Keeping bushfoods benefits in the desert
Dec 2006
From the Desert Knowledge
site
Aboriginal people have thrived on desert bush foods for tens
of thousands of years. Only about 30 years ago they began to sell their harvest
to outsiders, starting a bush foods industry worth an estimated $10 million
nationally per year and growing rapidly. Bush tomatoes and wattle seeds,
hand-gathered by people from remote communities, are its star performers. The Merne
Altyerre-ipenhe (Food from the Creation Time) Reference Group wants to make
sure Aboriginal people benefit from the industry. Eight respected cultural
experts and business women from the main desert language groups with strong
links to harvesters are working on a set of protocols for researchers and,
eventually, the whole industry.
They are planning workshops about the bush foods industry
with harvesters in different language regions and are promoting the employment
of Aboriginal people and the recognition of their knowledge in bush foods
enterprises, research and development. Part of the Desert Knowledge CRC’s
research into the development and sale of natural resource products from the
desert, the group wants the industry and consumers to respect Aboriginal
knowledge and people, and to raise awareness of the spiritual and cultural
significance of bush foods.
Reference group member Veronica Dobson, an Eastern Arrernte
elder, says bush foods and the plants they come from are more than commodities:
“People are related to country and plants are related to people because they
come from the country.” “There are stories for the plants and plants are totems
for people. They respect the plants when they collect seeds and fruits from
them. People need to care for their totems so they don’t get destroyed. It’s a
spiritual thing.”
For more information contact fiona.walsh@csiro.au
http://www.desertknowledgecrc.com.au/research
bushproducts.htmlf.
Merne Altyerre-ipenhe (Food from the Creation Time) Reference Group:
Rayleen Brown (Eastern Arrernte), Lorna Wilson (Pitjantjatjara), Bess Price
(Warlpiri), MK Turner (Eastern Arrernte), Veronica Dobson (Eastern Arrernte)
and researcher Josie Douglas. Absent: Gina Smith (Warumungu), Maree
Meredith – Central Land Council staff.
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