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Australian Aboriginal Sweet Foods
Australian Aboriginal people have many ways to source sweet foods. The four main types of sweet foods gathered – apart from ripe fruit – were:Turner, Margaret-Mary, ''Arrernte Foods: Foods from Central Australia'', IAD Press, Alice Springs, 1994, , pp1-10. * honey from ants and bees (sugarbag, see below) * leaf scale (honeydew – lerps) * tree sap * flower nectar In some parts of Australia, these customs are still used today, particularly in Central Australia. Foods collected can be eaten directly as a sweet or made into a sweet drink. Arrernte sweet foods and drinks The Arrernte of Central Australia divide their food up into a number of groups. Many other groups also do this or did this traditionally. The Arrernte word for sweet foods is ''Ngkwarle'' — honey-like foods. Some Aboriginal people who still have their language often refer to alcohol by this sweet food group term. Other sweet foods and drinks The practices of the Arrernte were widely practised by many oth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australian Aboriginal People
Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands. The term Indigenous Australians refers to Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders collectively. It is generally used when both groups are included in the topic being addressed. Torres Strait Islanders are ethnically and culturally distinct, despite extensive cultural exchange with some of the Aboriginal groups. The Torres Strait Islands are mostly part of Queensland but have a separate governmental status. Aboriginal Australians comprise many distinct peoples who have developed across Australia for over 50,000 years. These peoples have a broadly shared, though complex, genetic history, but only in the last 200 years have they been defined and started to self-identify as a single group. Australian Aboriginal identity has chan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Honeyant
Honeypot ants, also called honey ants, are ants which have specialised workers (repletes, plerergates, or rotunds) that are gorged with food to the point that their abdomens swell enormously. Other ants then extract nourishment from them, through the process of trophallaxis. They function as living larders. Honeypot ants belong to any of several genera, including ''Myrmecocystus'' and '' Camponotus''. They were first documented in 1881 by Henry C. McCook, and described further in 1908 by William Morton Wheeler. Behaviour Many insects, notably honey bees and some wasps, collect and store liquid for use at a later date. However, these insects store their food within their nest or in combs. Honey ants are unique in using their own bodies as living storage, used later by their fellow ants when food is otherwise scarce. When the liquid stored inside a honeypot ant is needed, the worker ants stroke the antennae of the honeypot ant, causing the honeypot ant to regurgitate the stored liq ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bushfood
Bush tucker, also called bush food, is any food native to Australia and used as sustenance by Indigenous Australians, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, but it can also describe any native flora or fauna used for culinary or medicinal purposes, regardless of the continent or culture. Animal native foods include kangaroo, emu, witchetty grubs and crocodile, and plant foods include fruits such as quandong, kutjera, spices such as lemon myrtle and vegetables such as warrigal greens and various native yams. Traditional Indigenous Australians' use of bushfoods has been severely affected by the settlement of Australia in 1788 and subsequent settlement by non-Indigenous peoples. The introduction of non-native foods, together with the loss of traditional lands, resulting in reduced access to native foods by Aboriginal people, and destruction of native habitat for agriculture, has accentuated the reduction in use. Since the 1970s, there has been recognition of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xanthorrhoea
''Xanthorrhoea'' () is a genus of about 30 species of flowering plants endemic to Australia. Species are known by the name grass tree. Description All are perennials and have a secondary thickening meristem in the stem. Many, but not all, species develop an above ground stem. The stem may take up to twenty years to emerge. Plants begin as a crown of rigid grass-like leaves, the caudex slowly growing beneath. The main stem or branches continue to develop beneath the crown, This is rough-surfaced, built from accumulated leaf-bases around the secondarily thickened trunk. The trunk is sometimes unbranched, some species will branch if the growing point is damaged, and others naturally grow numerous branches. Flowers are borne on a long spike above a bare section called a scape; the total length can be over three four metres long in some species. Flowering occurs in a distinct flowering period, which varies for each species, and often stimulated by bushfire. Fires will burn the le ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grevillea
''Grevillea'', commonly known as spider flowers, is a genus of about 360 species of evergreen flowering plants in the family Proteaceae. Plants in the genus ''Grevillea'' are shrubs, rarely trees, with the leaves arranged alternately along the branches, the flowers zygomorphic, arranged in racemes at the ends of branchlets, and the fruit a follicle that splits down one side only, releasing one or two seeds. Description Plants in the genus ''Grevillea'' are shrubs, rarely small trees with simple or compound leaves arranged alternately along the branchlets. The flowers are zygomorphic and typically arranged in pairs along a sometimes branched raceme at the ends of branchlets. The flowers are bisexual, usually with four tepals in a single whorl. There are four stamens and the gynoecium has a single carpel. The fruit is a thin-walled follicle that splits down only one side, releasing one or two seeds before the next growing season. Taxonomy The genus ''Grevillea'' was first forma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paperbark
''Melaleuca'' () is a genus of nearly 300 species of plants in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, commonly known as paperbarks, honey-myrtles or tea-trees (although the last name is also applied to species of ''Leptospermum''). They range in size from small shrubs that rarely grow to more than high, to trees up to . Their flowers generally occur in groups, forming a "head" or "spike" resembling a brush used for cleaning bottles, containing up to 80 individual flowers. Melaleucas are an important food source for nectarivorous insects, birds, and mammals. Many are popular garden plants, either for their attractive flowers or as dense screens and a few have economic value for producing fencing and oils such as "tea tree" oil. Most melaleucas are endemic to Australia, with a few also occurring in Malesia. Seven are endemic to New Caledonia, and one is found only on (Australia's) Lord Howe Island. Melaleucas are found in a wide variety of habitats. Many are adapted for life in swamps ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Banksia
