August 19, 2024 • 59 mins
In this episode, Caroline is joined by TV star and proud Yamatji man Matt Moncrieff from Gwoonwardu in Western Australia. Matt is a bushfood advocate with a large platform after featuring on Seven's My Kitchen Rules, and has made headlines again recently for his petition calling supermarkets to begin stocking native foods in order to support indigenous businesses, share indigenous culture, and promote the natural flavors and cuisine of our land.
In this episode, Caroline and Matt yarn about his inspiration for starting the petition, as well as the attention, support, and prospects it has attracted. Matt also talks about his relationship with food, how his community and family have influenced him, as well as his favorite ingredients and meals and how he was able to bring them to light on My Kitchen Rules. They also dive into questions abut the current food industry, the relationship between food and community, and the businesses and organisations out there who are already fighting behind the scenes to bring our ingredients and expertise into the forefront of Australian cuisine.
To learn more about Matt and his work, follow him on Instagram @_mattmoncrieff and have a read of his article for the Urban List here, and buy some of his candles here. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review and don’t forget to follow the show!
Follow Caroline on Instagram @blak_wattle_coaching and learn more about working with Caroline here!
We would like to acknowledge Aboriginal people as Australia’s First Peoples’ who have never ceded their sovereignty. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri/Woiwurrung people of the Kulin Nation where the podcast was taped. We pay our deepest respects to Traditional Owners across Australia and Elders past, present and emerging.
This podcast was brought to you by On Track Studio.
For advertising opportunities please email hello@ontrackstudio.com.au
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Black Cast, Unite our voices. This podcast is brought to
you by on Track Studio.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Welcome to Yarning Up, a podcast that showcases stories of
First Nations excellence to help us learn and unlearn Australia's
history to work towards a better future. I'm your host,
proud Barbara woman and founder of Blackwattle Coaching and Consulting,
(00:36):
Caroline col This podcast was taped on the sacred, stolen
and unseeded Aboriginal lands of the Runjeri people of the
Coln Nation. I pay my deepest respects to them, my elders,
your elders.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
And all owners of country, of this beautiful place that
we call home. Well as someone who loves food and
as someone who has been experimenting with bush foods and
native foods themselves, I'm so excited for today's guest.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
I've been trying to get this lad on our.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Podcast for quite some time, and the ancestors have tested us.
But I'm so grateful that you'll finally hear Matt and
we can finally talk all things bush food, all things
you've done since you've left my kitchen rules. So thank
you so much for being here today.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Matt.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
Oh, thanks for having me. I know our ancestors have
tested us, but we're here, We're ready to go, so
I'm excited.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Well, some of your more might be familiar with Matt Moncreef,
who was on My Kitchen Rules, one of the semi
finalists the first show, the first team Sorry in the
show's fifteen year history to feature Native Australian ingredients, and
I can't wait to sort of into that experience and
what it was like for you. But as we do
(02:07):
on this show, we always like to start by getting
to know who you are. So can you tell us
who's your mom and a little bit about yourself?
Speaker 4 (02:15):
Please? Oh? Absolutely, absolutely so, Matt Moncreef, I've got a huge,
huge black family back home in Western Australia. I'm a
Gonneru wadery Yamaji from Western Australia, so the Gascoyne region
when it's called Canarvon, it's about ten hours drive north
of her. It's a beautiful little town. That's where the
(02:35):
best produce comes from. I've come from an incredible family.
My grandma was born actually on the rabbit Proof Fence
Medalia station, and my granddad was born under a tree
at Billily Station just up the road as well. So
I come from a long line of strong Aboriginal people.
(02:56):
So shout out to all the good mob back.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Home, bless big shout out to your family.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
What a legacy. Wow, that's that's incredible. So ten hours
from Perth, your mom, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
Yeah, ten hours from Perth, so not many people know
where Canarvan is. It's yeah, ten hours north. So the
only town in between is is Geryalton, so we don't
stop there though. Gerlton Canarvan have a bit of a
you know in the foot but no, Yeah, a little
country town boy grew up on country. My mum was black,
(03:29):
my dad was white, but I grew up with my mum.
So you know, the culture isn't the color of your skin.
You know, I'm white skinned, black fallow. But you know,
as they say, no much how, no matter how much
milk you put in a tea, it's still tea at
the end of the day.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
That's so true. Yeah, I feel you are fair skin,
black colors.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
You know.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
It's always about, yeah, how the color of who we
are and what's in our heart. And it's nice to
hear about about you and your family, you know, with
other people in your family cooks.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Was there any inspiration which led you on your path.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
To becoming a chef and a cook and bringing all
this native produce into the way that we think about
culinary experiences.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
So, my mom's gonna hate me for saying this, but
the way I learned to cook is because she couldn't cooked.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
So I'm sorry, Mom.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
So sorry Cheryl back home, But yeah, she couldn't cook
to save her life. But you know, she was a
single mum, worked three jobs and I had to eat,
so I improvised and whatever was in the fridge I cooked,
and you know, she provided. And my grandma was an
incredible cook. You know, she she cooked amazing foods. And
all my family are hunters or cooks on the other side.
(04:44):
So yeah, big family of people who just lived off
the land. And yeah, I'm super super happy and super
proud to come from a little town like that and
growing up on country is just there's just no better,
nothing better than that.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Yeah, how special?
Speaker 3 (05:03):
How special to hear that that on both sides of
your family, you know, looking at produce, but also, yeah,
how do we ethically source our food through hunting? And
that appreciation for what this country can provide in terms
of food sources.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Absolutely. Yeah. People don't actually know that we've got five thousand,
six hundred native bush foods and botanicals out there. So yeah,
So we've got so much food out there, but we
import it all from overseas. About twenty of them make
it to the shelves and that's it. And you see those,
you know, like lemonmrd or salt Bosh, pepperberry. You see
(05:41):
the main ones. But there's so much more out there
that I'm out here, you know, getting louder and trying
to promote because it's on our doorstep, it's at our roundabouts,
it's at our you know, at our beck and call,
and we've got we've got these incredible businesses out there
ready just to be tapped into. That's run by mob
(06:01):
that's you know, passed down generations, how to pick it,
how to cook it, and it's just it's just there,
you know. So why we import from overseas is just
wild to me.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Wow, I that is so fascinating. So five six hundred
native plants or species that we could potentially eat, or
bush medicine or that we could use in our kind
of every day cooking.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Exactly and it's not like, you know, we need to
really upskill in using these We've got things like native time,
native basil that we can swap out just for basil
and time, you know, for pepper, we can swap it
out for pepperberry instead of salt use salt bosh. You know,
We've got these native ingredients that are great for the
environment that are available that will also give our mob
(06:49):
jobs because we've eaten these foods for so long and
with our bodies are in tuned for these native foods
as well. It's not the Mediterranean diet that our bodies love,
it's these foods that are grown here on our door set.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Yeah, because I don't think the colonized die. It's good
for anyone, like you know, I think a lot of us.
I know, over the years, I've become gluten free, lactose intolerant,
you know, just things that have been introduced to our bodies.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
We're not meant to break them down.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
And so yeah, I feel like you're right, there's such
a benefit and how and it's so important that our
mob get an opportunity bit to coin front running of
this providence where things are at farming. Because you're right,
a lot of this is done overseas. Can you tell
us a little bit about about that. So Australia what
imports a lot of natives from other countries.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
And we're also losing a lot of our native foods
to international countries like Brazil. They love our finger lines,
love it so much that now finger lines are becoming
native to Brazil, which is wild. You know, these foods
are just that they're untapped as well, so people don't
know what finger lines are if you go to England
(08:02):
and other trees like that. There are some countries that
are really in tune with our foods, but only specific foods.
Our Australian foods, our national foods, are our native foods.
It's not Lamington's, it's not meat eighs, it's not all
of that kind of stuff. It's this food that's that
(08:23):
we're thrived on and you know, kept us strong and
black and vibrant for sixty plus thousand years, So why
aren't we using it? So that's why I started this petition.
But even going back to my kitchen rules, I was,
I had no idea that because I've never watched the show.
I never watched the show before I went on it,
(08:45):
and they were like, oh, do you want to be
on the show? And I'm like okay. Absolutely went on
it and the preroducers said, we've never had an indigenous
team or an Indigenous person cooking native foods, and I
was just like, well, it's been fifteen years, why not,
Like why are you so late to it? We had
like three Italian teams on it. There's always Italian teams.
There's always all these different culinary international foods on the menu,
(09:09):
but never our native foods. And it's like, why not.
There's so many incredible black fellows out there that make
the most amazing pots of kangartails too, you know what
I mean, like whip that up and chat like I
had a kangarytail on my kitchen rolls and people were
just like they had no idea. But there were also
some foods that I wasn't allowed to use, so like turtle.
(09:29):
I love turtle. I make an incredible turtle soup and
I wasn't allowed to use it because the wider Australia
didn't want to eat a cute little turtle. And I'm like, well,
that's my native food, so you know, like why are
we not celebrating these foods, and in the lead up
to my restaurant, the teams around the table were also
(09:49):
worried about what they were going to get. And it's like,
you guys have lived here your whole life. All they
knew was like wichity grubs and kangaroo and emy and
that's it. Whereas and they were scared I was gonna
whip up some wichiti grubs. And then I had had
a thought and I was like, maybe I should pip
up like a witchity grub cocktail, you know, and I
(10:11):
was just not But then it wasn't Witchity Grub season,
So yeah, yeah, I think.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
That's really interesting what you're saying, and I really want
to unpack your experience on the show. But before I
do that, just that that notion of.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
I guess, of people being connected or disconnected from land
and therefore being disconnected from the vibrant food sources. You know,
I think most people wouldn't even know that the humble
Macedamia is Australian, right, And now it's like that. I
remember it being growing up, the bougie nut like it
cost a fortune to get you know, a lot of imports,
(10:48):
and because we didn't really manage that food source natively.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Now it has been picked up overseas, and so I think.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
There is this like unconscious not knowing what is here,
what existed here, people and the food. So the thing
that I really admired about your time on the show
was that there's still this sort of I guess viewpoint
that yeah, this food is it for a culinary experience.
(11:15):
It's bougie. You got to go to a fine dining,
but you kind of brought it into people's everyday home.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
So I want to ask you about that, Like, what
was the experience like for you being on the show
and being the first black follow too, you know exactly.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Yeah, well, I well, the hardest thing was, well, it
was two things. It was actually sourcing the food. So
we get a budget for our incidant restaurant, so we
get a certain amount of money. Everyone else could just
go to Cole's Allies and get their foods and go home.
I had to go to all these specialty markets, all
these specialty stores when they're open. We had to pre
(11:51):
plan it beforehand to get crocodile, to get all of
that stuff, and it was just wild to man and
my budget. I blew Channel seven's budget out so.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Far by the rent now again, I.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
Know I should have went more actually, but like kakadoo
plums for example, was one hundred dollars a kilo and
it's just insane, whereas you could get normal plums at
the at woollies for I don't know whatever it is
five dollars or probably a million dollars now though, but
you know, like all the imported stuff is so much cheaper.
And the reason is is because there's a there's a
(12:24):
want and a need for it, and because we haven't
tapped into our native foods properly yet. But well, works
and calls are so silly because it's right there and
they could just do so much for this country if
they just tapped into it and utilized what's right there.
You create jobs for mob you know. Like and the
way we get our foods is with bush tomatoes. For example.
(12:47):
If you went out and picked a bush tomato and
just ate it, it would taste gross. But the aunties have
passed down through generations that you pick the bush tomatoes,
grab the dirt, rubber than the dirt. It takes that
film off it, then you eat it. And that's a
songline that's been passed down for generations to eat this food.
So not only is it just coulory experience, but it's
(13:08):
also keeping culture and tradition alive. But it's also giving
back jobs to mob and yeah, just carrying on out
legacy as the deadliest mob on earth.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Wow, it's so interesting to hear that. I guess why
people were just racing down to coals to get their
everyday ingredients. You had to, yeah, kind of like forage
as also, I understand, and go and seek out these
real specialty.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Products that just aren't accessible.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
And it makes you just think about, like I guess,
food sovereignty as well, like how why should black fellows
should have access to their their native foods for their
well being, for their you know, for their nutrition as well.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
So it really should be available.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
And I know that you've let up a huge campaign
after the fact around getting this on our shelves, which
you know, so you know, you can never stop a
black fellow from just going it doing the thing.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
But yeah, wow.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
And then exactly and that and that's to your point.
