairbairn, & Clarkson, 2020)

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Reference / citation: Florin, Fairbairn, & Clarkson (2020) or (Florin, Fairbairn, & Clarkson, 2020)
Reference list / Bibliography: Florin, S. A, Fairbairn, A., & Clarkson, C. (2020). 65,000-year-old plant remains show the earliest Australians spent plenty of time cooking. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/65-000-year-old-plant-remains-show-the-earliest-australians-spent-plenty-of-time-cooking-131761
Rethinking Indigenous Australia's agricultural past (Pryor, 2014, May 15)
"It has long been thought that prior to white settlement, Indigenous Australians lived a nomadic, hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Now some scholars argue that the first Australians practised forms of agriculture and aquaculture" (Pryor, 2014, May 15)

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Reference / citation: Pryor (2014, May 15) or (Pryor, 2014, May 15)
Reference list / Bibliography: Pryor, C. (2014, May 15). Rethinking Indigenous Australia's agricultural past, ABC Radio National. https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/archived/bushtelegraph/rethinking-indigenous-australias-agricultural-past/5452454

Indigenous Food | Overview: Audio

Rethinking Indigenous Australia's agricultural past, ABC Radio National (2014, May 15).
Source: ABC News Radio (2014, May 15)

Commentators:

Bruce Pascoe - Author of "Dark Emu", published by Magabala Books
Bill Gammage - Historian and author of "The Biggest Estate on Earth", published by Allen and Unwin
Beth Gott - Adjunct research fellow at the Department of Biological Sciences, Monash University
Heather Builth - Consultant archaeologist
Jimmy Onus - Gunditjmara man from the Lake Condah district of western Victoria
Dr Penny Wurm - Associate Head of the School of Environment, Charles Darwin University
Lorraine Williams - Larrakia woman who has been working on the native rice project
Ken Stewart - Indigenous facilitator with the Mallee Catchment Management Authority, north-western Victoria

Indigenous Food | Overview: eBooks

Click on the following book covers or link to access the book online. If prompted, sign in with your School mConnect user name and password. Click HERE for help using these EBSCO eBooks.

Indigenous Australian Cultures (eBooks) by Mary Colson
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9781432973933
Publication Date: 2012
Indigenous Australian Culture covers a vast array of subjects on Indigenous Australian culture -- from fine arts to ceremonies, from legends to the culture's global influence.

Dark Emu: Aboriginal Australia and the Birth of Agriculture by Pascoe, Bruce
ISBN: 9781921248016
Publication Date: 2018
‘Dark Emu injects a profound authenticity into the conversation about how we Australians understand our continent... [It is] essential reading for anyone who wants to understand what Australia once was, or what it might yet be if we heed the lessons of long and sophisticated human occupation.'Judges for 2016 NSW Premier's Literary Awards Dark Emu puts forward an argument for a reconsideration of the hunter-gatherer tag for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians. The evidence insists that Aboriginal people right across the continent were using domesticated plants, sowing, harvesting, irrigating, and storing — behaviours inconsistent with the hunter-gatherer tag. Gerritsen and Gammage in their latest books support this premise but Pascoe takes this further and challenges the hunter-gatherer tag as a convenient lie. Almost all the evidence in Dark Emu comes from the records and diaries of the Australian explorers, impeccable sources.

Aboriginal People and Their Plants by Philip A. Clarke
ISBN: 9781921719738
Publication Date: 2011
The book is unique, spanning the gap between botany and indigenous studies. It differs from other published Australian'bushtucker'overviews by treating the study of plants as a window upon which to delve into Aboriginal culture. The topic of Aboriginal use and perception of plants is vast and therefore far too large for full treatment of all regions in a single volume. Nevertheless, this book offers an overview to assist readers appreciate the depth of indigenous ecological knowledge about the environment.

In particular see the following chapter:

Chapter 7 Plant food technology (Clarke, 2011, pp. 85-95)
"Australian hunter-gatherers relied upon a few key food technologies in order to provide a surplus for feasts, and to survive periods of hardship due to lack of readily obtained food. Much of the desert was only inhabitable in the long term with the use of seed and nardoo grinding technology. In the tropics, and in parts of the temperate zone, the leaching of poisons was a major technology for food production." (Clarke, 2011, pp. 85-95)

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Reference / citation: Clarke (2011, pp. 85-95)or (Clarke, 2011, pp. 85-95)
Reference list / Bibliography: Clarke, P. (2011). Chapter 7 Plant food technology. In Aboriginal People and Their Plants (pp. 85-95). https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=463972&site=ehost-live&scope=site&authtype=ip,sso&custid=mggsvic&ebv=EB&ppid=pp_85