''Banksia'' is a genus of around 170 species in the plant family Proteaceae. These Australian wildflowers and popular garden plants are easily recognised by their characteristic flower spikes, and fruiting "cones" and heads. ''Banksias'' range in size from prostrate woody shrubs to trees up to 30 metres (100 ft) tall. They are found in a wide variety of landscapes: sclerophyll forest, (occasionally) rainforest, shrubland, and some more arid landscapes, though not in Australia's deserts. Heavy producers of nectar, ''banksias'' are a vital part of the food chain in the Australian bush. They are an important food source for nectarivorous animals, including birds, bats, rats, possums, stingless bees and a host of invertebrates. Further, they are of economic importance to Australia's nursery and cut flower industries. However, these plants are threatened by a number of processes including land clearing, frequent burning and disease, and a number of species are rare and endangered. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bush Coconut
The bush coconut, or bloodwood apple, is an Australian bush tucker food. It is an insect gall with both plant and animal components: an adult female scale insect and her offspring (of genus ''Cystococcus'') live in a gall induced on a bloodwood eucalypt tree (''Corymbia''). Bush coconuts can vary from golf ball to tennis ball size. They have a hard and lumpy outer layer. The inner layer is a white flesh that contains the female insect and her offspring. There are three known species of ''Cystococcus'' responsible for forming the bush coconut: ''Cystococcus pomiformis'', ''Cystococcus echiniformis'' and ''Cystococcus campanidorsalis''. ''C. pomiformis'' is the most common species. The bush coconut is found in Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Queensland and New South Wales. The bush coconut is picked from the host tree and cracked open to allow the flesh and scale insects to be eaten. Both have a high protein content and are used as a food source by humans and other a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eucalyptus Opaca
''Corymbia terminalis'', also known as tjuta, joolta, bloodwood, desert bloodwood, plains bloodwood, northern bloodwood, western bloodwood or the inland bloodwood, is a species of small to medium-sized tree, rarely a mallee that is endemic to Australia. It has rough, tessellated bark on some or all of the trunk, sometimes also on the larger branches, smooth white to cream-coloured bark above, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven, white flowers and urn-shaped fruit. Description ''Corymbia terminalis'' is a tree that typically grows to a height of , rarely a mallee, and forms a lignotuber. It has rough, tessellated light brown to light grey bark on part or all of trunk, sometimes extending to the larger branches. Young plants and coppice regrowth have egg-shaped to elliptical or lance-shaped leaves that are long, wide, tapering to a petiole and arranged in opposite pairs. Adult leaves are arranged alternately, the same shade of grey-green on both sides, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hakea Suberea
''Hakea'' ( ) is a genus of about 150 species of plants in the Family ''Proteaceae'', endemic to Australia. They are shrubs or small trees with leaves that are sometimes flat, otherwise circular in cross section in which case they are sometimes divided. The flowers are usually arranged in groups in leaf axils and resemble those of other genera, especially ''Grevillea''. Hakeas have woody fruit which distinguishes them from grevilleas which have non-woody fruit which release the seeds as they mature. Hakeas are found in every state of Australia with the highest species diversity being found in the south west of Western Australia. Description Plants in the genus ''Hakea'' are shrubs or small trees. Some species have flat leaves, whilst others have leaves which are needle-like, in which case they are sometimes divided and sometimes have a groove on the lower surface. The flowers are arranged in groups in leaf axils and are surrounded by bracts when in bud. The flowers have both male ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billycan
A billycan is an Australian term for a lightweight cooking pot in the form of a metal bucketFarrell, Michael. "Death Watch: Reading the Common Object of the Billycan in 'Waltzing Matilda. ''Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature'' 10 (2010) commonly used for boiling water, making tea/coffee or cooking over a campfire or to carry water. These utensils are more commonly known simply as a billy or occasionally as a billy can (billy tin or billy pot in Canada). Usage The term ''billy'' or ''billycan'' is particularly associated with Australian usage, but is also used in New Zealand, and to a lesser extent Britain and Ireland. In Australia, the billy has come to symbolise the spirit of exploration of the outback and is a widespread symbol of bush life, although now regarded mostly as a symbol of an age that has long passed. To ''boil the billy'' most often means to make tea. This expression dates from the Australian gold rushes and probably earlier. "Bil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coolamon (vessel)
Coolamon is an anglicised NSW Aboriginal word used to describe an Australian Aboriginal carrying vessel. It is a multi-purpose shallow vessel, or dish with curved sides, ranging in length from 30 to 70 cm, and similar in shape to a canoe. Coolamons were traditionally used by Aboriginal women to carry water, fruit, nuts, as well as to cradle babies. Today when women gather bush tucker, they usually use a billy can, bucket or flour tin. Coolamons were carried on the head when travelling any distance, or under the arm if used as a cradle. If carried on the head, a ring pad (''akartne'' in Arrernte) was placed on the head, made out of possum and/or human hair string, twisted grass, or feather This helped to cushion and support the carriage of the coolamon; the same purpose as those used by women in traditional cultures around the world to carry vessels on their heads. The Pintupi of the Western Desert would attach a double strand of plaited rope (''ngalyibi'') made of hair ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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