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What did the Aborigines eat?
This article was written by Dr. George J. Georgiou, Ph.D., Clinical Nutritionist, Master
Herbalist, Naturopath, Homeopath ,Iridologist, Clinical Sexologist, Clinical Psychologist
and published in Dr. Georgiou's Natural Medicine Newsletter.
The Natural Diets of our Ancestors
Have you ever wondered what a pure race of people like the aborigines
really ate in nature before the infiltration of the Western world? The
famous dentist researcher Dr. Weston Price spent months studying the
Aborigines and discovered their secrets. Let's examine this fascinating
information in more detail.
Of all the peoples visited by Weston Price during his historic research
expeditions of the 1930s, none elicited as much awe as the Australian
Aborigines, whom he described as "a living museum preserved from the
dawn of animal life on the earth." For Price, the Aborigines represented the
paradigm of moral and physical perfection. Their skills in hunting, tracking and
food gathering were unsurpassed. Their social organization allowed for the
schooling of children from a young age. A series of initiations for the boys were
designed to instil both fearlessness and respect for the welfare of the entire
tribe, and respect and care for a sizeable number of old people, for whom were
reserved special foods that were easy to gather and hunt. Price's photographs of
Aborigines on their native diets illustrate dental structures so perfect
as to make the reader wonder whether these natives were wearing false teeth.
But like all the other primitive groups Price studied, the Aborigines soon
succumbed to rampant tooth decay and disease of every type when they adopted the
"displacing foods of modern commerce" - white flour and sugar, jams, canned foods
and tea. Children born to the next generation developed irregularities of the
dental arches with conspicuous facial deformities - patterns that mimicked
those seen in white civilizations.10
The Australian continent provides plentiful animal foods - land mammals,
birds, reptiles, seafood and insects - plus a bewildering variety of plant
foods. Conditions were lush in the subtropical areas along the coasts, and
extremely harsh in the desert interior. Nevertheless, bushmen of the arid regions
exhibited the same robust good health as their brothers living in the
coastal forests. Each clan stayed within its own prescribed area, except to
participate in certain religious ceremonies or to share in particularly bountiful
harvests of foods like shellfish or nuts. Coastal groups built more or less
permanent shelters and moved as a group only to take advantage of certain seasonal
food supplies. Desert tribes were more wandering; they had larger territories
and moved about according to the location of water and game.
The men were responsible for hunting large game, birds and fish. They
generally hunted the kangaroo in groups. A number spread out to herd the animals
towards a net that they stretched across a pocket in the forest or brush near the
animals' feeding area. Another group concealed itself near the net to catch the
game with spears or clubs. In open country, the animals were tracked and speared
while they were resting in the shade of a tree during the hot part of the
day.11
Smaller marsupials, such as the wallaby, paddy-melon, bandicoot and
kangaroo rat, were also hunted. In the arid central regions, such small game has
been replaced in part by rabbits. Echidna - the spiny anteater - is also
hunted for its meat.
The Aborigines did not hunt at night, but extracted nocturnal animals
such as possum and koala bear - both prized foods - from their daytime resting
places in various ingenious ways. The Aborigines would first detect the presence
of the animal by its smell, claw marks or droppings, and confirm its presence
by inserting a stick or frond tipped with honey into the hollow tree or log
serving as a lair. If hairs stuck to the honey, they knew the animal was there.
They extracted it either by climbing a tree to drag out the animal or by
smoking it out of its resting place.
Bats such as the flying fox and grey glider were so numerous in certain
places that they blocked out the stars and moon when they flew. They were
caught during the day as they slept in the scrub. Two or three people carrying about a
dozen small clubs would climb trees where the bats were sleeping. Standing on
branches, they would frighten the bats and throw the clubs at them as
they flew away.
Reptiles such as goannas (iguanas), lizards, frogs and snakes also found
a place in the Aboriginal diet, as did birds of all sizes - emus, turkeys,
swans, ducks, parrots and cockatoos. To catch flying birds such as parrots, the
Aborigines set nets across trees. Boomerangs were thrown above the flock. Thinking
these were hawks, the birds dived down and were caught in the nets. In the summer,
hunters would capture ducks by submerging themselves up to their necks in water
holes, holding small branches to hide their heads. When a duck came close, the
hunter would grasp its legs and drown it. Fish were speared or poisoned by
adding certain poisonous plants to the water. When they rose to the surface,
they could be captured by hand.
The great challenge for the Aborigine was to obtain enough dietary fat.
