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Australian Aborigines had many ways to source sweet foods. The four main types of sweet foods gathered – apart from ripe fruit – were: Aboriginal Flag Australian Aborigines is a name used to collectively describe most of the indigenous peoples of the Australian continent and its nearby islands. ...
- honey from ants and bees (sugarbag, see below)
- leaf scale (honeydew – lerps)
- tree sap
- flower nectar
In some parts of Australia, these customs are still used today, particularly in Central Australia. Foods collected can be eaten directly as a sweet or made into a sweet drink. In biology, a lerp is a structure of crystallized honeydew produced by larvae of psyllid insects as a protective cover. ...
Central Australia is a term used to describe the area of land surrounding and including Alice Springs in Australia. ...
Arrernte sweet foods and drinks
The Arrernte of Central Australia divide their food up into a number of groups. Many other groups also do this or did this traditionally. The Arrernte word for sweet foods is Ngkwarle — honey-like foods. Arrente is both a language, a group of people, and an area of land in Central Australia. ...
Central Australia is a term used to describe the area of land surrounding and including Alice Springs in Australia. ...
Indigenous Australian peoples traditionally classified food sources in a methodical way. ...
Some Aborigines who still have their language often refer to alcohol by this sweet food group term. Functional group of an alcohol molecule. ...
| Arrernte Name | English name | Details | Ngkwarle athenge
arlperle | Ironwood (Acacia estrophiolata) tree gum | Ironwood gum is broken off tree branches. It can be red or clear. It runs down the tree to the ground in long beads. It is snapped off and mixed in a bit of water and then left to set. It can then be scooped up with a little stick and eaten. | | Ngkwarle alkerampwe | Mulga (Acacia aneura) tree gum | Gum can be fouind sitting in small blobs in a row on branches. Some bits are clear and some red. They are snapped off with a wooden skewer. Once quite a few are collected, they are given to the children as a treat. | | Ngkwarle arlperrampwe | Whitewood (Atalaya hemiglauca) tree gum | Arlperrampwe is found on the trunk and branches of the whitewood in big globs. Some of it runs down the tree as its hanging there. It is collected and made into a lump and kneaded until soft, and is then eaten. | | Ngkwarle atnyerampwe | Supplejack (Ventilago viminalis) tree gum | Gum is scraped off after it comes through the bark. It is twisted onto a stick. It is chewy like chewing gum. Only small amounts can be eaten without water or it induces headache. | | Ngkwarle akikarre | Witchetty bush (Acacia kempeana) gum | When the flowers start to fall from the Witchetty bush, the gum comes through the bark and forms lumps, usually on the trunk. Some is red and some is clear. It is knewaded into a lump, sprinkling a bit of water on it. It can be placed on a little stick to make a lollypop. | | Ngkwarle aperarnte | River red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) honeydew | Aperarnte is the sweetis stuff that dris down or is got from the bark of the river red gum. It is retrieved from the bark or from the ground after it's dripped down. | | Ngkwarle aperaltye | River red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis, Psylla eucalypti) leaf scale | Small, waxy white flakes of aperaltye are found on the leaves of the river red gum. Branches can be shaken so that it falls onto a sheet or bowl below, then swept up and packed into a ball for eating. | | Ngkwarle alhelpe-arenye | Mallee (Eucalyptus) leaf scale | Scale is scraped off to be eaten. | | Ngkwarle yerrampe | Honeyant (Melophorus camponotus) | The honeyant is found in the ground in mulga country. It's nest is slightly different to other ants' nests. The holes on the surface are smaller. Women dig down from the openings, following the shaft, scooping out the dirt. Honeyants are harvested from the side in the main part of the nest. They are dragged out with a little stick. They are not swallowed, but placed on the tongue and the abdomen is bitten and honey sucked from it. | Ngkwarle arwengalkere;
Ngkwarle urltampe | Native bee honey, sugarbag | Sugarbag is found in tree hollows. A small 'nose' is found made of wax, protruding from the tree. This is chopped into to split it open. The head part is retrieved first, where the larvae are, then the honey. Honey is gathered in a coolamon or billycan to be eaten later. | | Ngkwarle untyeyampe | Corkwood (Hakea suberea) flower nectar | When the yellow flowers hang down, corkwood flower nectar is ready to harvest. The nectar is shaken onto a hand and then the dark bits that fall there are licked off. Sometimes it can be placed in water and drunk. It can be used for this purpose when a person is sick. Everyone likes to collect this food. | | Ngkwarle ntewale | Bloodwood (Eucalyptus opaca) flower nectar | Ntewale is the flower of the bloodwood tree. It has a pale nectar. Native bees make honey from these flowers. The flower is broken off and sucked, or nectar shaken onto the hand and the hand licked. When the flowers die off, the bush coconuts come. | Ironwood, Michigan is a city in the upper peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. ...
