Aboriginal Foods List
Arrernte sweet foods and drinks.
Aboriginal foods list. Some aboriginal people who still have their language often refer to alcohol by this sweet food group term. Tips on healthy eating for aboriginal people try more often. Bush tucker also called bushfood is any food native to australia and used as sustenance by indigenous australians the aboriginal and torres strait islander peoples but it can also describe any native fauna or flora used for culinary or medicinal purposes regardless of the continent or culture. Animal native foods include kangaroo emu witchetty grubs and crocodile and plant foods include fruits such as quandong kutjera spices such as lemon myrtle and vegetables such as warrigal greens a.
Country meats moose deer caribou. The arrernte of central australia divide their food up into a number of groups many other groups also do this or did this traditionally. One of the most famous bush foods is the witchetty grub. Honey ants in western australia.
Aboriginal australians would also gather honey and nectar from bees honey ants flowers and trees. Whole wheat flour berries and raisins in bannock. Oatmeal mush for breakfast. Whole wheat pastas and brown rice.
They like collecting acacias lemon aspen seeds herbs fruits and nuts roots of eucalyptus fig trees grass trees apples quandong and lilly pilly. Can and preserve fruit to use in the winter months or buy canned or plain frozen ones. The following lists the range of bush foods available to australians and consumed by aboriginal people for tens of thousands of years. Grubs provide protein in areas where it is hard to come by.
Aboriginal staples pre colonisation such as the murnong yam daisy which is a tuber needs very little water and is a great alternative to the common potato with a slight coconut flavour. These include the fruit nuts seeds stems and fronds of different plants. Australian and aboriginal cuisine is an amazing combination of the foods prepared and eaten by not only the aborigines the natives who have lived in australia for about 50 000 to 60 000 years but also those of the british colonists and the settlers who stayed behind after english colonization was over as well as a more recent influence of east asian and mediterranean immigrants. Other grubs eaten by aboriginal people include worms ants and numerous other types of insects.
A above ground plant foods. The types of fruit and seed depended on the season and availability but could include wild passionfruit wild oranges bush tomato bush banana bush plums mulga seeds and wattle seeds. Fish meals two or more times a week. Barley in moose stew caribou stew or fish head soup.
A large part of the traditional aboriginal diet included native fruits and seeds that grew naturally within the area.