They were close observers of nature and knew just when certain animals were
at their fattest. For example, kangaroos were fat when the fern leaf wattle was
in flower; possums when the apple tree was in bloom. Other signs indicated
when the carpet snake, kangaroo rat, mussels, oysters, turtles and eels were fat
and at their best.11 Except in times of drought or famine, the Aborigine
rejected kangaroos that were too lean - they were not worth carrying back to
camp.1
During periods of abundance "animals were slaughtered ruthlessly, and
only the best and fattest parts of the killed game were eaten."7 Favourite foods
were fat from the intestines of marsupials and from emus.7 Highly saturated
kidney fat from the possum was often eaten raw.5 The dugong, a large seagoing
mammal, was another source of fat available to natives on the coasts.
Other sources of fat included eggs - from both birds and reptiles - and
a great variety of insects. Chief among them was the witchety grub, or moth
larva, found in rotting trunks of trees. These succulent treats - often over six
inches long - were eaten both raw and cooked. Fat content of the dried grub is as
high as 67%. The green tree ant was another source of valuable fat, with a
fat-to-protein ration of about 12 to one. Another important seasonal
food in some parts of the country was the begong moth. The moths were knocked
off rock walls on which they gathered in large numbers, or smoked out of caves or
crevices. They were roasted on the spot or ground up for future use.
Moth abdomens are the size of a small peanut and are rich in fat.4
Weston Price consistently found that healthy primitive peoples consumed
a diet containing at least ten times the fat-soluble activators - vitamins
found only in animal fat - compared to the typical American diet of his day. These
would be supplied in the Aboriginal diet by animal fat, organ meats of game
animals (the entire animal was consumed, even the entrails) as well as insects, fish
and especially shellfish, including lobster, crab, crayfish, prawns, snails,
oysters, mussels, mud whelk, abalone, scallops, sea urchins and
periwinkles. Shellfish are typically ten times richer in vitamin D than organ meats.
Shellfish feeding on algae and insects feeding on green plants also
would have supplied the Price Factor or Activator X, a potent catalyst for mineral
absorption.10
The traditional role for Aboriginal women was that of gatherer. They
were responsible for harvesting insects, shellfish and almost all plant
foods. Most regions of Australia offered a cornucopia of nutritious plant foods,
even the arid desert regions. The east coast of Australia alone boasts over 250
edible plants including tubers such as yams and grass potatoes, fern roots,
palm hearts, legumes, nuts, seeds, shoots, leaves and a wide variety of
fruits such as figs and berries.9 Some areas provided native millet in abundance. In
the desert, the spinifex produced large quantities of seed at certain times
of the year.
One of the most remarkable sources of food for the Aborigines in eastern
Australia were the mountain bunya pines. Once every three years these
huge trees bore enormous quantities of cones, the largest of which contain seeds
about one and one-half inches long. Every third year, many tribes would travel to
the Bunya Bunya festival - it was one of the few times when people were
permitted to cross other tribes' boundaries. The harvest was so plentiful that
thousands of people could live for several weeks off the seeds. The nuts are
described as having a delicious taste, something like chestnuts when roasted.9 The
kernels were also pounded into a meal and baked in the ashes as a cake. The
Aborigines stored bunya nuts by placing them in large cane baskets and burying them
in a particular kind of mud. When exhumed - after many months of lying in the
ground - the nuts had a very offensive smell but nevertheless were a popular
food.11
Other trees that played an important role in Aboriginal culture included
the many varieties of acacia, which provided flowers used in making sweet
drinks, grubs collected from their trunks and roots and bark used as fish
poison. Mangrove trees, which grew in freshwater swamps or "billabongs,"
provided fruit and also harbored mangrove worms, fresh water oysters, bivalve mussels
and crabs in their complex root systems. Salt was collected from their leaves.11
Gum trees or eucalyptus harbored grubs, beehives, koalas and possum, as well as
tasty insect exudate called lerps. Even galls that formed on their trunks were
eaten. Some flowers provided nectar used to make a sweet drink called "bool" by
one tribe of Aborigines. The ribbon gum was a rich source of manna, a
crumbly white substance with a pleasant taste, which exudes from the bark. As much as
40 pounds could be collected from trees in one day.6 Eucalyptus leaves were
used to make herbal medicines while the gums were used to fill dental
cavities.11
Melaleuca or paper bark tree flowers were used to make sweet drinks.
