Cuisine Culture
Hannah is at piyura kitina / Risdon Cove, Tas, where the traditional owners are using indigenous plants in top-quality catering.
Manager Kitana Mansell is a palawa cultural knowledge and the driving force behind the palawa kipli catering business, and she regularly leads tours of the indigenous bush foods growing locally. Kitana is keen for locals and visitors alike to know more about the traditional foods used by her ancestors for thousands of years.
The land was restored to Aboriginal ownership in 1995, but the site has a dark history as the site of a massacre in 1804. Now there is a thriving community back on the riverside land.
Four species of wattle grow there, including blackwood (rriyalimana), whose seeds were roasted and ground up as a flavouring. The blossom can be used to infuse flavour into liquids or butter.
Four species of wattle grow there, including blackwood (rriyalimana), whose seeds were roasted and ground up as a flavouring. The blossom can be used to infuse flavour into liquids or butter. Tinputina or tick bush smells like tea tree when the leaves are crushed. Branches of this are placed under meat when cooking on a fire, giving the food a great flavour.
Tinputina or tick bush smells like tea tree when the leaves are crushed. Branches of this are placed under meat when cooking on a fire, giving the food a great flavour. Pigface or kanikung is a favourite of Kitana's as it's so easy to grow. The juice can be rubbed on skin to relieve sunburn or mosquito bites. They can also be infused in pepperberry vinegar for a crunchy addition to bush tukker tacos.
Pigface or kanikung is a favourite of Kitana's as it's so easy to grow. The juice can be rubbed on skin to relieve sunburn or mosquito bites. They can also be infused in pepperberry vinegar for a crunchy addition to bush tukker tacos. Drooping sheoak has a lemony flavour and chewing the leaves can reduce the feeling of thirst. The dried branchlets are great kindling for fires, and the seed can be used to make bread.
Drooping sheoak has a lemony flavour and chewing the leaves can reduce the feeling of thirst. The dried branchlets are great kindling for fires, and the seed can be used to make bread.
The native oxalis, which has a purple underside to its leaves, has a sour fruity flavour.
As a traditional owner, Kitana has cultural and legal permission to forage for bushfoods, which she says helps connect the community to their food, land and traditions.
The bushfood industry is worth millions of dollars but only a tiny percentage is owned by First Nations people, so supporting communities to grow that involvement is important.
Featured Plants rriyalimana (BLACKWOOD) Acacia melanoxylon tinputina (TICK BUSH) Kunzea ambigua kanikung (PIGFACE) Carpobrotus rossii DROOPING SHEOAK Allocasuarina verticillata NATIVE WOOD-SORREL Oxalis sp.
Filmed in Risdon, Tas
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