Difference between revisions of "AY Honors/Aboriginal Lore/Answer Key"

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Aboriginal millstone - vital in making flour or pastes for bread. Some Aboriginal groups call it "mother and child".

Bush bread, or seedcakes, refers to the bread made by Australian Aborigines for many thousands of years. The bread was high in protein and carbohydrate, and helped form part of a balanced traditional diet.

With the arrival of Europeans and pre-milled white flour, this bread-making process all but disappeared (women were still recorded to be making seedcakes in Central Australia in the 1970s). The tradition of cooking bread in hot coals continues today.

Bread-making was a woman's task. It was generally carried out by several women at once, due to its labour-intensive nature. It involved collecting seasonal grains, legumes, roots or nuts, and preparing these into flour and then dough, or directly into a dough.

Bread-making from seeds

Collecting the seed

Damper is cooked in hot coals in the way traditional Aboriginal bread has been for eons.

Seeds varied depending on the time of year and the area in Australia that the people lived. In Central Australia, native millet (Panicum decompositum) and spinifex were commonly used. Wattleseed could also be used in the flour mix.

Women harvested the fully ripe, dry seeds of the plant by beating the grass (or pod-laden trees with sticks in the case of wattleseed) to dislodge the seeds. Some species were eaten at the green stage and, when ground, would produce a juice at the side of the millstone, which was drunk directly.

In the Kimberley region of Western Australia, women observed that, after the dry season, many seeds would be gathered around the opening of ants' nests. The ants had effectively collected and husked the seed for them, and they were able to collect this seed, making their job a lot easier. After allowing the grain to dry, they could begin to prepare the flour.

Some other seeds

Pigweed (Portulaca oleracea), Prickly wattle (Acacia victoriae), Mulga (Acacia aneura), Dead finish seed (Acacia tetragonophylla), Bush bean (Rhyncharrhena linearis).

Making the flour

After the grain was collected, it needed to be winnowed, which was done using the coolamon, the multi-purpose carrying vessel. Sometimes it needed to be winnowed several times.

Once the grain was winnowed, it was ground using a millstone, to create flour. Millstones have been discovered which have proven to be as old as 50,000 years. The flour was then mixed with water to make a dough and placed in hot ashes for baking. The results could be small buns, today referred to as johnny cakes, or a large loaf, known today as damper. Damper appears to be a mix of this traditional style of bread-making and European-style bread-making.

The dough could also be eaten raw. Cooking was a good way to prepare the bread if the group was about to travel for some time.

Bread-making from other plant products

Bread could also be made from roots and corms of plants. In the Top End of Australia, people such as the Yolngu used the lotus root and wild taro. These were ground, then mixed to a paste to make bread.

Water lily seed bread was also popular in the Top End. The two species of water lily used were Nelumbo nucifera and Nymphaea macrosperma. During the early part of the dry season, water lilies were an important part of the diet, with seed pods eaten raw or ground into paste.

Women had expert knowledge of how to "de-toxify" certain plant foods. The seeds of the cycad palm, Cycas media, are highly carcenogenic when raw and require elaborate treatment includuing shelling, crushing, leaching in running water for up to five days, then cooking. After this they are made into small loaves, which can keep for a number of weeks.

In Queensland, the people of the Mount Tamborine area used the Bunya Pine cone (bunya nut), endemic to the area, to make bread in this way.

References

Bush Bread artwork
Grass seed artwork
Aboriginal Technology
Australian History
Making bread from bean tree
Peterson, Nicholas, Donald Thomson in Arnhem Land, Melbourne University Press ISBN 0522850634, pp168-9.