Binomial name Acacia estrophiolata F.Muell. ...
Binominal name Acacia aneura In botany, a Mulga (Acacia aneura) is a shrub or small tree native to arid outback Australia. ...
Binomial name Ventilago viminalis [[]] Ventilago viminalis, or Supplejack tree, is a native tree to Central Australia. ...
Chewing gum Chewing gum is a type of confectionery which is designed to be chewed instead of swallowed. ...
Binomial name Acacia kempeana F.Muell. ...
The introduction to this article is too long. ...
The introduction to this article is too long. ...
Species About 700; see the List of Eucalyptus species Eucalyptus is a diverse genus of trees (and a few shrubs), the members of which dominate the tree flora of Australia. ...
Honeypot ants, also called honey ants, are ants which are gorged with food by workers, to the point that their abdomens swell enormously. ...
Binominal name Acacia aneura In botany, a Mulga (Acacia aneura) is a shrub or small tree native to arid outback Australia. ...
Genera Lestrimelitta Melipona Trigona, sensu lato: (21 genera) The stingless bees belong to the tribe Meliponini (usually called the stingless honeybee) in the family Apidae, which also comprise the common honeybees, carpenter bees, orchid bees and bumblebees. ...
The coolamon in this picture is at top left. ...
A billycan, more commonly known simply as a billy or occasionally as a billy can, is the traditional Australian utensil for boiling water, making tea and cooking anything liquid on a campfire. ...
Binomial name Leitneria floridana The Corkwood (Leitneria floridana) is a deciduous dioecious shrub or small tree, found only in the Southeast of the United States (Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Missouri and Texas). ...
Bloodwood is the common name for several unrelated groups of trees. ...
Binomial name Corymbia opaca Corymbia opaca, formerly classified as Eucalyptus opaca, is a tree native to the Central Australian region, particularly around Alice Springs. ...
The Bush coconut, is an Australian bush tucker food, often eaten by Aborigines of Central Australia. ...
Other sweet foods and drinks The practices of the Arrernte were widely practised by many other groups across Australia. But customs varied depending on where people lived. Some notable other sweet foods include: - Banksia: People placed the flower spike in a paperbark-lined hole filled with water to make a sweet drink.
- Grevillea: Nectar shaken and eaten, or mixed with water to make a sweet drink.
Diversity About 80 species; see List of Banksia species Synonyms Sirmuellera<br. ...
The plant genus Melaleuca is part of the Myrtle family (Myrtaceae) and presently contains about 170 species. ...
Species See text Grevillea is a diverse genus of evergreen flowering plants in the protea family (Proteaceae). ...
See also Indigenous Australian peoples traditionally classified food sources in a methodical way. ...
Bush Tucker is a colloquial Australian term for any food native to Australia and eaten before European colonisation. ...
Bush medicine is the term used in Australia by Aboriginal people to describe their traditional medicinal knowledge and practices. ...
Reference - Turner, Margaret-Mary, Arrernte Foods: Foods from Central Australia, IAD Press, Alice Springs, 1994, ISBN 0949659762, pp1-10.
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