You know, there was a point in our history recently
where where the colonizers hit the pause button, all the
mute button on our culture and our tradition, and we
weren't allowed to speak language. We you know that we
all know the history that we don't need to go
into that. But what what what we're what I'm doing
is I'm just turning that volume back up, you know,
(14:26):
and just celebrating our mob because we've been here for
so long and we need to be celebrated, you know.
We We've just got so much to be tapped into,
but it has to be tapped into in the right way.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Yeah, it's so interesting, like thinking about my kind of
experience with this.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
So I grew up, Yes, similarly, mum, single mom, five kids.
She was also a terrible cook. I mean when I
like we you know, she would just boil up all
the veggies.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Those and she'd make us sit there and until we
had an eat, like that was all we would get.
And I still have this like food trauma about her
making us sit there until nine ten o'clock at night.
I'd be like wailing into my food, thinking this pumpkin's
going to like kill me or something. Just traumatized. But
I guess it was just food to just get through
(15:15):
by your family. And it's not until recently, I guess
in the last five years or so since our family
have had land back that they have started to cultivate
and harvest and I guess observe what's there and bring
and regenerate that back. And so it really is like
a part of this decolonization process for us or to
return back to our food and on our land food.
(15:38):
And it's just so beautiful that you're kind of leading
this conversation and helping us kind of lift our gaze about.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
What is possible for us. So yeah, mad respect for
you on that.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
Oh, thank you, And do you know what, do you
know what? It started off as a it's quite a
selfish venture really because I left my little country town
where my uncles would go and get the food my
aunties would cook up this big pot of stew and
damper and all that kind of stuff. But then I
had to leave, you know, to to chase my dreams,
to chase my career and all of that. And when
(16:10):
I left, I realized that this food wasn't there available
for me, and I just wanted to go get a
kangarotail chuck a pot of stew on and that stew
would just transport me back to a time with my family.
You know, when I was feeling homesick, I would take
a big mouthful of that kangarytalel stew and I would
(16:32):
be there with my cousins and my mom and my
grandma and my family, and it would just take me home.
While I'm living in Melbourne or London or wherever I was,
it would just take me back to a time or
back home when I was feeling homesick. And it just
it really has that. It's like it's like a picture,
a bowl of food that your grandma made you is
like as like a time machine. Really that transport you back,
(16:54):
you know, to that comfortable home where they've got the
pot on the stove and all the kids are running
around screaming and all the the aunties are playing cards
at the table, families just all around. So that it
was really just it was me really wanted to connect
back with my culture back home while chasing my dreams
of my career. And I'm like, well, why we've got
(17:15):
a Mexican, isle an English, We've got New Zealand foods
all in these shelves. Why is there not kangaroo emu
all of our foods in our shops? Because it's not
just me that would love this food. It would be
people coming in from internationally as well, wanting to try
our foods and our foods. Like I said, it's not
it's it's not pies and Lamington's. Like I love pies
(17:37):
and Lamingtons, so get me wrong, but that's not our
native foods and native foods? Is kangaroo? Emu turtle? Doogle
all of that? My mouth's watering as I say it.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
I'm all, I'm so hungry listening to this.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Will be back you lob right after this short break.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
I mean for the for the mob who you know
are non indigenous listeners, or even the people who are
listening internationally. If we were sitting around like a campfire.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Or you know, in your home, your family home, you
mentioned kangaroo tale, what what what other foods would you
kind of see on your on your family table? And
are they curries?
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Are they you know they are they looking at the meat?
Because that's the thing I feel like Black Fellows our
family do really well.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Is they're really resourceful. They will put it's like peasant food,
but it works. It's curries, it's rich, it's full of veggies,
it's full of good things.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Can yeah, help us understand. What are some of the
types of things that we would see at your table.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
Well, you'd see, well, it depends on what the what
the uncles went out and got that day. But if
they went to the coast and they got a turtle,
you know, we'd chuck a turtle on the fire and
just grab a knife for Jess, cut that meat off
the back of a turtleshell and just eat that with
a bit of salt. And but you know what our
food is like you said, it's very you know, you
don't need to add a million spices and all of that.
(19:16):
You know, we had the basics, we had rations, we
had and we made it taste incredible. So turtle was
absolutely one of my favorites. But yeah, you never you
never miss a pot of kangaroo on this pot of
kangaro tails stew, or kangaroo on the on the stove
at any of my mom's house a damper. You know,
all of that kind of stuff is just it's nothing
(19:36):
like anywhere else in the world, and it's sustainable and
green and all of that. And previously there's been policies
and stuff to put in place to stunt food export,
Like even I think EMU. I think one of the
things or the show is how you reveal your menu,
and so, okay, how I want to reveal my menu is.
(19:57):
I ended up doing a three step so instead of
entree made a dessert, I did voice treaty and truth. Yeah,
and so I changed it around. But how I wanted
it is I wanted to do an EMU nest on
the table and they grab an EMU egg and crack
it open and pull the menu out like that. But
I found out that it's eight hundred dollars a year
(20:18):
or something to have to be able to actually just
have EMU eggs a license. And I was and the
producers were like, you can't do this because we need
to pay eight hundred dollars for a license to show
EMU eggs. And I'm like, well, I could just call
my uncle and he can get a couple of EMU eggs.
And they're like exactly, And they were like, no, there's
(20:39):
these you know, it's against the Lord to have EMU eggs.
And I'm like, well, that's just insane. But there's these
historical policies, historical ways that are set up around our
foods that that kind of stop us flourishing in that
in that sector and food is just like you go
to any mob's house and the first thing you do
(20:59):
is look in the fridge.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
It's really an interesting point because I think people you know,
I know we mentioned we wouldn't talk about it, but
you've got.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
To talk about it. Oh, you got to talk about it.
And like you actually said it right, it's decolonizing and
it's just unpicking all that stuff that people don't realize
because it's ingrained in the country or in you know,
the region or whatever it is. It's ingrained. So what
we're doing is just unpicking and let letting our voice,
turning that volume back up. Like I said, you know,
(21:29):
we've been silenced for too long. Our voice is going
to be amplified now. Sis.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Yeah, that's it, because you know, I think people forget
that Australia as a so called Australia as a continent.
You know, the reason why it was so appealing for
settlers at the time was because of rural and pastoral expansion.
So we have you know, one of the best beef industries,
Like it's the economic benefits from having land because of
(21:58):
what it can yield is so important and so Australia
presented huge lots of land. It actually advertised has come
over and get your bit of land, and there was mining,
agirable soil. We've got really great soil and we also
have huge rural pastoral lands. And so it wouldn't be
surprising that still in these day and age, there's some
(22:20):
ways to keep us out of that economic benefit from
having access to our own providence, our own farming, and
our own agricultural practices. I wouldn't be surprised to be
part of that grand plan exactly.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
And that's exactly right. They didn't see us, you know,
as a vibrant culture. You know, we had fish traps
that uncle Bruce Pasco wrote Dark Emu and just really
highlighted exactly what was going on in Australia at the time.
If no one's read dark Emu, you know, go and
read it. He's the most incredible. It's the most incredible book.
And I actually met him at the Aboriginal Economic Development
(22:55):
for him in Darwin last year and I said, why
was your book so famous? Because we've been shouting and
really trying to bring all this stuff to light. It
just sometimes falls on deaf ears And he goes because
I spoke to them in their way, in their language,
and that's what really sparked it. And I was just
like they just weren't really interested in listening, and it
(23:16):
was I think. I think, I think it's turning now though.
But then in saying that, we just saw what happened
with a referendum, but I feel like we just need
to take it now. It's no more asking, it's no
more none of that's we were here first, it's our land.
There's science to prove that we've been here for this
long and we're not gone anyway.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
And I think one of the most sort of like
you say, with Bruce Pasco's I guess findings and you know,
echoing other people who've also shared those same sentiments, is
that there was that sort of myth that Aboriginal people
were nomadic hunter gatherers, that we were just kind of
aimlessly walking through bushes, you know, finding things as we go.
(23:56):
Of course, we moved with the food sources, right, like
we moved around as the seasons changed to higher ground
to lower ground. But also, you know, I think the
thing that he really highlighted is that we had agricultural practices,
ways to reduce our energy and create food, which is
what like, which is what it means to be human, right,
(24:18):
is to have ways to have energy, calorie intake and
reduce the amount of work you have to do. We're
not just going to sit around and you know look
for you know, a berry over here and a bush
over there. Of course we had ways to sort of
farm that. So it's so it's such a fascinating conversation.
But I feel like, yeah, Australia is just catching up
and also a lot of black fellers. You know, you
(24:40):
mentioned before five six hundred native produce. What are some
of the things that you enjoyed cooking with the most?
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Like so myself, I've just been dabbling in lemon myrtle
and bake goods.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
I love dampers and breads and bake goods. But I
know there's a plethora of things. But I'm also a
little bit like afraid to experiment. So yeah, what are
some of the things that you like cook with and
what are some of the things that we can like
substitute and introduce into our day to day Like now, I.
Speaker 4 (25:10):
Guess absolutely, and I think we're going to be always
learning because every single because this country is so big
that every single region or mob or land is totally different.
We've got rainforests, we've got salt water mold, we've got
river mold, we've got desert mold, which is completely different food.
So in the river you get, you know, all the
(25:32):
river fish, all that kind of stuff. On the coast
you get, like I said, turtle, you get doogong, you
get all of that. And then you go inland and
you've got the kangaroo and the hemu and the goanna.
We call it yong gidji back home, Like, it's just
totally different. And so we're constantly learning as well. And
the thing is right is that chefs, the indigenous chefs
in Australia, you could count how many on one hand.
(25:55):
That's insane. Yeah. Mindy Woods from My Kitchen Rules, I
met her last year and she is a CIS on
a mission, Like she is absolutely incredible. She's just so knowledgeable.
I love meeting a mob from different cultures as well
to teach me like their ways and their foods and like,
(26:20):
so what I love cooking is back home, it's all
kangaro it's all the meats, you know, and it's just
pairing it with things. So it's all the meats, it's kangaroo,
it's in you, it's goanna, it's all of that. But
then I like to change it up a little bit,
so I like to modernize it. So like doing a pasta.
Putting warrigal greens in the pasta. Sauce and warrigal greens
(26:41):
is like using is like a mix between rocket and spinach.
So it's not foods that are completely insane, you know,
it's foods that we can substitute for foods we already eat.
So lemon, myrtle, you know, pop that in like a
lemon cake. Wattle seed is incredible in chocolate, in chocolate cakes,
things like that. There's just so much out there. And
(27:04):
I have gotten this question a lot. It's how do
we How do we do it? You know, how do
we start? And it's just start really slowly. So instead
of salt in some things, use salt bush instead of pepper,
use pepperberry. Instead of time like international time, use native time.
Instead of tomatoes, use push tomatoes, and then just work
(27:25):
your way up like that. So but but but the
thing is is we have to pull it right back
and it needs to be available to us because I work,
you know, I work a normal nine to five insane job.
I don't have time to go on forage, which I've
when I started this petition, people are like, oh, why
don't you just go get your own foods? Like why
(27:46):
don't you just go on forage? And I'm like, oh,
do I just finish working at six o'clock and then
I'll just quickly go on forage and then I'll have
dinner at midnight and then get up for work. Like
it doesn't work like that, you know, like if their
foods can be available for them, why can't our foods
be available for And there's an entire industry in the
back of this waiting. There's aunties from the First Nations
(28:11):
Bushwoods and Botanicals Association that have been doing this forever,
and they've got all the knowledge, you know. So once
I kind of got my platform, they reached out to
me and they said, you know what we've been trying
to do in like forty years, you did in this
really brief kind of stint on this reality show. And
(28:33):
I was just I was kind of shocked, because this
isn't my this isn't for me. I want to hand
this over to them. I want to give them this
platform because they deserve it, and I'll learn from them
because you know, they need the recognition because they've been
fighting this fight, just like all our mob for so long.
And this is just one aspect of it. This is
(28:53):
just food, but food encompasses all of it. And one
thing is is that food. When you're talking about culture,
it's very hard to appropriate. Food is an appreciation you
don't appropriate. Yeah, so it's really easy for non indigenous
by I really urged them just go try it, you know.
(29:14):
And the more we buy it, the more we do it,
the more the need is there, the more the industry
builds up, the more we get jobs in the background,
the more we start running our own businesses. And then
with this flourishing, thriving mob, with all this industry and
our foods that have been here and passed down, you know,
how to cook it for years and years and years.
