Country and Maps | Food

Food Resources:

Devil's Lair and Long Ago

Traditionally, Noongar people are a hunter gatherer society. We moved around our family run - Moort Boodja - for thousands of years to find our food. In this way we have many places which are sacred to us. Devil's Lair Cave in Margaret River is one such place. Noongar people have a long and continuing connection to this area. Archaeological evidence dates back about 48,000 years and excavations have uncovered stone artefacts, animal bones, hearths and bone artefacts. The bones of animals and remains of plants tell us what people used to eat, and how what they ate changed as the environment changed. [i]

The changes in climate and the environment over long periods have made Noongars adaptable to different landscapes. In the last 30,000 years the vegetation and climate of the south-west has changed dramatically: from a dry, cold environment with few resources to a gradually warming climate with large forests. The site of Devil's Lair [below] shows evidence of the sorts of foods eaten by Noongars from the bones of small animals and the remains of plants in the cave, along with stone tools and ashes. [ii]

Devil's lair

Above: Interior of Devil's Lair cave. Courtesy of SWALSC

Traditional Tools

In order to hunt and gather our food, Noongars created stone tools. We used different shaped tools for specific purposes. Stones that we shaped like axes, we call kodja. These were attached to a wooden handle for chopping and shaping wooden objects.[iii] Small, slender blades were used for cutting and slicing. Some tools were attached to spears using resin or kangaroo sinews to create a handle, making the tool easier to use. To make flour, Noongars would grind acacia seeds with a round stone that fitted neatly into our hands. The flat stones we call mullers would be worn smooth by grinding.

Peter Farmer snr. tells of a more contemporary method of adapting tools...'But with the kangaroo, that was probably one of the most important things to the Noongars because they used to use the skin. Like I said, they used to skin the kangaroo and either peg it to a tree or just peg it down along the ground with the fur down and the skin up. And once it dried off they used to get a [broken] bottle and just you know, all the bits of - oh, didn't look too good so they'd scrape it all off... They used to scrape the kangaroo skin like that.'

Stone artefact

Above: Artefact from the south-west region. Courtesy of SWALSC

Noongar calendar of the seasons. Reproduction courtesy of Kulbardi Productions, Murdoch University.Click to enlarge

Seasons

'This time of year now, winter, the creek would be full. Used to grab those gilgies and pull them out and cook them on the coals.' Joe Northover.

The Noongar calendar year is divided into six seasons and determined by the weather patterns. The seasons tell us which animal and plant resources are plentiful at those times. It is an important part of Noongar custom to take only what you need from nature in order to keep it healthy and maintain biodiversity.[iv] By eating foods when they are abundant and in season, natural resources are not depleted and will still be available for the next year.

Peter Farmer Snr. describes how mallee hen eggs were conserved.' [I] coundn't believe how big their nests was and how far down we had to dig...When we got to the egg you could see them all circles were they laid and they'd [the Elders] say, make sure and leave three or four there and they'd only take a couple... so that when the hen came back she would see where the eggs are'.

Table of Noongar Seasonal Activities- Click to view.

Traditional Foods/Bushtucker and Conservation

'They used to be like a carpet on the ground with all the flowers of red and white. You had to lift it up and then you'd see the fruit there'. Peter Farmer snr. talking about three types of mull or green berries.

As guardians of our country, we achieved balance and adaptability through thousands of years of living in harmony with the bush. There are many varied plant and animal resources in the south-west, which Noongars have traditionally harvested.

Noongar spirituality is closely linked to all parts of the physical environment and part of this ethos involves caring for country.We don't waste any part of an animal that is killed, or plants that are gathered: everything is useful. Nearly all of a kangaroo can be used- from the meat for eating, to the skin for making booka (cloaks), and sinew for stone tool hafting. The grasstree or balga bush has as many as 28 different uses.[v]

Some of the fauna traditionally hunted by Noongar people are kangaroo-yonga, emu-wetch, wild duck, echindna-nyingarn and goanna-karda. Food from the sea and waterways has also been a major resource for us- fish djildjit, eel- wardan noorn, abalone, cobbler, marron and gilgies.[vi] Noongars caught fish with spears, or fish traps, which we made with stones and brush sticks and by utilizing the tides. Middens are the piles of discarded shell left over from eating shellfish. We gathered yams, berries yurenburt and quandongs. [vii]

Joe Northover talks about the many types of berries.' Yurenburt, they call the other one kickingberry, coolberry, cummock, another one. Cummock. But they come out in another couple of months. You see them all. Wattle should be out soon. When that wattle come out you know its a good time to go bush. Djerung. Fat. All fat and djerung.'