More importantly, their bark was used in everything from cooking to canoe
production. Animal foods were generally cooked, either over an open fire or steamed
in pits. Kangaroo, for example, was laid on a fire and seared for a short period,
so that the interior flesh remained practically raw; at other times the kangaroo
was placed in a large hole, surrounded by hot coals and sealed from the air.
Sometimes food was wrapped in melaleuca bark. Flying fox was wrapped in
the leaf of the Alexandra palm for cooking. When the foxes were cooked, the
leaves were unwrapped, pulling off the skin and fur at the same time.6 Meat was
sometimes tenderized by pounding before being cooked.
Plant foods required more careful preparation since many of them were
difficult to digest and even poisonous. Aboriginal women spent many hours washing,
grinding, pounding, straining, grating, boiling and cooking plant foods.
Water was boiled in bark troughs or in large sea shells.6
Very often, the first step to the time consuming process of plant preparation
was the "yandying" process, used by women to separate seeds from stalks
and other impurities with which they had been gathered. The process looks
deceptively simple but is, in fact, extremely difficult, "requiring deft
movements and a great deal of skill." The gathered seeds are placed in
an elongated wooden dish called a "coolamon," and the various objects of
differing density or characteristics are separated from each other by "very
intricate and skilful rotating and jiggling movements."5
Fern roots formed a staple article of food in many regions. They were
dug up, washed, roasted on hot ashes, then cut into lengths, pounded between a
pair of round stones and eaten. Other types of fern roots were dried in the sun,
lightly roasted to remove the hair rootlets, then peeled with the fingernails,
chopped on a log to break the fibers, mixed with water and other ingredients and
finally rounded into a lump for cooking. These fern root cakes were eaten with
fish, meat, crabs or oysters. The grass potato is a palatable fibrous root
that was roasted and then pounded between two stones before eating. Some foods,
such as orchid pseudobulbs, were dried first, then ground up and mixed with
water and cooked. Yams were dug out with a stick - sometimes from a depth of three
feet or more - and prepared by crushing and washing them in water and cooking
them in ashes.11
Many seeds are placed in "dilly bags" - leaching baskets - and set in
running water for anywhere from a number of hours to many days - a process that
served to remove anti-nutrients and toxins found in many seeds and legumes. The
matchbox bean, for example, was soaked for 12 hours,6 while the jack
bean was soaked several days before it was pounded, made into cakes and
roasted.11
Seeds of the zamia, a spiky, palm like plant, were dried in the sun, then put
in a dilly bag and suspended in running water for 4-5 days. They were then
crushed and pounded between two flat stones and ground into a fine paste. This
paste was wrapped in paper bark, baked under ashes and eaten as cakes.6 Seeds of
the pineapple palm were crushed into a flour, then washed in running water
for a week, cooked in hot coals and eaten.11 Black beans were soaked in water
for 8-10 days and dried in the sun. They were roasted on hot stones and pounded
into a coarse meal. When this was required as a food, it was mixed with water,
into a thin cake and then baked again on hot stones.6
Nuts from the spiky panaanus palm, which cling to the rocky headlands in
Eastern Australia, required six weeks treatment to render them safe for eating.
They were converted into a tasty and nutritious nut bread which was also
popular with, the earliest European settlers.9 The Australian fauna provided many
delicious and nutritious fruits throughout the year, particularly in the humid
coastal regions. Some of these were eaten raw just after picking, while others
were processed. The wild orange was picked just before it was ripe, then
buried for one day during which it became very sweet. The wallaby apple was
likewise ripened by placing it in the sand for a day.11 The taste of a type of
wild plum improved after storing or burying for a couple of days.6 Fruit of the
quandong, or native peach, was buried for four days.11 Dried figs were pounded
into cakes and eaten with honey. Mangrove fruit was pulped, soaked and mashed
through a basket.11
The Aborigines also used fruits like tamarinds and native lime to make
refreshing beverages.11 An acid drink was made from the fruit of lawyer
cane by squashing the fruit in water, and from breadfruit by soaking it in
water.6 Certain flowers rich in nectar were gathered in the early morning and
steeped in water. This was drunk fresh and also set aside to ferment.11 Some tribes
pounded flowers in a wooden dish, then drained the liquid into another dish and
mixed this with the sugary parts of honey ants. This mixture was allowed to
ferment for eight to ten days and a brew was made to drink.6 Dried leaves of the
red lowering ti tree were added to hot water to produce a tea like
beverage.6
Of course, fresh, pure water was vital to the survival of the
Aborigines, both in the subtropical coastal regions as well as in the arid interior.