(29:34):
You know, we didn't have history books, we don't have
all of that kind of stuff. We passed it down
through song lines and knowledge and all of that.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Oh gosh, that you're such a ball of wisdom. But
this is why representation on TV is really important. It's
not just about representing, but it's the responsibility back with
what we're going to do and to hear that you
brought elders together and to sort of like you know,
really shine light on this issue around food accessibility. And yeah,
(30:02):
it's just I love that what you said you can't
appropriate food, you appreciate it like it's so so true.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
It's something that it really connects.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
To heart, a feeling and emotion, a story, and that's
really hard to kind of appropriate when you're really stopping
in that space. My partner, he's Greek fella and he's Yaya.
He's ninety eight years young, and she passes, has passed
down over the years her family like Pittas and Spynicopaters and.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
All of those.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
It's incredible, you know, all of the yummies and you know,
just I guess these are like sixty six year old
family recipes that they've been able to keep passing down.
And yeah, it doesn't matter who you are. It's a
thing that really connects us is food as people.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
You know, it's coming back to that tribal way of being.
It's something so special that's such a beautiful way to
put it.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
We can't appropriate.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
There is that deep, deep appreciation and maybe when people
start to actually eat it, they can understand where.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Things come from. Because when we get something in our
shelves and cowls and willies, you don't know where it's
come from. Do you just hit on your plane and
you think, oh yeah, But when you're actually like, wow,
this has come from you know, this warrigoor green has
come from this place, and this is what you might change.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
The way we look at many things like our health,
the climate. You know, first nation sovereignty here.
Speaker 4 (31:28):
Exactly exactly, and everyone comes together with food, you know
what I mean everyone. It's something that we obviously all
do to survive, but it's also something that we do
when we go out with our friends, when we invite
people over, there's always food there. There's always so you know,
it's and it's also that international lens as well, is
that when they fly in Like when I when I
(31:50):
backpack to Europe, I wanted to try all the different
foods from all the different countries. But when you fly
in here, you've really got to look for it. And
I'm like, and do you know what really? Really? So
I started this petition right and I didn't not expect it.
I'm just a big mouth blackfellow who's trying to like
fight for our rights back in and I've always been
(32:11):
like that. But you know what I really want, Why
do we have a China town in the middle of
every single city. Why don't we have a black fellow town.
Why don't we have a Black fellow town in the
middle of every city with you know, like with Larachia foods,
with buying your foods back home, with young our foods,
with you know, dadigle foods, with you know, all that
(32:32):
kind of stuff, Like, why don't we have a hub
like that in the middle of these cities with our
foods from these different places. That's my When I close
my eyes, that's the dream I envisioned for Australia.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
Oh my god, could you imagine that much incredible?
Speaker 3 (32:47):
To be able to taste a bit of all countries
and wow, how.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
Special exactly you can see that, can't you? Like if
you close your eyes, you know there's Toresho islander food
at this cafe. Oh no, we had that last week,
So this week we'll go and have bungelung a Bungelung
feed this, you know, like where that would just be incredible,
just a whole hub in these cities of just our foods,
not just one specialty restaurant that's you know that's struggling,
(33:15):
because let's have a full community of these restaurants in
the middle of these cities, like why not why.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Not your first you mom, Matt food markets like check Netflix,
come on board.
Speaker 4 (33:31):
That's here, right, And like people don't realize they kind
of put us in this unbrelin and go, oh, that's
indigenous food or first aation food or whatever it is.
But no, it's different every step. If you think of
Australia like Europe, that've got so much different foods across
the board from Spanish, Italian, French, and they're just really
close to each other. So that's how we are.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
It's so true.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
Like even here in Nam we've got obviously Marboo Marbo,
which is headed up by Norny who's doing incredible things.
But there possibly would be even a dissonance for people
who are getting that food from an island like island
torrest ryde islander influence and whilst they're relying on native ingredients,
but to know that.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
That is not from this place, it is not from
urandri Land. So having I can feel it, I can
see it. We need to call that vision into life
because that is that's the future really of us being
able to really think about our own health and wellbeing too,
and what nourishes us.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
You know, I know that over the last few years
just looking at food as less of a thing. But
how do we feel fueled and energy and what do
we get nourishment from? And how do we pre present
with food and how do we enjoy it? So you
have mentioned the work that you did so shortly after
featuring as a semi finalist on My Kitchen Rules, you
(34:50):
essentially led spearheaded a movement which was around yeah, I guess,
sort of talking about introducing native ingredients to our major supermarkets,
to coals and woolies. And I believe, you know, thousands
and thousands of people participated in and signing this petition,
(35:11):
like I think somewhere I read twelve twelve thousand signatures
in a really short period of time. Can you talk
me through, yeah, the petition and the process, and I guess, yeah,
what's happening next in this space?
Speaker 4 (35:25):
Yeah, Well, it started with me just sitting at home
going I just want to go to Cohal's that's across
the row, and Woolies and just buying my food and
coming home and eating my food. The market's clothed, like
it's just ridiculous that we have to go to a
specialty market. You know. We go to Woolies and we
see these rotisserie chickens. I want to see a kangaroo
(35:47):
tail spinning on those diisseries. I want to go in
and grab that instead of a instead of a cook chook.
You know, nothing against the cooked chooks, but that's not
our native foods. So I was I was just sitting
at home and I was talking to my friends and
I'd don't know, I have no idea how it came about.
But then I just started that petition and it just
(36:09):
went off, and it was just I was on pretty
much every single channel, every single radio station, and they're
all like, this is so obvious, this obvious thing. Why
is that happening? And and they kept asking me, and
I said, well, you tell me, you know, like I
(36:29):
don't know why it's not happening. We've got this businesses
ready to go. We don't we don't have them ready
to go in the sense of, you know, we've got
all this food, red stuff shells, like you've got to
go back to the drawing board, all words and cause.
And what was really amazing is once we've got all
of that, and once I've got all of the.
Speaker 5 (36:48):
Signatures, and once I've got all the all the media
attention alwas actually reached out to me and said, we
love this, we think it's incredible, so why don't you
come in and present to an entire product development team,
tell us exactly what you want.
Speaker 4 (37:05):
And I was like, oh shit, I wasn't ready, you know,
like I wasn't ready.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Usually we're used to asking for stuff and not being
hers exactly exactly.
Speaker 4 (37:14):
And they called me and I was like, oh shit,
like they're actually listening, they're interested. And they called me
and said this is a no brainer. We didn't even
think about this, like come and present to us. And
I went, oh shit, what am I going to present?
I've got to fly to Sydney. It's in this auditorium,
it's with the entire team from Walworth that decide what
foods go on the shelves. And I got to I
(37:36):
think I reached out to one of the first nations
bush foods and Botanicals Association Auntie, so there were four
of them. Annie Dale, she runs My Daily Bag up
in Queensland and she is spearheading she if you want
your native foods, go to her My Daily Bag online Queensland.
She runs like cooking things and things like that. And
(37:56):
so there's these people in the background that have been
doing this for forty years. So I was like, well,
I'm kind of just using my platform right now amplify voices.
I'm gonna bring honey Dale down to Sydney. So I
was like, well, if you're going to take me, you're
going to bring any Dale. And any Dale and I
never met before met the night before, I felt like
I knew in my whole life. And we presented to
(38:17):
Wolworths and they were just blown away. They were like,
of course, like the I remember, and we cooked for
and we did a demonstration. We got them to eat
the foods. And I remember one of the ladies who
from Warworks who ran the dip department, which I didn't
know was a thing. Someone runs like the parishable department,
but focuses on dips and she goes, we've had four
dips forever. We've had like suzeki, hommas, all that kind
(38:41):
of stuff. And we've been looking a branch out forever,
but we didn't know what to do. And you've just
showed us so many different native foods that we can
create dips out of. And I was just like, exactly,
it's just right there, ready for you. And she was
like well, and Willworth said, well, how do we do it?
And I said, well, this is more for you to determine,
you know, build an indigenous procurement team internally in all words,
(39:05):
and get them to focus just on native foods, because
our foods or our businesses aren't at the capability or
the capacity to stock the shells just yet. But we've got, say,
I don't know, eighty or something one hundred percent indigenous
owned businesses or companies that stop these foods or have
an array of foods. If you just got bought one
(39:27):
product from all of these eighty different businesses, you'd fill
an entire shelf of native foods. So it's not that hard,
you know what I mean, Just if you think about it,
don't overwhelm yourself. And that's what I was saying, you know, tomorrow,
I don't want to walk in and see those kangaroo
tails on the retisserie. But in ten years I want
to see it. You know, we're going to have to
build up there. And plus one thing that community nonedge
(39:50):
Just people don't know. We don't go off the fall seasons.
We have our own seasons. We've got like six or
seven seasons ourselves. So kakadoo plums isn't going to be
available all year round, but substitute that for something else
in that because they're thinking commercially, whereas you know, if
it's not season and this food's not there, we're going
to have a gap. Well then just spill it with
(40:12):
something that's in season, or freeze it and have it
available in the frozen section. So it's it's it sounds
really huge, but it's actually not that big. It's building
our mob up, building us back up to be able
to supply, and once you get the demand there, the
supply will increase and our businesses increase. And this whole
(40:33):
sector of food that's just waiting to be tapped into
flourish and it's not that hard. I think sometimes we
think too big, well not too big, but I think
that that we think things have to change over night.
They're obviously not going to change overnight. But if we
just think about it in one step at a time,
(40:54):
someone said to me, once, to eat an elephant, you
start with just the first bite. You know, you start
with the first bite. You don't eat the whole elephant
at once, to just take one bite. That's how That's
how we start, and it's changing the narrative around the food.
That's my goal is, like I said, you know, changing
the narrative that our food's not not pies and Leamington's.
(41:15):
It's this food that's thrived here for thousands, thousands, thousands
of years and we are the knowledge holders to this.
So go and I said this to Wallworth's, I said,
go to an auntie's table, go and sit down next
to her with a nice cup of tea, and she
will you know, she would be more than happy to collaborate.
(41:36):
And these businesses, like I said, they're just sitting there
leading to be tapped into.
Speaker 3 (41:40):
I mean, it's so incredible to hear what you've done
in terms of leading this conversation but also bringing in
people who have been in the space, like aren't that
you said from my Delli bag and on?
Speaker 1 (41:53):
I think I might have been season two for our listeners.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
We had two fullows on the line from bush to
bowl and they are a native.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Farming and garden practice, so you could get native plants
for your gardens and.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
They also have a lot of native produce. And you're right,
it's almost like, yeah, these things don't change overnight, like
changing our psyche around how we view native foods and.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
Having it accessible.
Speaker 3 (42:20):
But it's almost as if we need to also think about, yeah,
like you say, increasing the supply chain, making it easier
for our mobs to return back to our practices, return
back to our farming, return back to having a supply
chain to provide because a lot of the native produce
that we see now like to think about num Here,
(42:41):
I'm in Melbourne in Victoria down south. We've got kind
of two main I guess of suppliers, so Marbu Marbu
the restaurant actually makes their own produce to sell commercially
as well. And then we've got another mob, Melbourne bush Food,
which is sadly just about to close up.
Speaker 4 (42:58):
They're no longer Melbourn bush Food is not indigenous, so.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
They're not indigenous exactly. I think they've come on a
little bit of scrutiny about that.
Speaker 4 (43:07):
Yeah, and I think it's and like I don't know him,
but I know he's he's he wants to celebrate the
food and all that kind of stuff. But it's also
you need to do it in a way that we're
involved exactly where where they were working with you where
co designing. We've got the knowledge, We've got all of this,
(43:28):
so we need to be at the table because you know,
this is this is our foods, this is we need
to take that back. A lot of our men in
our mob, you know, there's that we don't really see
a future sometimes, like we don't really have you know,
as men. This is something I've really been thinking about recently,
(43:49):
and I've had so many mob both family and extended
family and in the community that have you know, that
haven't seen a way forward and that they've just kind
of thought that ending at all was was you know,
there was no other way out. But food men have
been providers in our culture forever. Like, give them back
(44:12):
that cultural you know, that the cultural knowledge that they
have that they've grown up with that go out get
our food, supply it to these big shops. They'll have
something to actually actually you know, hold on to and
have something to be proud of. And it's bringing that
culture and tradition in. It really breaks my heart because
I've got a young nephew and we saw that that
(44:33):
young boy recently who went to footy and got all
that racism. You know, like our men, it takes it's
really hard for us to speak. And so just having
having something and food and providing is something as men
in our culture is something that we've done forever. You know,
all my uncles they go out in the morning and
(44:54):
they sorry I was, but they love it. You know,
they come home with a full kangaroo or portrailer full
of kangaroo. Not one bit that kangaroo from the nose
to the tail is fared. It's shared with the entire community.