zh:澳洲土著麵包

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-The   word '''Bushfood''' refers to any [[Australia]]n native food, although it sometimes is used with the specific connotation of "food found in the [[Outback]] while living on the land". It is also called '''bushtucker'''. It includes both animal and plant foods native to Australia.
+[[Image:Aboriginal grinding stones.jpg|thumb|250px|Aboriginal [[millstone]] - vital in making flour or pastes for bread. Some Aboriginal groups call it "mother and child".]]'''Bush bread''', or '''seedcakes''', refers to the [[bread]] made by [[Australian Aborigines]] for many thousands of years. The bread was high in [[protein]] and [[carbohydrate]], and helped form part of a balanced traditional [[diet]].
-More recently the food industry refers to gourmet bushfoods as '''Australian native foods'''.
+With the arrival of Europeans and pre-[[mill]]ed white [[flour]], this bread-making process all but disappeared (women were still recorded to be making seedcakes in [[Central Australia]] in the 1970s). The tradition of cooking bread in hot [[coals]] continues today.
-Examples of Australian native animal foods (meat) include [[kangaroo]], [[emu]] and [[crocodile]]. These meats are not commonly found in Australia today, but may be found in special resturaunts. (update: kangaroo is quite common, being found in many normal supermarkets, and at prices comparable to beef) Other animals, for example the [[Goanna]] and the [[witchetty grub]], were eaten by [[Indigenous Australians|Aboriginal]] Australians and thus qualify as bushfood in every sense of the word. [[Fish]] and [[shellfish]] are culinary features of the Australian coastal communities.
+Bread-making was a woman's task. It was generally carried out by several women at once, due to its [[labour-intensive]] nature. It involved collecting seasonal [[grain]]s, [[legume]]s, [[root]]s or [[Nut (fruit)|nut]]s, and preparing these into [[flour]] and then [[dough]], or directly into a dough.
-Examples of Australian native plant foods include the fruits: [[quandong]] (''Santalum acuminatum''), [[Australian desert raisin]] (''Solanum centrale''), [[muntries]] (''Kunzea pomifera''), [[riberry]] (''Syzygium luehmannii''), Davidson's plum (''[[Davidsonia]]'' spp.), and, [[Finger Lime]] (''Citrus australasica''). Native spices include [[lemon myrtle]] (''Backhousia citriodora''), mountain pepper (''Tasmannia lanceolata''), and, [[aniseed myrtle]] (''Syzygium anisatum''). A popular leafy vegetable is [[warrigal greens]] (''Tetragonia tetragonoides'').
+===Bread-making from seeds===
+====Collecting the seed====
+[[Image:Damper (food).jpg|thumb|right|250px|[[Damper (food)|Damper]] is cooked in hot coals in the way traditional Aboriginal bread has been for eons.]]Seeds varied depending on the time of year and the area in Australia that the people lived. In [[Central Australia]], [[native millet]] (''Panicum decompositum'') and [[Triodia (plant genus)|spinifex]] were commonly used. [[Wattleseed]] could also be used in the flour mix.
-Nuts include [[bunya nut]] (''Araucaria bidwillii''), and the most identifiable bushfood plant harvested and sold in large scale commercial quantities is the [[macadamia]] nut (''Macadamia integrifolia'').
+Women harvested the fully ripe, dry seeds of the plant by beating the grass (or pod-laden trees with sticks in the case of wattleseed) to dislodge the seeds. Some species were eaten at the green stage and, when ground, would produce a juice at the side of the millstone, which was drunk directly.
+In the [[Kimberley region of Western Australia]], women observed that, after the [[dry season]], many seeds would be gathered around the opening of [[ant]]s' nests. The ants had effectively collected and [[husk]]ed the seed for them, and they were able to collect this seed, making their job a lot easier. After allowing the grain to dry, they could begin to prepare the flour.
-=='''Traditional Aboriginal use'''==
+====Some other seeds====
+Pigweed (''[[Portulaca oleracea]]''), Prickly wattle (''[[Acacia victoriae]]''), Mulga (''[[Acacia aneura]]''), Dead finish seed (''[[Acacia tetragonophylla]]''), Bush bean (''[[Rhyncharrhena linearis]]'').
-[[Australian Aborigines]] have eaten  native animal and plant foods for an estimated 60,000 years of human habitation on the Australian continent (''see [[Indigenous Australian food groups]])''.