Inland Aborigines knew where water was located in the desert and except in
times of extreme drought drank copious quantities of it. Researchers have found
that "In one of the driest habitats on earth, these people use about twice as
much water per unit of mass as Europeans in the same environment."7 An adult
Aboriginal male can drink almost three quarts of water in 35 seconds.7 During times
of drought, water can be obtained from water-holding frogs and from certain
plants.5
In the past, kangaroo skin water bags were used to carry quite large
volumes of water. Paradoxically, these were not used in the driest areas, perhaps
because kangaroos are relatively rare in the desert and the vital nutrients -
particularly fat-soluble nutrients - are lost if this animal is not
cooked in its skin.5 Up to a gallon of water could be carried in certain large
leaves folded up in ingenious ways.
No studies of the Aboriginal peoples make mention of any special
preparation of bones into pastes or broths, as is commonly found among other
traditional peoples throughout the world. It has been reported that the Aborigines
made lime by burning sea shells in a large fire which they kept burning for three
to four days,3 which probably was used in food preparation. Insects eaten whole
and ground up moths provided calcium, as did the many plant foods properly
prepared to neutralize calcium-blocking phytic acid.
Neither the salty nor the sweet tastes were lacking in the Aboriginal
diet. Salt was collected from leaves of the river mangrove and available from the
salt flats in desert regions. Leaves of sodium-rich pigface were roasted and
added to the diet.6 Certain rushes and sedges contained reasonable amounts of
sodium, as well as seeds of the golden grevellea, some kinds of figs, the nonda
plum and the bush tomato. Wild parsnip root and water chestnuts contain more than
4500 mg of sodium per 100 grams.8 Animal foods also supply sodium, especially
blood and certain organ meats, goanna, shellfish, snails and worms.8 Seeds of the
pepper vine were ground and used as a pepper6 and some aromatic leaves were
also used in cooking.
For sweetness, the Aborigines loved honey. They distinguished between
two kinds. One was white and very sweet, and always found in small dead hollow
trees. The other was dark, more plentiful and of a somewhat sour taste.11 In the
desert, the sweet taste came from eating the swollen abdomens of sugar ants.
Tree gums were dissolved in water and mixed with honey to form sweets for
children.3 Lerp, the sweet exudate found on certain trees, was collected and chewed or
melted with warm water to form a jelly and eaten.11
Some writers have stated that the Aborigines practiced "no method of
agriculture or animal domestication."12 This is not exactly true. Occasionally, the
Aborigine domesticated the wild dingo by raising and training the dogs
from pups. These were of little help in hunting kangaroo but were useful in
tracking and pinning the echidna and the goanna.
If the Aborigines did not practice agriculture per se, they did carry
out the practice of land management, especially through the use of fire.
Ethnobotanists > are only beginning to appreciate the vital role that fire played in
increasing the food supply of the Aborigines. Early explorers often reported
Aboriginal land fires. Many of the important Aboriginal food plants require regular
burning if they are to attain their maximum production. Some desert plants
require more frequent burning than others, resulting in a "mosaic of plant
communities in different stages of fire recovery."5
Even the practice of abstaining from hunting and gathering in the area
of sacred sites contributed to the overall ecology of the Aboriginal environment.
Such sites served as sanctuaries for animal life. "These areas would... be
vitally important for the long-term viability of an area as immediately after
droughts they would be a source of plants and animals to restock depleted areas,
thereby ensuring a more rapid recovery of the home range's biota."5
Another area of land management involved the creation of havens for
insect populations. Oak trunks were pushed into the creeks and rivers to
attract the toredo grubs.11 Sometimes wood was piled over half a meter high and
almost two meters wide. This would be considered ready to harvest in a year's time.
The grubs were collected by women and old men. Aborigines also ringbarked
candle nut trees to make the trunks rot. White grubs would feed on the decaying
wood and were collected for food.6
The traditional diet of the Aborigine thus provided all he needed for
excellent physical development, superb strength and stamina and overall good
health. Like Weston Price, early explorers reported the Aborigines to be "well
formed; their limbs are straight and muscular, their bodies erect; their heads well
shaped; the features are generally good; teeth regular, white and sound. They
are capable of undergoing considerable fatigue and privations in their
wanderings, marching together considerable distances."12 Many observers reported
their great dexterity and acute eyesight, which enabled them to see stars that the
white man can see only with the telescope, and animals moving at a distance of a
mile, which civilized man cannot see at all.
