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Indigenous Australian Food Groups
Indigenous Australian peoples traditionally classified food sources in a methodical way. Below are a few examples. Central Australia In Central Australia, people used innovative means to obtain a balanced diet. The food categories, and their Arrernte names, are: : Some other category words from Arrernte that are used in relation to food include: *''Thipe '' fleshy flying creatures; birds (not emus), bats *''Kwatye'' water in any form, sources of water; water, rain, clouds *''Arne '' trees, shrubs, bushes, woody plants, some grasses *''Ure '' fire, things to do with fire. Top End In the Top End, seafood plays an important part in the diet. The food groups and their Yolngu names are: : The old people would talk about the need to eat from both ''murŋyan and ''gonyil'' food groups and the need to supplement their diet with ''gapu'' (fresh water). While this balance was maintained, the people knew they were eating correctly. When the men would come back from the magpie goo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indigenous Australian
Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples of the Australian mainland and Tasmania, and the Torres Strait Islander peoples from the seas between Queensland and Papua New Guinea. The term Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples or the person's specific cultural group, is often preferred, though the terms First Nations of Australia, First Peoples of Australia and First Australians are also increasingly common; 812,728 people self-identified as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin in the 2021 Australian Census, representing 3.2% of the total population of Australia. Of these indigenous Australians, 91.4% identified as Aboriginal; 4.2% identified as Torres Strait Islander; while 4.4% identified with both groups. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conkerberry
''Carissa spinarum'', the conkerberry or bush plum, is a large shrub of the dogbane family (Apocynaceae), widely distributed in tropical regions of Africa, Southern Asia, Australia, and various islands of the Indian Ocean. It is most well known in Australia, where it is also called ''currant bush'' or, more ambiguously, ''native currant'' or even ''black currant''. It is, however, neither closely related to plums (''Prunus'') nor to true currants (''Ribes''), which belong to entirely different lineages of eudicots. In India, it is also called wild karanda /wild karavanda, referring to the related karanda (''C. carandas''). ''Carissa spinarum'' is often discussed under its many obsolete synonyms (see below). It grows as a multi-stemmed shrub, 0.5 to 3 metres in height. The leaves are glossy green, opposite, narrow ovate to lanceolate and 1–5 cm in length. The branches bear thorns of 1–3 cm length. White, star-shaped flowers ~1 cm across are followed by o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cicada
The cicadas () are a superfamily, the Cicadoidea, of insects in the order Hemiptera (true bugs). They are in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha, along with smaller jumping bugs such as leafhoppers and froghoppers. The superfamily is divided into two families, the Tettigarctidae, with two species in Australia, and the Cicadidae, with more than 3,000 species described from around the world; many species remain undescribed. Cicadas have prominent eyes set wide apart, short antennae, and membranous front wings. They have an exceptionally loud song, produced in most species by the rapid buckling and unbuckling of drumlike tymbals. The earliest known fossil Cicadomorpha appeared in the Upper Permian period; extant species occur all around the world in temperate to tropical climates. They typically live in trees, feeding on watery sap from xylem tissue, and laying their eggs in a slit in the bark. Most cicadas are cryptic. The vast majority of species are active during the day as adul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coolibah
''Eucalyptus coolabah'', commonly known as coolibah or coolabah, is a species of tree found in eastern inland Australia. It has rough bark on part or all of the trunk, smooth powdery cream to pink bark above, lance-shaped to curved adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven and hemispherical or conical fruit. Description ''Eucalyptus coolabah'' is a tree that typically grows to a height of and has hard, fibrous to flaky grey bark with whitish patches on part or all of the trunk and sometimes on the larger branches. The upper bark is smooth and powdery, white to cream-coloured, pale grey or pink and is shed in short ribbons. Young plants and coppice regrowth usually have stems that are more or less square in cross-section, and dull bluish, lance-shaped leaves long and wide. Adult leaves are the same dull green to bluish or greyish on both sides, Lance-shaped to curved, long and wide on a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged on a branching inflorescence in leaf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
River Red Gum
''Eucalyptus camaldulensis'', commonly known as the river red gum, is a tree that is endemic to Australia. It has smooth white or cream-coloured bark, lance-shaped or curved adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven or nine, white flowers and hemispherical fruit with the valves extending beyond the rim. A familiar and iconic tree, it is seen along many watercourses across inland Australia, providing shade in the extreme temperatures of central Australia. Description ''Eucalyptus camaldulensis'' is a tree that typically grows to a height of but sometimes to and often does not develop a lignotuber. The bark is smooth white or cream-coloured with patches of yellow, pink or brown. There are often loose, rough slabs of bark near the base. The juvenile leaves are lance-shaped, long and wide. Adult leaves are lance-shaped to curved, the same dull green or greyish green colour on both sides, long and wide on a petiole long. The flower buds are arranged in groups of seven ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Witchetty Grub