+====Making the flour====
+After the grain was collected, it needed to be [[winnowing|winnow]]ed, which was done using the [[coolamon (vessel)|coolamon]], the multi-purpose carrying vessel. Sometimes it needed to be winnowed several times.
-Various traditional methods of processing and cooking are used. Toxic seeds, such as [[Cycad]] (''Cycas media'') and Moreton Bay Chestnut (''Castanospermum australe'') are processed to remove the toxins and render them safe to eat. Many foods are also baked in the hot campfire coals, or baked for several hours in ground ovens. ‘Paperbark’, the bark of ''Melalauca'' species, is widely used for wrapping food placed in ground ovens. [[Bush bread]] was made by women using many types of seeds, nuts and corms to process a flour or dough to make bread.
+Once the grain was winnowed, it was ground using a [[millstone]], to create [[flour]]. Millstones have been discovered which have proven to be as old as 50,000 years. The flour was then mixed with water to make a [[dough]] and placed in hot ashes for baking. The results could be small buns, today referred to as [[johnny cake]]s, or a large loaf, known today as [[damper (food)|damper]]. Damper appears to be a mix of this traditional style of bread-making and European-style bread-making.
-Aboriginal traditional native food use was severely impacted by the immigration of non-indigenous people, via displacement from traditional lands, destruction of native habitat, and the introduction of non-native foods.
+The dough could also be eaten raw. Cooking was a good way to prepare the bread if the group was about to travel for some time.
-The recent recognition of the nutritional value of native foods by non-indigenous Australians is introducing native cuisine to white Australians, many for the first time. However, there are intellectual property issues associated with the commercialisation of bushfood.
+===Bread-making from other plant products===
+Bread could also be made from [[root]]s and [[corm]]s of plants. In the [[Top End]] of Australia, people such as the [[Yolngu]] used the [[lotus root]] and wild [[taro]]. These were ground, then mixed to a paste to make bread.
-=='''Colonial use'''==
+[[Water lily]] seed bread was also popular in the [[Top End]]. The two species of water lily used were ''Nelumbo nucifera'' and ''Nymphaea macrosperma''. During the early part of the [[dry season]], water lilies were an important part of the diet, with seed pods eaten raw or ground into paste.
-Bushfoods provided a source of nutrition to the non-indigenous colonial settlers, often supplementing meager rations.  However, bushfoods were often considered to be inferior by colonists  unfamiliar with the new land's food ingredients, generally preferring familiar foods from the homeland.
+Women had expert knowledge of how to "de-toxify" certain plant foods. The [[seed]]s of the [[cycad]] palm, ''Cycas media'', are highly carcenogenic when raw and require elaborate treatment includuing shelling, crushing, leaching in running water for up to five days, then cooking. After this they are made into small loaves, which can keep for a number of weeks.
-The only Australian native food developed and cropped on a large scale is the macadamia nut, with the first small-scale commercial plantation being planted in Australia in the 1880s. Subsequently, [[Hawaii]] was where the macadamia was commercially developed to its greatest extent from stock imported from Australia.
+In [[Queensland]], the people of the [[Tamborine National Park|Mount Tamborine]] area used the [[Bunya Pine]] cone ([[bunya nut]]), endemic to the area, to make bread in this way.
-=='''Modern use'''==
-In the 1970s non-indigenous Australians began to recognise the previously over-looked indigenous aspects of Australia, including native foods. Textbooks like ''Wildfoods In Australia'' by the botanist couple Cribb & Cribb were popular, and later the author [[Tim Low]] published ''Wild Food Plants of Australia''.