Indigenous Food | Overview: Online resources

Indigenous Australian recipes and Indigenous Australian food (SBS)
Before European settlers arrived in Australia, there was a thriving food culture, one that happily sustained the Australian Aboriginal people for tens of thousands of years. It's estimated there are up to 5,000 native food species (almost 20 per cent of Australia’s native flora and fauna) that were utilised by the Australian Aboriginal people. Traditional bush tucker is innovative and unique: food sources extend from the swollen abdomens of honey ants to witchetty grubs; goanna to nectar-bearing flowers such as the bottlebrush. (SBS, n.d.)
Bush tucker [ABC Education / ABC Splash]
The topic Bush tucker features ABC educational resources and supports the teaching of Science as part of the Australian curriculum.

Outback House - Aboriginal bush foods (ABC Education, 2005)
"Discover some of the skills that Aboriginal peoples taught early colonists about survival in outback Australia." (ABC, 2005)

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Reference / citation: ABC Education (2005) or (ABC Education, 2005)
Reference list / Bibliography: ABC Education. (2005). Outback House - Aboriginal bush foods. Retrieved from http://abcspla.sh/m/154684

Indigenous Food | Overview: Videos

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Indigenous Food | Overview: Curriculum alignment

This Mentone Girls' Grammar School LibGuide supports the following Victorian curriculum outcomes. Click on the links to explore more.

Design and Technologies / Levels 7 and 8 / Technologies Contexts / Food and fibre production [VCDSTC046]
Analyse how food and fibre are produced when creating managed environments and how these can become more sustainable

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Elaborations
• comparing land and water management methods in contemporary Australian food and fibre production with traditional Aboriginal systems and countries of Asia, for example minimum-tillage cropping, water-efficient irrigation
• investigating the management of plant and animal growth through natural means and with the use of chemical products like herbicides and medicines when producing food and fibre products
• recognising the need to increase food production using cost efficient, ethical and sustainable production techniques
• describing physical and chemical characteristics of soil and their effects on plant growth when producing food and fibre products
• investigating different animal feeding strategies such as grazing and supplementary feeding, and their effects on product quality, for example meat tenderness, wool fibre diameter (micron), milk fat and protein content when producing food and fibre products
• recognising the importance of food and fibre production to Australia’s food security and economy including exports and imports to and from Asia when critiquing and exploring food and fibre production
Design and Technologies / Levels 7 and 8 / Technologies Contexts / Food specialisations [VCDSTC047]
Analyse how characteristics and properties of food determine preparation techniques and presentation when creating solutions for healthy eating

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Elaborations:
* examining the relationship between food preparation techniques and the impact on nutrient value, for example steaming or frying vegetables
* investigating how a recipe can be modified to enhance nutrient benefits, and justifying decisions, for example by replacing animal fats with vegetable fats
* analysing food preparation techniques used in different cultures including those from the Asia region and the impact of these on nutrient retention, aesthetics, taste and palatability, for example stir-frying or steaming
* explaining how food preparation techniques impact on the sensory properties (flavour, appearance, texture, aroma) of food, for example the browning of cut fruit, the absorption of water when cooking rice
Science / Levels 7 and 8 / Science Understanding / Science as a human endeavour [VCSSU089]
Scientific knowledge and understanding of the world changes as new evidence becomes available; science knowledge can develop through collaboration and connecting ideas across the disciplines and practice of science

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Elaborations
• investigating how advances in telescopes and space probes have provided new evidence about space
• investigating how the development of microscopes has changed understanding of cell function and malfunction, and how this has led to improved medical treatments for disease
• investigating how knowledge of the location and extraction of mineral resources relies on expertise from across the disciplines of science
• considering how advances in technology, combined with scientific understanding of the functioning of body systems, has enabled organ repair and replacement
• investigating how land management practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples can help inform sustainable management of the environment
Indigenous Understanding [ACCP]
The Australian Curriculum is working towards addressing two distinct needs in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education:
* that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students are able to see themselves, their identities and their cultures reflected in the curriculum of each of the learning areas, can fully participate in the curriculum and can build their self-esteem
* that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures cross-curriculum priority is designed for all students to engage in reconciliation, respect and recognition of the world’s oldest continuous living cultures.

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The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) is an independent statutory authority... to be the authoritative source of advice on, and delivery of, national curriculum, assessment and reporting for all Australian education ministers, with international recognition of our work. (ACARA, n.d.)