They have a sense of purpose, they have a sense
of love, they have a sense of appreciation, and that's
what we're missing as men as mob as well. And
(45:16):
I just and this would really help just invigorate our culture.
And it's not hard, you know what I mean, Just
give us, Just give us a little bit, you know,
just these big corporations that are already thing ourself for
billions of dollars, just put some of that back into
the community, into our mob. You'll see change tenfold's.
Speaker 3 (45:36):
I really appreciate you you sharing that, and you're sore.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
You're so right in saying that. A lot of our
think about my brothers and cousins, Yeah, have been so
disempowered about where is our place and space and that
sense of purpose and sense of providing for more. You know,
a lot of the women run.
Speaker 3 (45:56):
The shows in a lot of areas, and that is
such a beautiful way.
Speaker 1 (46:00):
To bring this back to this holistic offering that this
is important cultural business as much of it is about
having really beautiful food and having a place for our
fellows to really play a role in that.
Speaker 4 (46:13):
Exactly, and they have a huge role in that, you
know what I mean. And just at the moment, we're
just struggling to see a purpose for ourselves and that's
ingrained in us. It's you know, we're the first astronomers,
we're the first, you know, agricultures, where the first all
of that. I think dample was the first bread ever made,
I'm pretty sure. And so like you know, it's we're
(46:35):
really missing that, and I really it really makes me
sad because we are some of the most incredible people
in the entire world, and we hold so much knowledge
and you know what, we're funny. We are the funniest
mob ever. Like you can just meet anyone from any
mob and you can just struck up a conversation and
you laugh at twenty five minutes for an hour, you know,
(46:58):
just someone you never met.
Speaker 1 (46:59):
It's really one of the most gifted superpowers we've got
amongst many.
Speaker 3 (47:03):
But the fact that we can be like crying around
or be real stot to then just be silly carrying
on at the same time.
Speaker 1 (47:09):
It's so right. But I love this, you know. I mean,
if we're going to obviously put all of Matt's details
and all the wonderful things he's doing in our show notes,
but you know, maybe that's an invitation for our listeners.
You know, there are people out there that you know,
can contribute to this conversation about helping mob stay front
and center in these yarns. It's a really important thing
because these are billion dollar industries. These are ways.
Speaker 3 (47:32):
This is a really neat way for us to return
back to our culture, return back to our land, and
also have some of this, you know, this slice of
economic prosperity that this country offers through our ways and
our knowledge is and our and our knowing and so
I think it's a really multifaceted conversation and I think
(47:53):
I'm really excited that we're having this yarn And yeah,
it's really prompted a lot in me. You know, you
know how you think about when you go to a
shop and you get something that's like Australian made, it's
got their little green and gold tick.
Speaker 1 (48:07):
Like could you imagine if we were.
Speaker 3 (48:09):
To go and get like a bush, you know, bush
tomato chutney or something off the shelf and it had
a little sticker to say this is from ja Jabaran country,
or this is from Gundi Jamara country, this is from
Larikia country. We had this notion of actually being able
to identify the providence where things come from. It's almost
(48:30):
like we need to have a conversation with the suppliers
like coals, but then also the consumers to be more
conscientious about what they're buying from who because I feel like,
you know, people will actively buy ethical products if it's
sourced here. But yeah, this idea of native produce and
native things people don't necessarily have an appreciation of. I mean,
(48:53):
some followers will go get you know, paintings from China
or whatever. There's just this lack of appreciation, as you say,
about where things come from. And I think a lot
of that comes from people, you know, migloos and you know,
until it's been disconnected from themselves really and.
Speaker 4 (49:09):
I think and I think they are. They are coming around.
They're starting to hear us, they're starting to see us,
which is incredible. They are, and you know, we need
to give that a shout out as well. The people
that I would never have expected to ask me things
are coming to ask me, you know, how can I
do this? Or how can I do that? Or how
can I use this in a cake? Or I've just
(49:31):
been given lemon murder? What can I use it as?
And it's just it's so great to see that people
who I would thought would never have asked me that
or come to me with that, have totally come around.
And it sounds like it's so exotic, but it's not.
You know, we've eaten it. We've done it for thousands
and thousands of years, and like you said, health benefits,
(49:54):
all of that is right there. But it doesn't just
stop at the food. It goes right down the chain,
right down all the way to the aunties or whoever
is picking it right in the dirt, you know, out
on country, and it just is supplying jobs. It's giving
us a purpose. It's culture. It's invigorating the culture, it's
keeping it alive. It's you're doing more than just buying
(50:17):
something off the shelf. You're actually you're actually giving back.
Speaker 1 (50:21):
Yeah, it's so important. We say that a lot in
our work too. You know, whenever you support one black
follow you're supporting hundreds of people. Because we don't have
a concept of social enterprise. We're just giving back to
our families and communities, and we have that reciprocity and responsibility.
You know, we have a thing.
Speaker 3 (50:40):
You know, that's why out the our knowledge is so
different from the capitalist paradigm, because we know that if
we eat good, then everyone else has to eat good.
And that's both a blessing and a curse for all
my family who's you know, always humbugging me again.
Speaker 1 (50:56):
But you know that responsibility. So I feel you on that.
I mean, what do you think, what's what's next for
you in this space? What's next for you in this movement?
And what's next for you in cooking, Like you know,
you've come off your show, You've done some amazing things.
You won a Service in Bush Food and Botanics Award
last year for the work that you've done in native foods,
(51:18):
and so you won.
Speaker 3 (51:20):
An award at the Darwin, the Aboriginal Economic Development Award.
Speaker 1 (51:25):
You know, you're working at Urbanly, It's like, what's next
for you in this space? What's in the crystal world?
Speaker 4 (51:30):
Well, what I've done recently is I flew home back
to the gas going to going and there was a
tafe course that's run in hospitality, it's certificate too in Hospitality,
and it was just all mob in this class and
one of the things that they needed to get ticked
off was native foods. And they brought me in and
(51:50):
I spent a week taking more about on country foraging.
I taught them, we created a recipe, We went out
and these are all young mob that are just so
excited to kind of just be celebrated, you know, in something.
And then so the first two days we went foraged
(52:11):
and we went and looked at all the bush foods
and you know, I talked to them about all the
health benefits and all that kind of stuff in the industry,
and then we created a menu which was really bougie,
and then on the Friday, we put on this restaurant
and we sold tickets and it was sold out, and
we had a fifty seat restaurant where me and the kids,
(52:32):
I call them kids, and you know, some of them
mar keids, so they were kids to me, and we
cooked this really bougie, fancy dinner and just spoke where
we went and picked this food on Monday and Tuesday.
And now that's the salad you're eating now. So it's
just it's just giving it to me. It's giving back.
This was never something I didn't care about going on TV.
(52:54):
I didn't care about having a platform. I didn't care
about any of that. It's just I've come from a
very strong line of black follows that have really instilled
in me, you are a player, proud blackfellow. We have
a place here, this is our land, and you know what,
keep that going. And I'm just all I want to
do is just keep that going and just amplifying voices,
no matter if their aunties, uncles, kids, whatever, just using
(53:18):
my platform and putting others on my platform and letting
them go for it because they've been doing this longer
than me, you know what I mean, Like I've been
doing I'm a Johnny cum lately. These aunties have been
doing it for forty or fifty years. So giving them,
giving them that platform is what does it for me.
And it was never about me, you know, it was
never about doing a cookbook call anything like that. It
(53:40):
was about more culture and just celebrating us and just
bringing it back, you know, because it's been gone for
a little bit. Like I said, our volume has been
turned down. But let's turn that right back up now
and let's shout from the rooftops.
Speaker 1 (53:55):
Oh I love it. Oh my god. That sounds like
my idea of heaven.
Speaker 3 (54:00):
That program of being able to forage no what you're
looking for, and being able to eat and share together
and like you know, come back together in that tribe
community way is like my idea of absolute heaven. What
a wonderful contribution and what a wonderful way to share
the knowledges and like you say, amplify educate along the way.
Speaker 1 (54:25):
It really is so incredible. Ah, I'm just blown away.
Speaker 3 (54:30):
You know, I've been really into mushroom observations. Disclaimer, I
never pick mushrooms. You know, I think it's really just
identifying all of the species. And I've just booked, actually
I'm going to go on the weekend for a foraging
so to learn about what it is and just you know,
and it's a non aboriginal fellow who's doing this, and
(54:51):
he's offered aboriginal prices for people to come along. But
just like going out and I'm just even teaching people
what to cook and what to look for and getting
giving us back.
Speaker 1 (55:03):
That is just so special, so well done.
Speaker 4 (55:08):
Thank you. And you know, it always makes you feel
awkward because when people like say things like that. When
I won that award, I think I went bright red
like and so exactly it's exactly right. And one other
thing is that you know, it's never too late to learn.
Like you said, you know, it's never too late to learn.
(55:31):
It's it's our culture. It doesn't matter if you were
taken or if your family grew up in the city
or whatever and you weren't accessible to like the lifestyle
I grew up in, you know, being immersed in culture.
If you you can still do it today, there are
people out there ready to teach you and ready to
(55:51):
learn it's not shame, it's yours. It's your right, and
it's your responsibility to carry on our legacy and our
culture and our traditions.
Speaker 1 (56:00):
What a beautiful reminder it's never too late. This is
for you and that Yeah, it's all available for us
as it's intended to be. What a beautiful reminder for
people who might be yeah, a bit shame and a
bit unsure about how to go about this in the
right way.
Speaker 3 (56:17):
Oh my goodness, I can't wait to see what's in
store with where you take this.
Speaker 1 (56:22):
I will definitely be following along the journey and elevating
in any way I can.
Speaker 4 (56:27):
I got a message today I brought out. I got
reached out to by a company called Journey Beyond. They
own the Gan, the India Pacific, the Overland and the
Great sub and the train lines. They reached out to
me because I started a candle range, which is a
really big spoke small candoractacy, if you know, with the
sense like lemon, myrtle and cafty plums and things like that.
(56:50):
And this company called Journey Beyond reached out to me
and they asked me to specifically curate or design a
candle for their train for train lines. And today I've
just got a photo of them in their story in Adelaide.
So yeah, if you if you're in Adelaide, there's some
there's some native scented candles ready for you to to
go and buy. So and that's it. You know, it's
(57:11):
not just food that I'm focused on. It's more the culture,
the bush foods, that all of that kind of stuff.
And there's so many avenues that we can take it in.
It's not just food. You can take it into the
scent world. You can take it all over the place.
So you know, the world is our oyster. The world
is our oyster.
Speaker 1 (57:29):
And what of just a beautiful, lovely invitation for people
to just become more aware and invite this produce and
these products and these beautiful offerings that are handmade using
Aboriginal knowledges into.
Speaker 3 (57:42):
Your home, you know, and and to know that the
decision to bring something like this into your home is
so rich. You're getting access to eighty thousand years of
people who know the plants, who forage the plants, who
respect the plants. That's incredible. Well, we'll poddle all those
show notes in that where to get those candles? I
(58:02):
am a candle queen.
Speaker 4 (58:04):
I've got.
Speaker 1 (58:04):
It's probably my three toxic traits is absorbitant amounts of tea.
I love tea, and there's lots of black tea on
the market now and candles and food, so.
Speaker 4 (58:16):
And you know, we're just going to get bigger and
better and blacker, and I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 3 (58:21):
I just want to say thank you so much for
being on the show today. The ancestor has definitely put
a few spanners in the works, but I knew that
as soon as we'd get yarning, there'd be so much
to cover. Matt mon Creeve, I'll put all of your details,
all of your handles online in the show notes to
follow along this conversation, this really important national conversation we're
(58:44):
having about native foods.
Speaker 1 (58:46):
But I just want to say thank you so much
for being here today and just coming along and sharing
all your wisdom. You've given me so much to think about,
even myself.