-TV shows also made use of the bushfood theme. [[Malcolm Douglas]] was one of the first presenters to show how to 'live off the land' in the Australian Outback. But it was probably Major [[Les Hiddins]] who popularised the idea of bush tucker. A retired [[Australian Army]] soldier, he presented a hit TV series called ''Bush Tucker Man'' on the [[Australian Broadcasting Commission|ABC]] TV network in the late 1980s. In the series, Hiddins demonstrated his training and research in combat survival by locating native foodstuffs in the northern Australian Outback.
-Bushfood enthusiasts in regional Australia began to assess the culinary and cropping qualities of bushfoods in the early 1980s. This regional research laid the foundations for the development of the modern bushfood industry (see [[bushfood industry history]]).
-In the mid-1980s metropolitan bushfood restaurants were using native Australian ingredients in recipes more familiar to modern tastes. This provided the first opportunity for bushfoods to be tried by non-indigenous Australians on a serious [[gourmet]] level, and led to the realisation that many strong-flavoured bushfoods have [[spice]]-like qualities. Some of these bushfood ingredients now feature in modern Australian cuisine, and [[Australian spices]] are being increasingly recognised internationally.
-Value-added bushfood products were also developed for the domestic and export market. The raw ingredients are sourced from wild and cultivated sources, with an emphasis on the latter to provide sustainable quantities.
-In the last decade, industry groups such as the Southern Bushfood Association, the Queensland Bushfood Association, the Northern Bushfood Association, and many others have been pushing for the introduction of bushfood as genuine cuisine in Australian and international restaurants.
-The term "bushfood" is one of several terms describing native Australian food, evolving from the older-style "bushtucker" which was used in the 1970s and 1980s. The word "bushfood" was chosen to reflect the sustainable nature of the industry's products, and to help exporters with product branding. The term "Australian native food" is another term recently coined to create further separation from the more rustic bush connotations. However, the term "bushfood" is still used by many industry workers and the Australian [[Government]] and [[CSIRO]] sources and authors.
-=='''Australian native food-plants listed by culinary province'''==
-Australian bushfood plants can be divided into several distinct and large regional culinary provinces. Please note, some species listed grow across several climatic boundaries.
-Mr christies oreos
-Tasty wheats
-fruitopia
-goog old no namer jew jubes
-==See also==
-*[[Bush bread]]
-*[[Bushmeat]], something quite different
-*[[Indigenous Australian food groups]]
-==External links==
-*[http://indigenousaustralia.frogandtoad.com.au/bushtucker.html Aboriginal Australia]
-* [http://www.bushfood.net/ Australian Bushfood and Native Medicine Forum]
-* [http://www.bom.gov.au/iwk/walabunnba/wantangka.shtml Aboriginal women's knowledge]
-*CSIRO plant profiles [http://www.cse.csiro.au/research/nativefoods/crops/index.htm]
-* [http://ausbushfoods.com/ Bushfoods Magazine]
-* [http://eataustralia.info Eat Australia]
-* [http://www.bushtucker.com.au/ A Bushfood/Bushtucker resource site]
 ==References==
-* Bruneteau, Jean-Paul, ''Tukka, Real Australian Food'', ISBN 0207189668.
+*[http://katherineartgallery.com.au/index.php?page=Rachel_Rennie Bush Bread artwork]
-* Cherikoff, Vic, ''The Bushfood Handbook'', ISBN 0731669045.
+*[http://www.japingka.com.au/exhibitionView.cfm?exhibitionID=2 Grass seed artwork]
-* Issacs, Jennifer, ''Bushfood'', Weldons, Sydney.
+*[http://k6.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/linkages/IntegratedUnits/aboriginal/tech_learn02.html Aboriginal Technology]
-* Kersh, Jennice and Raymond, ''Edna's Table'', ISBN 0733605397.
+*[http://www.sydney-australia.biz/history/ Australian History]
-* Low, Tim, ''Wild Food Plants of Australia'', ISBN 020769306.
+*[http://www.outbushproductions.com/astories.html Making bread from bean tree]
+* Peterson, Nicholas, ''[[Donald Thomson]] in Arnhem Land'', Melbourne University Press ISBN 0522850634, pp168-9.
-[[Category:Bushfood|*]]
+[[Category:Australian Aboriginal culture]]
+[[Category:Australian Aboriginal terms]]
+[[Category:Bushfood]]
 [[Category:Australian cuisine]]
-[[Category:Indigenous Australian culture]]
+[[Category:Breads]]
-[[Category:Fauna of Australia]]
-[[Category:Flora of Australia]]
+[[zh:澳洲土著麵包]]