Loren's Web - Virtual Tour of Australia

TRADITIONAL ABORIGINAL FOOD

Australia is one of the few remaining places on earth where one can find true isolation. Towns are often hundreds of miles apart with nothing in between but endless parched desert. Those who visit this land ill-equipped may well never leave it, but those who actually live there, the Aborigines, learn traditional skills which compliment their modern way of life.

Tracking is a skill in which the Aborigines have legendary ability. An experienced hunter can identify not only what animal made the track but how fast it was travelling and even how recently the amount of sand blown over the track indicates to them whether it is hours or days old. Having tracked down an animal, the hunter has at his disposal a range of weapons for killing it.

Easily overlooked by a non-Aborigine, these tracks in the sand offer vital clues to the whereabouts of the next meal, in this case a fair sized lizard.

A powerful throw from a straight boomerang (non-returning) can kill instantly, but a curved boomerang (returning) can direct game into an ambush. Spears are effective both for killing game and also, in the north, for catching fish, demanding rapid reactions from the hunter or fisherman.

The Boomerang is an essential weapon in the Aboriginal hunter's armoury.

Game can be hard to come by in the outback, and Aboriginal women, who hunt very little, find up to 80% of their community's food by gathering such food as berries, leaves and tubers, and by catching small lizards. An additional source of protein comes from Witchetty Grubs, which, when baked, produce a flavour similar to almonds.

Aboriginal women winnowing and cleaning acacia seeds which are ground into flour and mixed with water for baking.

Typical fruits and berries, laid out on palm leaves, eaten by Aborigines living in Australia's tropical rain forest regions .

Witchetty Grubs, a firm favourite in the Australian desert. Similar to caterpillars which feed on tree roots.

BACK