Speaker 4 (58:55):
So thank you, Oh, thank you for having me. I
hope I've given you some food for for But yeah,
like I said, you know, it's not just bushoods. It's
it's so much more than that. And I think if
we're going to spend a dollar here or there, put
it towards something that you know that will reinfigureate culture,
mob and all that. And that's all I want. So
(59:16):
thank you so much for having me. It's been a
deadly thank you.
Speaker 1 (59:20):
I've actually I'm going to send you I've got a
bunch of native spices and things I'm intending to experiment
this weekend. I've given myself permission to just play around
with some things because of that notion that you have
to get it right. So I'll definitely be in touch
with some if you send me some podcasts.
Speaker 4 (59:39):
Definitely, definitely definitely how you went. I'd love to see it,
looking forward to it. And that's it. You know, you
start slow from like they said, from little things, big things.
Speaker 1 (59:48):
Grow, So yeah, that's right. Oh, thank you
Black Cast, Unite our voices. This podcast is brought to
you by on Track Studio.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Welcome to Yarning Up, a podcast that showcases stories of
First Nations excellence to help us learn and unlearn Australia's
history to work towards a better future. I'm your host,
proud Barbara woman and founder of Blackwattle Coaching and Consulting,
(00:36):
Caroline col This podcast was taped on the sacred, stolen
and unseeded Aboriginal lands of the Runjeri people of the
Coln Nation. I pay my deepest respects to them, my elders,
your elders.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
And all owners of country, of this beautiful place that
we call home. Well as someone who loves food and
as someone who has been experimenting with bush foods and
native foods themselves, I'm so excited for today's guest.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
I've been trying to get this lad on our.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Podcast for quite some time, and the ancestors have tested us.
But I'm so grateful that you'll finally hear Matt and
we can finally talk all things bush food, all things
you've done since you've left my kitchen rules. So thank
you so much for being here today.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Matt.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
Oh, thanks for having me. I know our ancestors have
tested us, but we're here, We're ready to go, so
I'm excited.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Well, some of your more might be familiar with Matt Moncreef,
who was on My Kitchen Rules, one of the semi
finalists the first show, the first team Sorry in the
show's fifteen year history to feature Native Australian ingredients, and
I can't wait to sort of into that experience and
what it was like for you. But as we do
(02:07):
on this show, we always like to start by getting
to know who you are. So can you tell us
who's your mom and a little bit about yourself?
Speaker 4 (02:15):
Please? Oh? Absolutely, absolutely so, Matt Moncreef, I've got a huge,
huge black family back home in Western Australia. I'm a
Gonneru wadery Yamaji from Western Australia, so the Gascoyne region
when it's called Canarvon, it's about ten hours drive north
of her. It's a beautiful little town. That's where the
(02:35):
best produce comes from. I've come from an incredible family.
My grandma was born actually on the rabbit Proof Fence
Medalia station, and my granddad was born under a tree
at Billily Station just up the road as well. So
I come from a long line of strong Aboriginal people.
(02:56):
So shout out to all the good mob back.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Home, bless big shout out to your family.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
What a legacy. Wow, that's that's incredible. So ten hours
from Perth, your mom, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
Yeah, ten hours from Perth, so not many people know
where Canarvan is. It's yeah, ten hours north. So the
only town in between is is Geryalton, so we don't
stop there though. Gerlton Canarvan have a bit of a
you know in the foot but no, Yeah, a little
country town boy grew up on country. My mum was black,
(03:29):
my dad was white, but I grew up with my mum.
So you know, the culture isn't the color of your skin.
You know, I'm white skinned, black fallow. But you know,
as they say, no much how, no matter how much
milk you put in a tea, it's still tea at
the end of the day.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
That's so true. Yeah, I feel you are fair skin,
black colors.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
You know.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
It's always about, yeah, how the color of who we
are and what's in our heart. And it's nice to
hear about about you and your family, you know, with
other people in your family cooks.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Was there any inspiration which led you on your path.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
To becoming a chef and a cook and bringing all
this native produce into the way that we think about
culinary experiences.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
So, my mom's gonna hate me for saying this, but
the way I learned to cook is because she couldn't cooked.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
So I'm sorry, Mom.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
So sorry Cheryl back home, But yeah, she couldn't cook
to save her life. But you know, she was a
single mum, worked three jobs and I had to eat,
so I improvised and whatever was in the fridge I cooked,
and you know, she provided. And my grandma was an
incredible cook. You know, she she cooked amazing foods. And
all my family are hunters or cooks on the other side.
(04:44):
So yeah, big family of people who just lived off
the land. And yeah, I'm super super happy and super
proud to come from a little town like that and
growing up on country is just there's just no better,
nothing better than that.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Yeah, how special?
Speaker 3 (05:03):
How special to hear that that on both sides of
your family, you know, looking at produce, but also, yeah,
how do we ethically source our food through hunting? And
that appreciation for what this country can provide in terms
of food sources.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Absolutely. Yeah. People don't actually know that we've got five thousand,
six hundred native bush foods and botanicals out there. So yeah,
So we've got so much food out there, but we
import it all from overseas. About twenty of them make
it to the shelves and that's it. And you see those,
you know, like lemonmrd or salt Bosh, pepperberry. You see
(05:41):
the main ones. But there's so much more out there
that I'm out here, you know, getting louder and trying
to promote because it's on our doorstep, it's at our roundabouts,
it's at our you know, at our beck and call,
and we've got we've got these incredible businesses out there
ready just to be tapped into. That's run by mob
(06:01):
that's you know, passed down generations, how to pick it,
how to cook it, and it's just it's just there,
you know. So why we import from overseas is just
wild to me.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Wow, I that is so fascinating. So five six hundred
native plants or species that we could potentially eat, or
bush medicine or that we could use in our kind
of every day cooking.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Exactly and it's not like, you know, we need to
really upskill in using these We've got things like native time,
native basil that we can swap out just for basil
and time, you know, for pepper, we can swap it
out for pepperberry instead of salt use salt bosh. You know,
We've got these native ingredients that are great for the
environment that are available that will also give our mob
(06:49):
jobs because we've eaten these foods for so long and
with our bodies are in tuned for these native foods
as well. It's not the Mediterranean diet that our bodies love,
it's these foods that are grown here on our door set.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Yeah, because I don't think the colonized die. It's good
for anyone, like you know, I think a lot of us.
I know, over the years, I've become gluten free, lactose intolerant,
you know, just things that have been introduced to our bodies.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
We're not meant to break them down.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
And so yeah, I feel like you're right, there's such
a benefit and how and it's so important that our
mob get an opportunity bit to coin front running of
this providence where things are at farming. Because you're right,
a lot of this is done overseas. Can you tell
us a little bit about about that. So Australia what
imports a lot of natives from other countries.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
And we're also losing a lot of our native foods
to international countries like Brazil. They love our finger lines,
love it so much that now finger lines are becoming
native to Brazil, which is wild. You know, these foods
are just that they're untapped as well, so people don't
know what finger lines are if you go to England
(08:02):
and other trees like that. There are some countries that
are really in tune with our foods, but only specific foods.
Our Australian foods, our national foods, are our native foods.
It's not Lamington's, it's not meat eighs, it's not all
of that kind of stuff. It's this food that's that
(08:23):
we're thrived on and you know, kept us strong and
black and vibrant for sixty plus thousand years, So why
aren't we using it? So that's why I started this petition.
But even going back to my kitchen rules, I was,
I had no idea that because I've never watched the show.
I never watched the show before I went on it,
(08:45):
and they were like, oh, do you want to be
on the show? And I'm like okay. Absolutely went on
it and the preroducers said, we've never had an indigenous
team or an Indigenous person cooking native foods, and I
was just like, well, it's been fifteen years, why not,
Like why are you so late to it? We had
like three Italian teams on it. There's always Italian teams.
There's always all these different culinary international foods on the menu,
(09:09):
but never our native foods. And it's like, why not.
There's so many incredible black fellows out there that make
the most amazing pots of kangartails too, you know what
I mean, like whip that up and chat like I
had a kangarytail on my kitchen rolls and people were
just like they had no idea. But there were also
some foods that I wasn't allowed to use, so like turtle.
(09:29):
I love turtle. I make an incredible turtle soup and
I wasn't allowed to use it because the wider Australia
didn't want to eat a cute little turtle. And I'm like, well,
that's my native food, so you know, like why are
we not celebrating these foods, and in the lead up
to my restaurant, the teams around the table were also
(09:49):
worried about what they were going to get. And it's like,
you guys have lived here your whole life. All they
knew was like wichity grubs and kangaroo and emy and
that's it. Whereas and they were scared I was gonna
whip up some wichiti grubs. And then I had had
a thought and I was like, maybe I should pip
up like a witchity grub cocktail, you know, and I
(10:11):
was just not But then it wasn't Witchity Grub season,
So yeah, yeah, I think.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
That's really interesting what you're saying, and I really want
to unpack your experience on the show. But before I
do that, just that that notion of.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
I guess, of people being connected or disconnected from land
and therefore being disconnected from the vibrant food sources. You know,
I think most people wouldn't even know that the humble
Macedamia is Australian, right, And now it's like that. I
remember it being growing up, the bougie nut like it
cost a fortune to get you know, a lot of imports,
(10:48):
and because we didn't really manage that food source natively.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Now it has been picked up overseas, and so I think.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
There is this like unconscious not knowing what is here,
what existed here, people and the food. So the thing
that I really admired about your time on the show
was that there's still this sort of I guess viewpoint
that yeah, this food is it for a culinary experience.
(11:15):
It's bougie. You got to go to a fine dining,
but you kind of brought it into people's everyday home.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
So I want to ask you about that, Like, what
was the experience like for you being on the show
and being the first black follow too, you know exactly.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Yeah, well, I well, the hardest thing was, well, it
was two things. It was actually sourcing the food. So
we get a budget for our incidant restaurant, so we
get a certain amount of money. Everyone else could just
go to Cole's Allies and get their foods and go home.
I had to go to all these specialty markets, all
these specialty stores when they're open. We had to pre
(11:51):
plan it beforehand to get crocodile, to get all of
that stuff, and it was just wild to man and
my budget. I blew Channel seven's budget out so.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Far by the rent now again, I.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
Know I should have went more actually, but like kakadoo
plums for example, was one hundred dollars a kilo and
it's just insane, whereas you could get normal plums at
the at woollies for I don't know whatever it is
five dollars or probably a million dollars now though, but
you know, like all the imported stuff is so much cheaper.
And the reason is is because there's a there's a
(12:24):
want and a need for it, and because we haven't
tapped into our native foods properly yet. But well, works
and calls are so silly because it's right there and
they could just do so much for this country if
they just tapped into it and utilized what's right there.
You create jobs for mob you know. Like and the
way we get our foods is with bush tomatoes. For example.
(12:47):
If you went out and picked a bush tomato and
just ate it, it would taste gross. But the aunties have
passed down through generations that you pick the bush tomatoes,
grab the dirt, rubber than the dirt. It takes that
film off it, then you eat it. And that's a
songline that's been passed down for generations to eat this food.
So not only is it just coulory experience, but it's
(13:08):
also keeping culture and tradition alive. But it's also giving
back jobs to mob and yeah, just carrying on out
legacy as the deadliest mob on earth.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Wow, it's so interesting to hear that. I guess why
people were just racing down to coals to get their
everyday ingredients. You had to, yeah, kind of like forage
as also, I understand, and go and seek out these
real specialty.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Products that just aren't accessible.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
And it makes you just think about, like I guess,
food sovereignty as well, like how why should black fellows
should have access to their their native foods for their
well being, for their you know, for their nutrition as well.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
So it really should be available.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
And I know that you've let up a huge campaign
after the fact around getting this on our shelves, which
you know, so you know, you can never stop a
black fellow from just going it doing the thing.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
But yeah, wow.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
And then exactly and that and that's to your point.
You know, there was a point in our history recently
where where the colonizers hit the pause button, all the
mute button on our culture and our tradition, and we
weren't allowed to speak language. We you know that we
all know the history that we don't need to go
into that. But what what what we're what I'm doing
is I'm just turning that volume back up, you know,
(14:26):
and just celebrating our mob because we've been here for
so long and we need to be celebrated, you know.
We We've just got so much to be tapped into,
but it has to be tapped into in the right way.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Yeah, it's so interesting, like thinking about my kind of
experience with this.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
So I grew up, Yes, similarly, mum, single mom, five kids.
She was also a terrible cook. I mean when I
like we you know, she would just boil up all
the veggies.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Those and she'd make us sit there and until we
had an eat, like that was all we would get.
