Natural Selection

In Adelaide, Australians are waking up to the Aboriginal roots of their local cuisine.

- Veronica Stoddart

"THIS IS A MACADAMIA TREE," said Haydyn Bromley, gesturing toward a cluster of dark green leaves as we walked through the Adelaide Botanic Garden (botanicgardens.sa.gov.au). "They're native to Australia." I was surprised I had always associated the nut with Hawaii. Bromley, the cultural director of the Aboriginal-owned and -operated consultancy Bookabee Australia (bookabee.com.au), was introducing me to some of the endemic plants that grow in this 124-acre park in South Australia. Indigenous clans, he told me, were the first people to eat macadamias; they also used macadamia oil for skin rejuvenation and body paint.

Macadamias are just one of approximately 6,000 foods that have been eaten by Australia's Indigenous peoples for at least 65,000 years. Known as "bush tucker," this nutrient-rich cuisine includes any native food source: nuts, fruits, and vegetables, of course, but also seafood like marron, or Australian crayfish; land animals such as emu and kangaroo; and insects like green ants and witchetty grubs, large white larvae that transform into wood moths.

Many of these endemic resources were erased from mainstream culinary culture during European settlement in the late 18th century, after which imported provisions were gradually adopted. "People used to think Aboriginal sustenance was just grubs and snails," Bromley told me.