An early Australian settler named Philip Chancy reported several
examples of the extraordinary "quickness of sight and suppleness and agility of limb and
muscle" in the Aborigines, including an Aborigine who stood as a target for
cricket-balls thrown with force by professional bowlers at only ten to
fifteen yards and yet successfully dodged them or parried them off with a small
shield for at least half an hour. Other natives threw cricket balls at great
distances, and outdid "the best circus performers by bounding from a spring board
in a somersault over eleven horses standing side by side."12
Nevertheless, the vast materia medica of the Aborigine indicates that he
was not entirely free from aches and pains. Australian plants provided him with
remedies for diarrhoea, coughs, colds, rheumatism, ear infections, toothache,
upset stomach, headache, sore eyes, fevers, sores, rashes, hemorrhaging of
childbirth, warts and ulcers - as well as for treatment of wounds, burns, insect
bites and snake poison. Macfarlane studied Aborigines living in the desert almost
entirely on native foods and found that every member of the tribe suffered from
chronic conjunctivitis.7
The Aborigines also used herbs for contraception and sterilization, thus
allowing them to space their children and prevent overpopulation.
The plight of the modern Aborigine who has abandoned his native diet is
sad indeed. He is prone to weight gain, diabetes, TB, alcoholism and, of all
things, petrol sniffing.
Many Aborigines recognize the need to return to native foods. Listen to
the story of Daisy Kanari:
Long time ago when Aboriginal people lived on the good and healthy
bush foods in the bush, they lived without any sickness: they
lived a strong and healthy life. But now it is different. This
is what we think: when we were children our parents looked after
us and fed us on quandongs, witchety grubs, honey ants ... rabbits
and many more. These foods are good and it is what we grew up
eating. We lived on these foods long ago and now we still do.
Then the Europeans came with their loads of food: of sugar, flour,
milk, tea leaves and tins of meat. From then to now, people still live
on European food. Today things are bad with petrol and alcohol. When
our sons drink alcohol, they keep going and wander aimlessly. They do not
come back to their mothers. Also with petrol: when children smell petrol
over a long period of time, they die forever. Petrol and alcohol are bad
things that have recently come into our country and lives.2
Some groups of Aborigines have returned to the bush - both in the desert
regions and in reserves in coastal and mountainous areas. They may hunt with
22's and carry water in buckets, but they have relearned the foodways of their
ancestors. Some of their products have potential commercial value - from bean cakes
and fermented drinks as snack foods, to insect powders as a nutritious food
additive for both people and livestock, to medicinal preparations. Enlightened
government policy would educate the Australian population as to the value of these
items, and create a market for them, thus allowing the Aborigines to support
themselves with dignity of purpose in their traditional lifestyle.
References:
- Abrams, Leon, M.A. Personal communication
- Anangu Way, Nganampa Health Council, Inc. Alice
Springs, Australia,1991
- Crawford, I. M., Traditional Aboriginal Plant Resources
in the Kalumburu Area: Aspects in Ethno-economics, Western Australian
Museum, Perth, 1982
- Isaacs, Jennifer, Bush Food, Council for Aboriginal
Reconciliation and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission,
Canberra, 1992
- Latz, P. K. Bushfires and Bushtucker: Aboriginal
Plant Use in Central Australia, IAD Press, Alice Springs, NT,
1995
- Leiper, Glen, Mutooroo Plant Use by Australian
Aboriginal People, Eagleby South State School, Eagleby 4207, 1984
- Macfarlane, W. V., "Aboriginal Desert Hunter/Gatherers
in Transition," The Nutrition of Aborigines in Relation to the
Ecosystem of Central Australia,CSIRO, Melbourne, 1978
- Miller, Janette Brand, Tables of Composition of
Australian Aboriginal Foods, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra
ACT, 1993
- Nayutah, Jolanda and Gail Finlay, Minjungbal: The
Aborigines and Islanders of the Tweed Valley, North Coast Institute
for Aboriginal Community Education,Lismore, NSW, 1988
- Price, Weston A, DDS, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration,
Keats Publishing, Inc., New Canaan, CT, 1939
- Symons, Pat and Sim, Bush Heritage, Pat and Sim
Symons, Queensland 4560, 1994
- Arnold de Vries, Primitive Man and his Food, Chandler
Book Co.,1952.
Copyright (c) 1999 Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, PhD. All Rights
Reserved. First published in the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation
Health Journal Vol 22, No 2. (619) 574-7763.
Taken from the Weston A. Price Foundation web site at www.westonaprice.com
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