Bringing Native Food Systems to the Forefront
WORDS : Alice Armitage IMAGES : Supplied by participants
The knowledge Anthony ‘Ajay’ Freeman, a proud Wiradjuri man, possesses about Indigenous food traditions can’t be learnt in any classroom – it’s in his blood. While Ajay hasn’t always worked in a field that’s so connected to his heritage, since joining the team at Bush to Bowl as lead harvester, he has come to spend his days imparting some of the knowledge he has gathered with the rest of us. This Indigenous owned, social enterprise started with a few hundred dollars, a whipper snipper and a deep feeling of responsibility to give back to community and Country through building connections to bush foods. Two years later, Bush to Bowl now offers a number of programs connected to produce, to Country and giving back to the community. Designed to create a safe place for community to access traditional foods, traditional knowledge and to share together. It’s Indigenous food businesses such as Bush to Bowl that have been included in the recent Charles Sturt University Indigenous Entrepreneurship program with Food Futures Company.
The Charles Sturt University and Food Futures program has been designed to make the entrepreneurial space accessible to Indigenous businesses, with a strong desire to highlight the role native food businesses play across the agricultural and food landscape. This four month long intensive program ran with the primary objective of supporting innovation and capacity building in Indigenous start-ups, taking into account the specific cultural, social and economic factors that shape their entrepreneurial journeys. By providing culturally sensitive mentorship, access to resources, capacity-building initiatives, and fostering a vibrant community, the program has been designed to stimulate economic success for Indigenous start-ups in food and agriculture.
A strong and prosperous Indigenous business sector is key to empowering Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples – through job creation, financial security for families and communities, and contributing to the growth of local economies and the broader Australian economy. This is particularly true in rural and remote Australia, where small and micro businesses support jobs and wealth creation. The Charles Sturt University and Food Futures program supports Indigenous entrepreneurs to build their business and commercial acumen to ensure flourishing, long lasting, community focuses and Indigenous owned businesses are brought to the forefront of the Australian zeitgeist.
Fostering a vibrant and supportive community has been a key aspect of this program. Opportunities for networking, collaboration, and knowledge sharing have been facilitated amongst the participants, other Indigenous founders, industry experts and mentors through weekly virtual sessions, in person events and expos.
Each of the entrepreneurs involved have been working on expanding their business ventures throughout the course of the program, some taking their well established businesses into the next phase and some taking the first steps into turning their hobbies into strong small businesses. Programs such as these offer founders more than just expert guidance, they cultivate a community of individuals with shared visions, providing an invaluable support system throughout the entrepreneurial journey.
Australian Bush Food and Education Centre was founded on Felicity Kerslake’s passion for delivering sustainable healthcare education. Felicity is merging her experience as a clinical naturopath and accredited sports nutritionist with her passion for culture and traditional medicine, with a desire to make bush foods and native ingredients accessible to healthcare providers, individuals, and communities alike. Through Felicity’s practice, she aims to not only improve health outcomes but to also contribute to increasing health literacy, and to support Indigenous Australians in building a healthier future through connection to food, agriculture, business, and culture.
Throughout her involvement in the program, Felicity has been working to expand on her work to create a platform that allows native food knowledge to be shared, allowing for a deeper connection to be built between everyday Australians and indigenous plants and foods. “My passion is to use nature and native plants to create great energy, health and wellbeing. What I love about what I do is being able to bridge my childhood experiences with my knowledge as a practitioner to showcase that native plants are often dual purpose. Not only a highly nutritious food source but also a highly effective medicine, depending on how it's prepared.”
Stacey Mathers
Crowned Queensland Caterer of the Year three times running, Stacey Mathers has a long standing love for the food industry. Having operated cafes, restaurants and catering businesses in regional and metropolitan areas, her experiences have refined her specialist culinary skills.
Like many of the entrepreneurs, Stacey entered the program with a few different business ideas and it took the first month of the program to hone in and focus on a singular idea. “I used to have a food manufacturing business producing gourmet foods, but I always wanted to create a retail line of snack foods playing with native flavours. This program and the people in it have taught me how to make that a reality. The companionship and support along this journey has been invaluable.”