And I still have this like food trauma about her
making us sit there until nine ten o'clock at night.
I'd be like wailing into my food, thinking this pumpkin's
going to like kill me or something. Just traumatized. But
I guess it was just food to just get through
(15:15):
by your family. And it's not until recently, I guess
in the last five years or so since our family
have had land back that they have started to cultivate
and harvest and I guess observe what's there and bring
and regenerate that back. And so it really is like
a part of this decolonization process for us or to
return back to our food and on our land food.
(15:38):
And it's just so beautiful that you're kind of leading
this conversation and helping us kind of lift our gaze about.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
What is possible for us. So yeah, mad respect for
you on that.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
Oh, thank you, And do you know what, do you
know what? It started off as a it's quite a
selfish venture really because I left my little country town
where my uncles would go and get the food my
aunties would cook up this big pot of stew and
damper and all that kind of stuff. But then I
had to leave, you know, to to chase my dreams,
to chase my career and all of that. And when
(16:10):
I left, I realized that this food wasn't there available
for me, and I just wanted to go get a
kangarotail chuck a pot of stew on and that stew
would just transport me back to a time with my family.
You know, when I was feeling homesick, I would take
a big mouthful of that kangarytalel stew and I would
(16:32):
be there with my cousins and my mom and my
grandma and my family, and it would just take me home.
While I'm living in Melbourne or London or wherever I was,
it would just take me back to a time or
back home when I was feeling homesick. And it just
it really has that. It's like it's like a picture,
a bowl of food that your grandma made you is
like as like a time machine. Really that transport you back,
(16:54):
you know, to that comfortable home where they've got the
pot on the stove and all the kids are running
around screaming and all the the aunties are playing cards
at the table, families just all around. So that it
was really just it was me really wanted to connect
back with my culture back home while chasing my dreams
of my career. And I'm like, well, why we've got
(17:15):
a Mexican, isle an English, We've got New Zealand foods
all in these shelves. Why is there not kangaroo emu
all of our foods in our shops? Because it's not
just me that would love this food. It would be
people coming in from internationally as well, wanting to try
our foods and our foods. Like I said, it's not
it's it's not pies and Lamington's. Like I love pies
(17:37):
and Lamingtons, so get me wrong, but that's not our
native foods and native foods? Is kangaroo? Emu turtle? Doogle
all of that? My mouth's watering as I say it.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
I'm all, I'm so hungry listening to this.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Will be back you lob right after this short break.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
I mean for the for the mob who you know
are non indigenous listeners, or even the people who are
listening internationally. If we were sitting around like a campfire.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Or you know, in your home, your family home, you
mentioned kangaroo tale, what what what other foods would you
kind of see on your on your family table? And
are they curries?
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Are they you know they are they looking at the meat?
Because that's the thing I feel like Black Fellows our
family do really well.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Is they're really resourceful. They will put it's like peasant food,
but it works. It's curries, it's rich, it's full of veggies,
it's full of good things.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Can yeah, help us understand. What are some of the
types of things that we would see at your table.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
Well, you'd see, well, it depends on what the what
the uncles went out and got that day. But if
they went to the coast and they got a turtle,
you know, we'd chuck a turtle on the fire and
just grab a knife for Jess, cut that meat off
the back of a turtleshell and just eat that with
a bit of salt. And but you know what our
food is like you said, it's very you know, you
don't need to add a million spices and all of that.
(19:16):
You know, we had the basics, we had rations, we
had and we made it taste incredible. So turtle was
absolutely one of my favorites. But yeah, you never you
never miss a pot of kangaroo on this pot of
kangaro tails stew, or kangaroo on the on the stove
at any of my mom's house a damper. You know,
all of that kind of stuff is just it's nothing
(19:36):
like anywhere else in the world, and it's sustainable and
green and all of that. And previously there's been policies
and stuff to put in place to stunt food export,
Like even I think EMU. I think one of the
things or the show is how you reveal your menu,
and so, okay, how I want to reveal my menu is.
(19:57):
I ended up doing a three step so instead of
entree made a dessert, I did voice treaty and truth. Yeah,
and so I changed it around. But how I wanted
it is I wanted to do an EMU nest on
the table and they grab an EMU egg and crack
it open and pull the menu out like that. But
I found out that it's eight hundred dollars a year
(20:18):
or something to have to be able to actually just
have EMU eggs a license. And I was and the
producers were like, you can't do this because we need
to pay eight hundred dollars for a license to show
EMU eggs. And I'm like, well, I could just call
my uncle and he can get a couple of EMU eggs.
And they're like exactly, And they were like, no, there's
(20:39):
these you know, it's against the Lord to have EMU eggs.
And I'm like, well, that's just insane. But there's these
historical policies, historical ways that are set up around our
foods that that kind of stop us flourishing in that
in that sector and food is just like you go
to any mob's house and the first thing you do
(20:59):
is look in the fridge.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
It's really an interesting point because I think people you know,
I know we mentioned we wouldn't talk about it, but
you've got.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
To talk about it. Oh, you got to talk about it.
And like you actually said it right, it's decolonizing and
it's just unpicking all that stuff that people don't realize
because it's ingrained in the country or in you know,
the region or whatever it is. It's ingrained. So what
we're doing is just unpicking and let letting our voice,
turning that volume back up. Like I said, you know,
(21:29):
we've been silenced for too long. Our voice is going
to be amplified now. Sis.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Yeah, that's it, because you know, I think people forget
that Australia as a so called Australia as a continent.
You know, the reason why it was so appealing for
settlers at the time was because of rural and pastoral expansion.
So we have you know, one of the best beef industries,
Like it's the economic benefits from having land because of
(21:58):
what it can yield is so important and so Australia
presented huge lots of land. It actually advertised has come
over and get your bit of land, and there was mining,
agirable soil. We've got really great soil and we also
have huge rural pastoral lands. And so it wouldn't be
surprising that still in these day and age, there's some
(22:20):
ways to keep us out of that economic benefit from
having access to our own providence, our own farming, and
our own agricultural practices. I wouldn't be surprised to be
part of that grand plan exactly.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
And that's exactly right. They didn't see us, you know,
as a vibrant culture. You know, we had fish traps
that uncle Bruce Pasco wrote Dark Emu and just really
highlighted exactly what was going on in Australia at the time.
If no one's read dark Emu, you know, go and
read it. He's the most incredible. It's the most incredible book.
And I actually met him at the Aboriginal Economic Development
(22:55):
for him in Darwin last year and I said, why
was your book so famous? Because we've been shouting and
really trying to bring all this stuff to light. It
just sometimes falls on deaf ears And he goes because
I spoke to them in their way, in their language,
and that's what really sparked it. And I was just
like they just weren't really interested in listening, and it
(23:16):
was I think. I think, I think it's turning now though.
But then in saying that, we just saw what happened
with a referendum, but I feel like we just need
to take it now. It's no more asking, it's no
more none of that's we were here first, it's our land.
There's science to prove that we've been here for this
long and we're not gone anyway.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
And I think one of the most sort of like
you say, with Bruce Pasco's I guess findings and you know,
echoing other people who've also shared those same sentiments, is
that there was that sort of myth that Aboriginal people
were nomadic hunter gatherers, that we were just kind of
aimlessly walking through bushes, you know, finding things as we go.
(23:56):
Of course, we moved with the food sources, right, like
we moved around as the seasons changed to higher ground
to lower ground. But also, you know, I think the
thing that he really highlighted is that we had agricultural practices,
ways to reduce our energy and create food, which is
what like, which is what it means to be human, right,
(24:18):
is to have ways to have energy, calorie intake and
reduce the amount of work you have to do. We're
not just going to sit around and you know look
for you know, a berry over here and a bush
over there. Of course we had ways to sort of
farm that. So it's so it's such a fascinating conversation.
But I feel like, yeah, Australia is just catching up
and also a lot of black fellers. You know, you
(24:40):
mentioned before five six hundred native produce. What are some
of the things that you enjoyed cooking with the most?
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Like so myself, I've just been dabbling in lemon myrtle
and bake goods.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
I love dampers and breads and bake goods. But I
know there's a plethora of things. But I'm also a
little bit like afraid to experiment. So yeah, what are
some of the things that you like cook with and
what are some of the things that we can like
substitute and introduce into our day to day Like now, I.
Speaker 4 (25:10):
Guess absolutely, and I think we're going to be always
learning because every single because this country is so big
that every single region or mob or land is totally different.
We've got rainforests, we've got salt water mold, we've got
river mold, we've got desert mold, which is completely different food.
So in the river you get, you know, all the
(25:32):
river fish, all that kind of stuff. On the coast
you get, like I said, turtle, you get doogong, you
get all of that. And then you go inland and
you've got the kangaroo and the hemu and the goanna.
We call it yong gidji back home, Like, it's just
totally different. And so we're constantly learning as well. And
the thing is right is that chefs, the indigenous chefs
in Australia, you could count how many on one hand.
(25:55):
That's insane. Yeah. Mindy Woods from My Kitchen Rules, I
met her last year and she is a CIS on
a mission, Like she is absolutely incredible. She's just so knowledgeable.
I love meeting a mob from different cultures as well
to teach me like their ways and their foods and like,
(26:20):
so what I love cooking is back home, it's all
kangaro it's all the meats, you know, and it's just
pairing it with things. So it's all the meats, it's kangaroo,
it's in you, it's goanna, it's all of that. But
then I like to change it up a little bit,
so I like to modernize it. So like doing a pasta.
Putting warrigal greens in the pasta. Sauce and warrigal greens
(26:41):
is like using is like a mix between rocket and spinach.
So it's not foods that are completely insane, you know,
it's foods that we can substitute for foods we already eat.
So lemon, myrtle, you know, pop that in like a
lemon cake. Wattle seed is incredible in chocolate, in chocolate cakes,
things like that. There's just so much out there. And
(27:04):
I have gotten this question a lot. It's how do
we How do we do it? You know, how do
we start? And it's just start really slowly. So instead
of salt in some things, use salt bush instead of pepper,
use pepperberry. Instead of time like international time, use native time.
Instead of tomatoes, use push tomatoes, and then just work
(27:25):
your way up like that. So but but but the
thing is is we have to pull it right back
and it needs to be available to us because I work,
you know, I work a normal nine to five insane job.
I don't have time to go on forage, which I've
when I started this petition, people are like, oh, why
don't you just go get your own foods? Like why
(27:46):
don't you just go on forage? And I'm like, oh,
do I just finish working at six o'clock and then
I'll just quickly go on forage and then I'll have
dinner at midnight and then get up for work. Like
it doesn't work like that, you know, like if their
foods can be available for them, why can't our foods
be available for And there's an entire industry in the
back of this waiting. There's aunties from the First Nations
(28:11):
Bushwoods and Botanicals Association that have been doing this forever,
and they've got all the knowledge, you know. So once
I kind of got my platform, they reached out to
me and they said, you know what we've been trying
to do in like forty years, you did in this
really brief kind of stint on this reality show. And
(28:33):
I was just I was kind of shocked, because this
isn't my this isn't for me. I want to hand
this over to them. I want to give them this
platform because they deserve it, and I'll learn from them
because you know, they need the recognition because they've been
fighting this fight, just like all our mob for so long.
And this is just one aspect of it. This is
(28:53):
just food, but food encompasses all of it. And one
thing is is that food. When you're talking about culture,
it's very hard to appropriate. Food is an appreciation you
don't appropriate. Yeah, so it's really easy for non indigenous
by I really urged them just go try it, you know.
(29:14):
And the more we buy it, the more we do it,
the more the need is there, the more the industry
builds up, the more we get jobs in the background,
the more we start running our own businesses. And then
with this flourishing, thriving mob, with all this industry and
our foods that have been here and passed down, you know,
how to cook it for years and years and years.
(29:34):
You know, we didn't have history books, we don't have
all of that kind of stuff. We passed it down
through song lines and knowledge and all of that.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Oh gosh, that you're such a ball of wisdom. But
this is why representation on TV is really important. It's
not just about representing, but it's the responsibility back with
what we're going to do and to hear that you
brought elders together and to sort of like you know,
really shine light on this issue around food accessibility. And yeah,
(30:02):
it's just I love that what you said you can't
appropriate food, you appreciate it like it's so so true.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
It's something that it really connects.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
To heart, a feeling and emotion, a story, and that's
really hard to kind of appropriate when you're really stopping
in that space. My partner, he's Greek fella and he's Yaya.