The witchetty grub (also spelled witchety grub or witjuti grub) is a term used in Australia for the large, white, wood-eating larvae of several moths. In particular, it applies to the larvae of the cossid moth ''Endoxyla leucomochla'', which feeds on the roots of the witchetty bush (after which the grubs are named) that is widespread throughout the Northern Territory and also typically found in parts of Western Australia and South Australia, although it is also found elsewhere throughout Australia. The term may also apply to larvae of other cossid moths, ghost moths ( Hepialidae), and longhorn beetles ( Cerambycidae). The term is used mainly when the larvae are being considered as food. The grub is the most important insect food of the desert and has historically been a staple in the diets of Aboriginal Australians. Terminology The Arabana term for the grub is (with emphasis on initial syllables); means grub, and refers to the shrub, not the grub itself. Similarly, Ngalea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cicada
The cicadas () are a superfamily, the Cicadoidea, of insects in the order Hemiptera (true bugs). They are in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha, along with smaller jumping bugs such as leafhoppers and froghoppers. The superfamily is divided into two families, the Tettigarctidae, with two species in Australia, and the Cicadidae, with more than 3,000 species described from around the world; many species remain undescribed. Cicadas have prominent eyes set wide apart, short antennae, and membranous front wings. They have an exceptionally loud song, produced in most species by the rapid buckling and unbuckling of drumlike tymbals. The earliest known fossil Cicadomorpha appeared in the Upper Permian period; extant species occur all around the world in temperate to tropical climates. They typically live in trees, feeding on watery sap from xylem tissue, and laying their eggs in a slit in the bark. Most cicadas are cryptic. The vast majority of species are active during the day as adul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Witchetty Grub
The witchetty grub (also spelled witchety grub or witjuti grub) is a term used in Australia for the large, white, wood-eating larvae of several moths. In particular, it applies to the larvae of the cossid moth ''Endoxyla leucomochla'', which feeds on the roots of the witchetty bush (after which the grubs are named) that is widespread throughout the Northern Territory and also typically found in parts of Western Australia and South Australia, although it is also found elsewhere throughout Australia. The term may also apply to larvae of other cossid moths, ghost moths ( Hepialidae), and longhorn beetles ( Cerambycidae). The term is used mainly when the larvae are being considered as food. The grub is the most important insect food of the desert and has historically been a staple in the diets of Aboriginal Australians. Terminology The Arabana term for the grub is (with emphasis on initial syllables); means grub, and refers to the shrub, not the grub itself. Similarly, Ngalea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seedcakes
Bush bread, or seedcakes, refers to the bread made by Aboriginal Australians by crushing seeds into a dough that is then baked. The bread is high in protein and carbohydrate, and forms part of a balanced traditional diet. It is also sometimes referred to as damper, although damper is more commonly used to describe the bread made by non-Indigenous people. With the arrival of Europeans and pre-milled white flour, this bread-making process has almost disappeared (although 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. One of the traditional ingredients was the seeds of kangaroo grass. Bread-making from seeds Collecting ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dead Finish
''Acacia tetragonophylla'', commonly known as curara, kurara or dead finish, is a tree in the family Fabaceae that is endemic to arid and semi-arid parts of central and western Australia. Description Curara grows as a tall shrub or small tree up to a height of and has an intricate and often straggly habit with glabrous branchlets. Like most '' Acacia'' species, it has phyllodes rather than true leaves. These are slender and needle-like with a length of up and a width of . When young they are soft and pliable, but as they mature they become hard, rigid and very sharp. The glabrous phyllodes are formed in groups of two to six on dwarf, knotty and lateral branchlets or singly on new shoots. The phyllodes have a slender linear shape ending in a sharp point and are mostly pentagonal to compressed in cross-section with five to seven prominent nerves. In Western Australia it blooms between May and October producing yellow flowers. The flowers are yellow, and held in spherical clus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acacia Aneura
''Acacia aneura'', commonly known as mulga or true mulga, is a shrub or small tree native to arid outback areas of Australia. It is the dominant tree in the habitat to which it gives its name ( mulga) that occurs across much of inland Australia. Specific regions have been designated the Western Australian mulga shrublands in Western Australia and Mulga Lands in Queensland. Description Mulga trees are highly variable, in form, in height, and in shape of phyllodes and seed pods. They can form dense forests up to high, or small, almost heath-like low shrubs spread well apart. Most commonly, mulgas are tall shrubs. Because the mulga is so variable, its taxonomy has been studied extensively, and although ''A. aneura'' is likely to be split into several species eventually, there is as yet no consensus on how or even if this should be done. Although generally small in size, mulgas are long-lived, a typical life span for a tree undisturbed by fire is of the order of 200 to 300 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prickly Wattle
''Acacia victoriae'', commonly known as gundabluie or bardi bush, is a shrub-like tree native to Australia. Subspecies: ''A. victoriae'' subsp. ''arida'' Pedley Distribution and ecology Found in arid and semi-arid areas, the ''Acacia victoriae'' is generally found in alkaline soils including clayey alluvials, grey cracking clays and saline loams on floodplains, alluvial flats, rocky hillsides and ridges. Animals such as birds and small mammals are known to use the tree as protection. The seeds and foliage also offer a source of food to animals.Worldwide Wattle (2012). ''Acacia victoriae'' Benth. Retrieved from: http://www.worldwidewattle.com/infogallery/utilisation/acaciasearch/pdf/victoriae.pdf Description Mature ''Acacia victoriae'' grow into a shrub-like tree with multiple trunks. They reach a height of about 5–6 meters and are moderately fast growing. It has a life-span of about 10–15 years. The tree has a large root system, known to extend to 20m. It is able to survi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
