Artist: Elaine Jones
Size: 30 x 30 cm Acrylic on canvas , #23-383
Bush Tucker
Bush tucker, also called bush food, is any food native to Australia and used as sustenance by Indigenous Australians, but it can also describe any native flora or fauna used for culinary or medicinal purposes, regardless of the continent or culture.
Maku
Also known as the witchetty grub is a 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, it is usually eaten cooked over a fire but there are those who prefere it raw
Honey ants
Honeypot ants such as Melophorus bagoti and Camponotus spp. are edible insects and form an occasional part of the diet of various Indigenous Australians. These people scrape the surface to locate the ants’ vertical tunnels, and then dig as much as two metres deep to find the honeypots.
Bush Banana – Kalkula
An important Aboriginal food, whilst all parts of the bush banana plant are eaten, the sweet flower and young fruits are eaten raw, being the most favoured parts of the plant. The young seeds taste like a crunchy sweet pea. The seeds can also be lightly roasted for consumption.
Bush Tomato – Kampurarpa
The Bush Tomato has been eaten by Central Australian Indigenous for tens of thousands of years and features strongly in the Pitjantjatjara Dreaming (mythology). The Bush Tomato has a strong flavor, similar to sun dried tomato, and is very fragrant. When the fruit is still fresh on the plant it is possible to smell the sweet caramel aroma from quite a distance.