He's ninety eight years young, and she passes, has passed
down over the years her family like Pittas and Spynicopaters and.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
All of those.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
It's incredible, you know, all of the yummies and you know,
just I guess these are like sixty six year old
family recipes that they've been able to keep passing down.
And yeah, it doesn't matter who you are. It's a
thing that really connects us is food as people.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
You know, it's coming back to that tribal way of being.
It's something so special that's such a beautiful way to
put it.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
We can't appropriate.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
There is that deep, deep appreciation and maybe when people
start to actually eat it, they can understand where.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Things come from. Because when we get something in our
shelves and cowls and willies, you don't know where it's
come from. Do you just hit on your plane and
you think, oh yeah, But when you're actually like, wow,
this has come from you know, this warrigoor green has
come from this place, and this is what you might change.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
The way we look at many things like our health,
the climate. You know, first nation sovereignty here.
Speaker 4 (31:28):
Exactly exactly, and everyone comes together with food, you know
what I mean everyone. It's something that we obviously all
do to survive, but it's also something that we do
when we go out with our friends, when we invite
people over, there's always food there. There's always so you know,
it's and it's also that international lens as well, is
that when they fly in Like when I when I
(31:50):
backpack to Europe, I wanted to try all the different
foods from all the different countries. But when you fly
in here, you've really got to look for it. And
I'm like, and do you know what really? Really? So
I started this petition right and I didn't not expect it.
I'm just a big mouth blackfellow who's trying to like
fight for our rights back in and I've always been
(32:11):
like that. But you know what I really want, Why
do we have a China town in the middle of
every single city. Why don't we have a black fellow town.
Why don't we have a Black fellow town in the
middle of every city with you know, like with Larachia foods,
with buying your foods back home, with young our foods,
with you know, dadigle foods, with you know, all that
(32:32):
kind of stuff, Like, why don't we have a hub
like that in the middle of these cities with our
foods from these different places. That's my When I close
my eyes, that's the dream I envisioned for Australia.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
Oh my god, could you imagine that much incredible?
Speaker 3 (32:47):
To be able to taste a bit of all countries
and wow, how.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
Special exactly you can see that, can't you? Like if
you close your eyes, you know there's Toresho islander food
at this cafe. Oh no, we had that last week,
So this week we'll go and have bungelung a Bungelung
feed this, you know, like where that would just be incredible,
just a whole hub in these cities of just our foods,
not just one specialty restaurant that's you know that's struggling,
(33:15):
because let's have a full community of these restaurants in
the middle of these cities, like why not why.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Not your first you mom, Matt food markets like check Netflix,
come on board.
Speaker 4 (33:31):
That's here, right, And like people don't realize they kind
of put us in this unbrelin and go, oh, that's
indigenous food or first aation food or whatever it is.
But no, it's different every step. If you think of
Australia like Europe, that've got so much different foods across
the board from Spanish, Italian, French, and they're just really
close to each other. So that's how we are.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
It's so true.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
Like even here in Nam we've got obviously Marboo Marbo,
which is headed up by Norny who's doing incredible things.
But there possibly would be even a dissonance for people
who are getting that food from an island like island
torrest ryde islander influence and whilst they're relying on native ingredients,
but to know that.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
That is not from this place, it is not from
urandri Land. So having I can feel it, I can
see it. We need to call that vision into life
because that is that's the future really of us being
able to really think about our own health and wellbeing too,
and what nourishes us.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
You know, I know that over the last few years
just looking at food as less of a thing. But
how do we feel fueled and energy and what do
we get nourishment from? And how do we pre present
with food and how do we enjoy it? So you
have mentioned the work that you did so shortly after
featuring as a semi finalist on My Kitchen Rules, you
(34:50):
essentially led spearheaded a movement which was around yeah, I guess,
sort of talking about introducing native ingredients to our major supermarkets,
to coals and woolies. And I believe, you know, thousands
and thousands of people participated in and signing this petition,
(35:11):
like I think somewhere I read twelve twelve thousand signatures
in a really short period of time. Can you talk
me through, yeah, the petition and the process, and I guess, yeah,
what's happening next in this space?
Speaker 4 (35:25):
Yeah, Well, it started with me just sitting at home
going I just want to go to Cohal's that's across
the row, and Woolies and just buying my food and
coming home and eating my food. The market's clothed, like
it's just ridiculous that we have to go to a
specialty market. You know. We go to Woolies and we
see these rotisserie chickens. I want to see a kangaroo
(35:47):
tail spinning on those diisseries. I want to go in
and grab that instead of a instead of a cook chook.
You know, nothing against the cooked chooks, but that's not
our native foods. So I was I was just sitting
at home and I was talking to my friends and
I'd don't know, I have no idea how it came about.
But then I just started that petition and it just
(36:09):
went off, and it was just I was on pretty
much every single channel, every single radio station, and they're
all like, this is so obvious, this obvious thing. Why
is that happening? And and they kept asking me, and
I said, well, you tell me, you know, like I
(36:29):
don't know why it's not happening. We've got this businesses
ready to go. We don't we don't have them ready
to go in the sense of, you know, we've got
all this food, red stuff shells, like you've got to
go back to the drawing board, all words and cause.
And what was really amazing is once we've got all
of that, and once I've got all of the.
Speaker 5 (36:48):
Signatures, and once I've got all the all the media
attention alwas actually reached out to me and said, we
love this, we think it's incredible, so why don't you
come in and present to an entire product development team,
tell us exactly what you want.
Speaker 4 (37:05):
And I was like, oh shit, I wasn't ready, you know,
like I wasn't ready.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Usually we're used to asking for stuff and not being
hers exactly exactly.
Speaker 4 (37:14):
And they called me and I was like, oh shit,
like they're actually listening, they're interested. And they called me
and said this is a no brainer. We didn't even
think about this, like come and present to us. And
I went, oh shit, what am I going to present?
I've got to fly to Sydney. It's in this auditorium,
it's with the entire team from Walworth that decide what
foods go on the shelves. And I got to I
(37:36):
think I reached out to one of the first nations
bush foods and Botanicals Association Auntie, so there were four
of them. Annie Dale, she runs My Daily Bag up
in Queensland and she is spearheading she if you want
your native foods, go to her My Daily Bag online Queensland.
She runs like cooking things and things like that. And
(37:56):
so there's these people in the background that have been
doing this for forty years. So I was like, well,
I'm kind of just using my platform right now amplify voices.
I'm gonna bring honey Dale down to Sydney. So I
was like, well, if you're going to take me, you're
going to bring any Dale. And any Dale and I
never met before met the night before, I felt like
I knew in my whole life. And we presented to
(38:17):
Wolworths and they were just blown away. They were like,
of course, like the I remember, and we cooked for
and we did a demonstration. We got them to eat
the foods. And I remember one of the ladies who
from Warworks who ran the dip department, which I didn't
know was a thing. Someone runs like the parishable department,
but focuses on dips and she goes, we've had four
dips forever. We've had like suzeki, hommas, all that kind
(38:41):
of stuff. And we've been looking a branch out forever,
but we didn't know what to do. And you've just
showed us so many different native foods that we can
create dips out of. And I was just like, exactly,
it's just right there, ready for you. And she was
like well, and Willworth said, well, how do we do it?
And I said, well, this is more for you to determine,
you know, build an indigenous procurement team internally in all words,
(39:05):
and get them to focus just on native foods, because
our foods or our businesses aren't at the capability or
the capacity to stock the shells just yet. But we've got, say,
I don't know, eighty or something one hundred percent indigenous
owned businesses or companies that stop these foods or have
an array of foods. If you just got bought one
(39:27):
product from all of these eighty different businesses, you'd fill
an entire shelf of native foods. So it's not that hard,
you know what I mean, Just if you think about it,
don't overwhelm yourself. And that's what I was saying, you know, tomorrow,
I don't want to walk in and see those kangaroo
tails on the retisserie. But in ten years I want
to see it. You know, we're going to have to
build up there. And plus one thing that community nonedge
(39:50):
Just people don't know. We don't go off the fall seasons.
We have our own seasons. We've got like six or
seven seasons ourselves. So kakadoo plums isn't going to be
available all year round, but substitute that for something else
in that because they're thinking commercially, whereas you know, if
it's not season and this food's not there, we're going
to have a gap. Well then just spill it with
(40:12):
something that's in season, or freeze it and have it
available in the frozen section. So it's it's it sounds
really huge, but it's actually not that big. It's building
our mob up, building us back up to be able
to supply, and once you get the demand there, the
supply will increase and our businesses increase. And this whole
(40:33):
sector of food that's just waiting to be tapped into
flourish and it's not that hard. I think sometimes we
think too big, well not too big, but I think
that that we think things have to change over night.
They're obviously not going to change overnight. But if we
just think about it in one step at a time,
(40:54):
someone said to me, once, to eat an elephant, you
start with just the first bite. You know, you start
with the first bite. You don't eat the whole elephant
at once, to just take one bite. That's how That's
how we start, and it's changing the narrative around the food.
That's my goal is, like I said, you know, changing
the narrative that our food's not not pies and Leamington's.
(41:15):
It's this food that's thrived here for thousands, thousands, thousands
of years and we are the knowledge holders to this.
So go and I said this to Wallworth's, I said,
go to an auntie's table, go and sit down next
to her with a nice cup of tea, and she
will you know, she would be more than happy to collaborate.
(41:36):
And these businesses, like I said, they're just sitting there
leading to be tapped into.
Speaker 3 (41:40):
I mean, it's so incredible to hear what you've done
in terms of leading this conversation but also bringing in
people who have been in the space, like aren't that
you said from my Delli bag and on?
Speaker 1 (41:53):
I think I might have been season two for our listeners.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
We had two fullows on the line from bush to
bowl and they are a native.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Farming and garden practice, so you could get native plants
for your gardens and.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
They also have a lot of native produce. And you're right,
it's almost like, yeah, these things don't change overnight, like
changing our psyche around how we view native foods and.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
Having it accessible.
Speaker 3 (42:20):
But it's almost as if we need to also think about, yeah,
like you say, increasing the supply chain, making it easier
for our mobs to return back to our practices, return
back to our farming, return back to having a supply
chain to provide because a lot of the native produce
that we see now like to think about num Here,
(42:41):
I'm in Melbourne in Victoria down south. We've got kind
of two main I guess of suppliers, so Marbu Marbu
the restaurant actually makes their own produce to sell commercially
as well. And then we've got another mob, Melbourne bush Food,
which is sadly just about to close up.
Speaker 4 (42:58):
They're no longer Melbourn bush Food is not indigenous, so.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
They're not indigenous exactly. I think they've come on a
little bit of scrutiny about that.
Speaker 4 (43:07):
Yeah, and I think it's and like I don't know him,
but I know he's he's he wants to celebrate the
food and all that kind of stuff. But it's also
you need to do it in a way that we're
involved exactly where where they were working with you where
co designing. We've got the knowledge, We've got all of this,
(43:28):
so we need to be at the table because you know,
this is this is our foods, this is we need
to take that back. A lot of our men in
our mob, you know, there's that we don't really see
a future sometimes, like we don't really have you know,
as men. This is something I've really been thinking about recently,
(43:49):
and I've had so many mob both family and extended
family and in the community that have you know, that
haven't seen a way forward and that they've just kind
of thought that ending at all was was you know,
there was no other way out. But food men have
been providers in our culture forever. Like, give them back
(44:12):
that cultural you know, that the cultural knowledge that they
have that they've grown up with that go out get
our food, supply it to these big shops. They'll have
something to actually actually you know, hold on to and
have something to be proud of. And it's bringing that
culture and tradition in. It really breaks my heart because
I've got a young nephew and we saw that that
(44:33):
young boy recently who went to footy and got all
that racism. You know, like our men, it takes it's
really hard for us to speak. And so just having
having something and food and providing is something as men
in our culture is something that we've done forever. You know,
all my uncles they go out in the morning and
(44:54):
they sorry I was, but they love it. You know,
they come home with a full kangaroo or portrailer full
of kangaroo. Not one bit that kangaroo from the nose
to the tail is fared. It's shared with the entire community.
They have a sense of purpose, they have a sense
of love, they have a sense of appreciation, and that's
what we're missing as men as mob as well. And
(45:16):
I just and this would really help just invigorate our culture.
And it's not hard, you know what I mean, Just
give us, Just give us a little bit, you know,
just these big corporations that are already thing ourself for
billions of dollars, just put some of that back into
the community, into our mob. You'll see change tenfold's.