Balga Bush

Carno

Clockwise from upper left - Balga, shellfish remains and snotty-gobble. Top photos courtesy of SWALSC, bottom left courtesy of Trevor Walley.

Totems and Food

'Our family never eat turtles, or tortoise, we eat fish, but we never kill turtles...because that's our totem'. Hazel Brown.

Noongar people have traditionally held particular animals in their part of country as sacred. They become totems and therefore responsible for the wellbeing of the animal or plant.

Food Changes as a Result of Colonization

As Noongar land became more populated by Europeans, with their stock and farming practices, conflict arose over access to our country. Noongars stayed on country but went to work for farmers, keeping traditional Noongar ways but accommodating new European ones. Noongar workers were not paid much, and often, not at all. See stolen wages. The lack of wages, along with disruption to our traditional practices, resulted in Noongars having to rely on rations, such as tea, sugar and flour.[viii] Noongar people made do with what was available, existing on thin stews, lamb's tail and rabbit.

Doolann Leisha Eatts tells about food- Link to oral history excerpt

Hazel Brown tells about food -Link to oral history excerpts

Noongars relied on bush food to supplement rations with low nutritional value. Children on missions had little choice but to make do with the often insufficient food that was served, such as porridge and watery stews. [ix] Noongar children would seek out bush foods, like karda (goanna) or berries, as a way of supplementing their poor diet.

Martha Borinelli talks about food-oral history excerpt-click here to listen

Sharing

'But getting back to the meat, and what we used to eat and all that, if we got a kangaroo, you know we'd share it up with all our family and some. If we knew some people had nothing we'd give them some. The same with the sheep, you'd share that up too.' Peter Farmer snr.

Sharing what you have with family and friends is a constant of Noongar life and applies especially to food. It doesn't matter what you have to give, it is the sentiment that counts. If we haven't seen people in a while, or if they are visiting from far away, we share what food we have, whether it be a little or a lot, to celebrate being together.

Martha Borinelli- Oral history excerpt-click to listen

What People Eat Today

Food can be seen as a way of reconnecting with Noongar identity and family ties. Today, it can still be an activity to do when out on country - hunting, gathering and caring for country. Importantly, the traditional knowledge and ways of collecting food continue - in which seasons to gather specific resources, where to find food and how to prepare it.[x]

Click to see images of turtle hunting

Today, more than ever, the concept of caring for country is important as more pressures are put on the land. This means caring for plant and animal resources so that they will be healthy and abundant in years to come.[xi]

campfire

A camp fire set up for a feed. Photo courtesy of SWALSC collection.

References

[i] H. Lourandos,'Continent of Hunter Gatherers', Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1997, p. 198.

[ii] H. Lourandos,'Continent of Hunter Gatherers', Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1997, p. 199.

[iii] H. Lourandos,'Continent of Hunter Gatherers', Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1997, p. 292.

[iv] R. Stranger, 'The Avifaunal Prey of the Perth and Mandurah Aborigines', 2005.

[v] R. Kawalilak (ed),'Hunters and Gatherers', Conservation and Land Management Booklet, 1998 (Reprint from Landscope Magazine Spring 1992)

[vi] R. Kawalilak (ed),'Hunters and Gatherers', Conservation and Land Management Booklet, 1998 (Reprint from Landscope Magazine Spring 1992)

[vii] Joe Northover Oral History Excerpt.

[viii] S. Hallam, ' Fire and Hearth: a study of Aboriginal usage and European usurpation in sout-western Australia', 1975, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra.

[ix] A. Haebich, 'Broken Circles', Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 2000, p.234.

[x] Ibid, p.388.

[xi] Kevin Fitzgerald Snr, Personal Communication, 15.2.11.