Wild Harvest
08 May 2006
Wild Harvest
is one of a suite of Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research
Centre (CRC) research projects investigating the development
and sale of natural resource products in desert
Australia.
In Central Australia, the
commercial collection of wild harvested bush foods goes back
approximately 30 years. It is not a new or recent phenomenon,
but an extension of thousands of years of customary
harvest.
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Epenarra women clean
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Bush products on sale |
Two bush foods that enjoy growing
market demand are the bush tomatoes and various acacia
seeds.
Almost all the stock supplied to the
national industry is harvested by Aboriginal women using
traditional knowledge and harvesting methods. An estimated 300
to 500 women participate in wild harvest throughout Central
Australia.
Interest in bush foods is
growing at a rapid rate and bush foods have started to appear
on supermarket shelves and restaurant menus across
Australia.
The Wild Harvest Reference Group
was formed in response to the need for greater Aboriginal
community engagement with research in this rapidly growing
industry and to ensure Aboriginal harvesters benefit from it.
The reference group provides strong links to wild harvesters
and is made up of respected and senior cultural experts from
the main desert language groups.
From the
beginning the reference group were very clear about their
priorities. These include a set of protocols for researchers
that later could be adopted by the national industry and, the
need for recognition and respect for Aboriginal knowledge and
people.
Other priorities include employment
of Aboriginal people in enterprises and associated R&D
and, and the urgent need for wild harvest representation on
peak industry bodies.
In 2006, reference
group member Gina Smith, was appointed to the Australian
Native Foods Industry group and a draft set of protocols have
been compiled.
A future milestone for the
reference group is to facilitate a number of regional
workshops based on language regions. The aim is to bring
harvesters together to talk about the wider industry and other
associated enterprise sectors and contribute to and endorse
the protocols. The organizations that will provide assistance
for the workshops are the DK-CRC, CDU, CSIRO and the Central
Land Council.
The bush food industry treats
bush foods as commodities with a dollar value that can be
traded, whereas for Aboriginal people these foods and the
plants they come from are spiritually and culturally
significant.
As reference group member
Veronica Dobson explains, “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. The plants are respected when seeds and
fruits are collected from them. People need to care for their
totems so they don’t get destroyed. It’s a spiritual thing for
people. They treat plants with respect.”
It
is from this strong cultural basis that the Wild Harvest
Reference Group will provide community engagement with wild
harvest research and the national bush foods
industry.
Wild Harvest Reference
Group members: MK Turner OAM (North Eastern Arrernte),
Veronica Dobson (Eastern Arrernte), Lorna Wilson (Pitjantjatjara), Bess Price
(Warlpiri), Marilyn Cavenagh
(North Eastern Arrernte), Rayleen Brown (North Eastern
Arrernte), Gina Smith (Warumungu) and Maree Meredith (Central
Land Council representative).
The Wild
Harvest Project research team is made up of CDU Indigenous
Research Fellow, Josie Douglas, along with Fiona Walsh and
Mitch Jones from CSIRO in Alice
Springs.
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