Speaker 3 (45:36):
I really appreciate you you sharing that, and you're sore.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
You're so right in saying that. A lot of our
think about my brothers and cousins, Yeah, have been so
disempowered about where is our place and space and that
sense of purpose and sense of providing for more. You know,
a lot of the women run.
Speaker 3 (45:56):
The shows in a lot of areas, and that is
such a beautiful way.
Speaker 1 (46:00):
To bring this back to this holistic offering that this
is important cultural business as much of it is about
having really beautiful food and having a place for our
fellows to really play a role in that.
Speaker 4 (46:13):
Exactly, and they have a huge role in that, you
know what I mean. And just at the moment, we're
just struggling to see a purpose for ourselves and that's
ingrained in us. It's you know, we're the first astronomers,
we're the first, you know, agricultures, where the first all
of that. I think dample was the first bread ever made,
I'm pretty sure. And so like you know, it's we're
(46:35):
really missing that, and I really it really makes me
sad because we are some of the most incredible people
in the entire world, and we hold so much knowledge
and you know what, we're funny. We are the funniest
mob ever. Like you can just meet anyone from any
mob and you can just struck up a conversation and
you laugh at twenty five minutes for an hour, you know,
(46:58):
just someone you never met.
Speaker 1 (46:59):
It's really one of the most gifted superpowers we've got
amongst many.
Speaker 3 (47:03):
But the fact that we can be like crying around
or be real stot to then just be silly carrying
on at the same time.
Speaker 1 (47:09):
It's so right. But I love this, you know. I mean,
if we're going to obviously put all of Matt's details
and all the wonderful things he's doing in our show notes,
but you know, maybe that's an invitation for our listeners.
You know, there are people out there that you know,
can contribute to this conversation about helping mob stay front
and center in these yarns. It's a really important thing
because these are billion dollar industries. These are ways.
Speaker 3 (47:32):
This is a really neat way for us to return
back to our culture, return back to our land, and
also have some of this, you know, this slice of
economic prosperity that this country offers through our ways and
our knowledge is and our and our knowing and so
I think it's a really multifaceted conversation and I think
(47:53):
I'm really excited that we're having this yarn And yeah,
it's really prompted a lot in me. You know, you
know how you think about when you go to a
shop and you get something that's like Australian made, it's
got their little green and gold tick.
Speaker 1 (48:07):
Like could you imagine if we were.
Speaker 3 (48:09):
To go and get like a bush, you know, bush
tomato chutney or something off the shelf and it had
a little sticker to say this is from ja Jabaran country,
or this is from Gundi Jamara country, this is from
Larikia country. We had this notion of actually being able
to identify the providence where things come from. It's almost
(48:30):
like we need to have a conversation with the suppliers
like coals, but then also the consumers to be more
conscientious about what they're buying from who because I feel like,
you know, people will actively buy ethical products if it's
sourced here. But yeah, this idea of native produce and
native things people don't necessarily have an appreciation of. I mean,
(48:53):
some followers will go get you know, paintings from China
or whatever. There's just this lack of appreciation, as you say,
about where things come from. And I think a lot
of that comes from people, you know, migloos and you know,
until it's been disconnected from themselves really and.
Speaker 4 (49:09):
I think and I think they are. They are coming around.
They're starting to hear us, they're starting to see us,
which is incredible. They are, and you know, we need
to give that a shout out as well. The people
that I would never have expected to ask me things
are coming to ask me, you know, how can I
do this? Or how can I do that? Or how
can I use this in a cake? Or I've just
(49:31):
been given lemon murder? What can I use it as?
And it's just it's so great to see that people
who I would thought would never have asked me that
or come to me with that, have totally come around.
And it sounds like it's so exotic, but it's not.
You know, we've eaten it. We've done it for thousands
and thousands of years, and like you said, health benefits,
(49:54):
all of that is right there. But it doesn't just
stop at the food. It goes right down the chain,
right down all the way to the aunties or whoever
is picking it right in the dirt, you know, out
on country, and it just is supplying jobs. It's giving
us a purpose. It's culture. It's invigorating the culture, it's
keeping it alive. It's you're doing more than just buying
(50:17):
something off the shelf. You're actually you're actually giving back.
Speaker 1 (50:21):
Yeah, it's so important. We say that a lot in
our work too. You know, whenever you support one black
follow you're supporting hundreds of people. Because we don't have
a concept of social enterprise. We're just giving back to
our families and communities, and we have that reciprocity and responsibility.
You know, we have a thing.
Speaker 3 (50:40):
You know, that's why out the our knowledge is so
different from the capitalist paradigm, because we know that if
we eat good, then everyone else has to eat good.
And that's both a blessing and a curse for all
my family who's you know, always humbugging me again.
Speaker 1 (50:56):
But you know that responsibility. So I feel you on that.
I mean, what do you think, what's what's next for
you in this space? What's next for you in this movement?
And what's next for you in cooking, Like you know,
you've come off your show, You've done some amazing things.
You won a Service in Bush Food and Botanics Award
last year for the work that you've done in native foods,
(51:18):
and so you won.
Speaker 3 (51:20):
An award at the Darwin, the Aboriginal Economic Development Award.
Speaker 1 (51:25):
You know, you're working at Urbanly, It's like, what's next
for you in this space? What's in the crystal world?
Speaker 4 (51:30):
Well, what I've done recently is I flew home back
to the gas going to going and there was a
tafe course that's run in hospitality, it's certificate too in Hospitality,
and it was just all mob in this class and
one of the things that they needed to get ticked
off was native foods. And they brought me in and
(51:50):
I spent a week taking more about on country foraging.
I taught them, we created a recipe, We went out
and these are all young mob that are just so
excited to kind of just be celebrated, you know, in something.
And then so the first two days we went foraged
(52:11):
and we went and looked at all the bush foods
and you know, I talked to them about all the
health benefits and all that kind of stuff in the industry,
and then we created a menu which was really bougie,
and then on the Friday, we put on this restaurant
and we sold tickets and it was sold out, and
we had a fifty seat restaurant where me and the kids,
(52:32):
I call them kids, and you know, some of them
mar keids, so they were kids to me, and we
cooked this really bougie, fancy dinner and just spoke where
we went and picked this food on Monday and Tuesday.
And now that's the salad you're eating now. So it's
just it's just giving it to me. It's giving back.
This was never something I didn't care about going on TV.
(52:54):
I didn't care about having a platform. I didn't care
about any of that. It's just I've come from a
very strong line of black follows that have really instilled
in me, you are a player, proud blackfellow. We have
a place here, this is our land, and you know what,
keep that going. And I'm just all I want to
do is just keep that going and just amplifying voices,
no matter if their aunties, uncles, kids, whatever, just using
(53:18):
my platform and putting others on my platform and letting
them go for it because they've been doing this longer
than me, you know what I mean, Like I've been
doing I'm a Johnny cum lately. These aunties have been
doing it for forty or fifty years. So giving them,
giving them that platform is what does it for me.
And it was never about me, you know, it was
never about doing a cookbook call anything like that. It
(53:40):
was about more culture and just celebrating us and just
bringing it back, you know, because it's been gone for
a little bit. Like I said, our volume has been
turned down. But let's turn that right back up now
and let's shout from the rooftops.
Speaker 1 (53:55):
Oh I love it. Oh my god. That sounds like
my idea of heaven.
Speaker 3 (54:00):
That program of being able to forage no what you're
looking for, and being able to eat and share together
and like you know, come back together in that tribe
community way is like my idea of absolute heaven. What
a wonderful contribution and what a wonderful way to share
the knowledges and like you say, amplify educate along the way.
Speaker 1 (54:25):
It really is so incredible. Ah, I'm just blown away.
Speaker 3 (54:30):
You know, I've been really into mushroom observations. Disclaimer, I
never pick mushrooms. You know, I think it's really just
identifying all of the species. And I've just booked, actually
I'm going to go on the weekend for a foraging
so to learn about what it is and just you know,
and it's a non aboriginal fellow who's doing this, and
(54:51):
he's offered aboriginal prices for people to come along. But
just like going out and I'm just even teaching people
what to cook and what to look for and getting
giving us back.
Speaker 1 (55:03):
That is just so special, so well done.
Speaker 4 (55:08):
Thank you. And you know, it always makes you feel
awkward because when people like say things like that. When
I won that award, I think I went bright red
like and so exactly it's exactly right. And one other
thing is that you know, it's never too late to learn.
Like you said, you know, it's never too late to learn.
(55:31):
It's it's our culture. It doesn't matter if you were
taken or if your family grew up in the city
or whatever and you weren't accessible to like the lifestyle
I grew up in, you know, being immersed in culture.
If you you can still do it today, there are
people out there ready to teach you and ready to
(55:51):
learn it's not shame, it's yours. It's your right, and
it's your responsibility to carry on our legacy and our
culture and our traditions.
Speaker 1 (56:00):
What a beautiful reminder it's never too late. This is
for you and that Yeah, it's all available for us
as it's intended to be. What a beautiful reminder for
people who might be yeah, a bit shame and a
bit unsure about how to go about this in the
right way.
Speaker 3 (56:17):
Oh my goodness, I can't wait to see what's in
store with where you take this.
Speaker 1 (56:22):
I will definitely be following along the journey and elevating
in any way I can.
Speaker 4 (56:27):
I got a message today I brought out. I got
reached out to by a company called Journey Beyond. They
own the Gan, the India Pacific, the Overland and the
Great sub and the train lines. They reached out to
me because I started a candle range, which is a
really big spoke small candoractacy, if you know, with the
sense like lemon, myrtle and cafty plums and things like that.
(56:50):
And this company called Journey Beyond reached out to me
and they asked me to specifically curate or design a
candle for their train for train lines. And today I've
just got a photo of them in their story in Adelaide.
So yeah, if you if you're in Adelaide, there's some
there's some native scented candles ready for you to to
go and buy. So and that's it. You know, it's
(57:11):
not just food that I'm focused on. It's more the culture,
the bush foods, that all of that kind of stuff.
And there's so many avenues that we can take it in.
It's not just food. You can take it into the
scent world. You can take it all over the place.
So you know, the world is our oyster. The world
is our oyster.
Speaker 1 (57:29):
And what of just a beautiful, lovely invitation for people
to just become more aware and invite this produce and
these products and these beautiful offerings that are handmade using
Aboriginal knowledges into.
Speaker 3 (57:42):
Your home, you know, and and to know that the
decision to bring something like this into your home is
so rich. You're getting access to eighty thousand years of
people who know the plants, who forage the plants, who
respect the plants. That's incredible. Well, we'll poddle all those
show notes in that where to get those candles? I
(58:02):
am a candle queen.
Speaker 4 (58:04):
I've got.
Speaker 1 (58:04):
It's probably my three toxic traits is absorbitant amounts of tea.
I love tea, and there's lots of black tea on
the market now and candles and food, so.
Speaker 4 (58:16):
And you know, we're just going to get bigger and
better and blacker, and I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 3 (58:21):
I just want to say thank you so much for
being on the show today. The ancestor has definitely put
a few spanners in the works, but I knew that
as soon as we'd get yarning, there'd be so much
to cover. Matt mon Creeve, I'll put all of your details,
all of your handles online in the show notes to
follow along this conversation, this really important national conversation we're
(58:44):
having about native foods.
Speaker 1 (58:46):
But I just want to say thank you so much
for being here today and just coming along and sharing
all your wisdom. You've given me so much to think about,
even myself.
Speaker 4 (58:55):
So thank you, Oh, thank you for having me. I
hope I've given you some food for for But yeah,
like I said, you know, it's not just bushoods. It's
it's so much more than that. And I think if
we're going to spend a dollar here or there, put
it towards something that you know that will reinfigureate culture,
mob and all that. And that's all I want. So
(59:16):
thank you so much for having me. It's been a
deadly thank you.
Speaker 1 (59:20):
I've actually I'm going to send you I've got a
bunch of native spices and things I'm intending to experiment
this weekend. I've given myself permission to just play around
with some things because of that notion that you have
to get it right. So I'll definitely be in touch
with some if you send me some podcasts.
Speaker 4 (59:39):
Definitely, definitely definitely how you went. I'd love to see it,
looking forward to it. And that's it. You know, you
start slow from like they said, from little things, big things.
Speaker 1 (59:48):
Grow, So yeah, that's right. Oh, thank you
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