Working to incorporate many lines of indigenous culture into the venture, Native Fusion, aims to craft a line of natively inspired gourmet snacks to deliver indigenous foods and flavours to a mainstream clientele. “Everyone has an idea, everyone has a dream and this program has helped me to achieve mine.”
During the course of the program, Bek Shepard founded Edible Native Landscapes, which provides workshops, catering, consultancy and landscape design services. Which have all been designed to share and utilise Bek’s traditional knowledge and protocols. “My wish is to support Aboriginal people and communities and this focused time, dedicated to my business, has allowed me to turn my hobby into a business. It made me accountable and showed me how to take the first steps into running a successful business.”
Offering interactive, sensory workshops for community, schools, groups and organisations that showcase a selection of native bush foods propagated and grown in her own backyard, incorporating these freshly picked ingredients into unique catering service. Which makes Bek’s offering not just about food but about the creation of a full circle cultural experience.
“A lot of my work in the past has been centred in economic development in small communities and aboriginal communities. It’s always been difficult for people to access the kind of support we have received through this program and I wish I’d known about it years ago.”
Yield Lot 7, run by Jackie Price, is a multi-faceted business and allotment with a range of offerings; beekeeping, cheese making and food workshops. Alongside the key product focus for the program: native freshwater crayfish infused with Australian native botanicals and a gravy stock. The products were inspired by trying to solve the problem of the vast waste in the Cherax Destructor production industry. As a result the formulation of these products repurpose shellfish waste and result in zero to minimum waste. The name for the crayfish product range is called "Relax with a Cherax”; sustainably sourced and upcycling a waste product .
“We’ve done everything we can to bring this parcel of land back to its original way of being with the reintroduction of native vegetation and waterways. Now we’re producing a range of products from this Country and enabling our indigenous brothers and sisters to farm their own parcels.”
Mindy Woods is a proud Bundjalung woman of the Widjabul Wia Bul clan, chef and restaurant owner at Karkalla Byron Bay. At Karkalla Mindy shares her passion for local, seasonal produce and encourages all Australians to embrace and celebrate native ingredients and their inseparable connection to Country and culture. Mindy's focus throughout the program was to develop Karkalla at Home, a native food range inspired by Mindy’s most popular signature dishes. “I believe that to experience a culture is to experience its food. Food is also a great connector and catalyst for change and I hope what we can offer people is an open door into indigenous culture in a way that we can all benefit and to solidify native food in the Australian food industry.”
Karkalla at Home will build on Mindy’s existing offering to bring native ingredients products to the retail market which currently includes curry sauces, liqueurs, teas and chais.
“First Nations people have the knowledge and answers. What we need are the business and commercial acumen tools and skills to apply them in the modern world. When that happens we all benefit; from an agricultural, environmental, financial and health perspective. This program is giving first nations people the belief that we belong in the entrepreneurial arena and that we can play a role in the industry.”
Clarence, Adam and Anthony form the team at Bush to Bowl. This Indigenous owned, social enterprise has been built from the ground up to create healing spaces for First Nations People by connecting them to Country and their traditional foodways. Through the practice of culture on a daily basis across all elements of the business, Bush to Bowl are always in pursuit of giving back to Country, their mob and the wider community.
The team aims to create culturally safe spaces for our Aboriginal community to work, share knowledge and connect whilst developing the economic position of community in the Bushfood industry. Which has led to the cultivation of a space to mentor young ones, help families connect to Country and to continue to connect and show the importance of connecting to traditional foods to develop a larger purpose from Indigenous people.
“Bush to Bowl is about creating pathways to access ancient knowledge. We aren’t doing anything new, we’re just trying to give people a way to connect with the diet that created the world's oldest living culture.”
The Charles Sturt Indigenous Entrepreneurship program was orchestrated by Dr. Christine Pitt, CEO and Co-Founder of Food Futures Company, alongside Co-Founder Skye Raward and their Program Manager Anna Phillips. This initiative was realised in collaboration with Ged Bourke, the Innovations Program Manager at Charles Sturt University AgriPark. A subsequent iteration of this program is set to debut in October 2023. For more details, visit the Food Futures Company's official website.