Aboriginal millstone - vital in making flour or pastes for bread. Some Aboriginal groups call it "mother and child".

Bush bread, or seedcakes, refers to the bread made by Australian Aborigines for many thousands of years. The bread was high in protein and carbohydrate, and helped form part of a balanced traditional diet^[1]. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1600x1067, 244 KB) Aborinal grinding stones - National Botanical Gardens File links The following pages link to this file: Indigenous Australians ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1600x1067, 244 KB) Aborinal grinding stones - National Botanical Gardens File links The following pages link to this file: Indigenous Australians ... The interior of a functional water mill The basic anatomy of a millstone. ... Percentages are relative to US recommendations for adults. ... Aboriginal Flag Australian Aborigines is a name used to collectively describe most of the indigenous peoples of the Australian continent and its nearby islands. ... A representation of the 3D structure of myoglobin, showing coloured alpha helices. ... Lactose is a disaccharide found in milk. ... In nutrition, the diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. ...

With the arrival of Europeans and pre-milled white flour, this bread-making process all but disappeared (women were still recorded to be making seedcakes in Central Australia in the 1970s). The tradition of cooking bread in hot coals continues today. Gristmill with water wheel, Skyline Drive, VA, 1938 A gristmill is a building where grain is ground into flour. ... For other uses, see Flour (disambiguation). ... Central Australia is a term used to describe the area of land surrounding and including Alice Springs in Australia. ... Coal Coal is a fossil fuel extracted from the ground by mining. ...

Bread-making was a woman's task. It was generally carried out by several women at once, due to its labour-intensive nature. It involved collecting seasonal grains, legumes, roots or nuts, and preparing these into flour and then dough, or directly into a dough. Labor intensity is the relative proportion of labor (compared to capital) used in a process. ... The word grain has several meanings, most being descriptive of a small piece or particle. ... Varieties of soybean seeds, a popular legume Pea pods A legume is a plant in the family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or a fruit of these plants. ... ROOT is an object-oriented software package developed by CERN. It was originally designed for particle physics data analysis and contains several features specific to this field, but it is also commonly used in other applications such as astronomy and data mining. ... Hazelnuts from the Common Hazel Chestnut A nut can be either a seed or a fruit. ... For other uses, see Flour (disambiguation). ... Dough Dough is a paste made out of any cereals (grains) or leguminous crops by grinding with small amount of water. ...

Bread-making from seeds

Collecting the seed

Damper is cooked in hot coals in the way traditional Aboriginal bread has been for eons.

Seeds varied depending on the time of year and the area in Australia that the people lived. In Central Australia, native millet (Panicum decompositum) and spinifex were commonly used. Wattleseed could also be used in the flour mix. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1280x960, 428 KB) Summary Photo taken (6th Aug 2003) and supplied by Nachoman-au. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1280x960, 428 KB) Summary Photo taken (6th Aug 2003) and supplied by Nachoman-au. ... For dampers in the sense of automotive suspension parts, see shock absorbers. ... Central Australia is a term used to describe the area of land surrounding and including Alice Springs in Australia. ... Pearl millet in the field The millets are a group of small-seeded species of cereal crops, widely grown around the world for food and fodder. ... Species See text Triodia is a large genus of tussock forming grass endemic to Australia, the are commonly known as spinifex, although they are not a part of the coastal genus Spinifex. ... Acacia seeds (often known in Australia as wattle seeds) are the seeds of the acacia, a genus of shrubs and trees. ...

Women harvested the fully ripe, dry seeds of the plant by beating the grass (or pod-laden trees with sticks in the case of wattleseed) to dislodge the seeds. Some species were eaten at the green stage and, when ground, would produce a juice at the side of the millstone, which was drunk directly.

In the Kimberley region of Western Australia, women observed that, after the dry season, many seeds would be gathered around the opening of ants' nests. The ants had effectively collected and husked the seed for them, and they were able to collect this seed, making their job a lot easier. After allowing the grain to dry, they could begin to prepare the flour. The Kimberley is one of the nine regions of Western Australia, consisting of the local government areas of Broome, Derby-West Kimberley, Halls Creek and Wyndham-East Kimberley. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Subfamilies Aenictogitoninae Agroecomyrmecinae Amblyoponinae (incl. ... The term husk is mostly used to refer to the leafy outer covering of an ear of maize (corn) as it grows on the plant. ...

Some other seeds

Pigweed (Portulaca oleracea), Prickly wattle (Acacia victoriae), Mulga (Acacia aneura), Dead finish seed (Acacia tetragonophylla), Bush bean (Rhyncharrhena linearis). Binomial name Portulaca oleracea L. Purslane, also known as Little Hogweed or Pusley, is an annual succulent in the Portulacaceae family. ... Binomial name Acacia victoriae Benth. ... Binominal name Acacia aneura In botany, a Mulga (Acacia aneura) is a shrub or small tree native to arid outback Australia. ... Binomial name Acacia tetragonophylla F.Muell. ...

Making the flour

After the grain was collected, it needed to be winnowed, which was done using the coolamon, the multi-purpose carrying vessel. Sometimes it needed to be winnowed several times. Wind winnowing is a method developed by ancient cultures for agricultural purposes. ... The coolamon in this picture is at top left. ...

Once the grain was winnowed, it was ground using a millstone, to create flour. Millstones have been discovered which have proven to be as old as 50,000 years. The flour was then mixed with water to make a dough and placed in hot ashes for baking. The results could be small buns, today referred to as johnny cakes, or a large loaf, known today as damper. Damper appears to be a mix of this traditional style of bread-making and European-style bread-making. The interior of a functional water mill The basic anatomy of a millstone. ... For other uses, see Flour (disambiguation). ... Dough Dough is a paste made out of any cereals (grains) or leguminous crops by grinding with small amount of water. ... Cornbread is a variety of quick bread (a bread leavened chemically, rather than by yeast) containing cornmeal. ... For dampers in the sense of automotive suspension parts, see shock absorbers. ...

The dough could also be eaten raw. Cooking was a good way to prepare the bread if the group was about to travel for some time.

Bread-making from other plant products

Bread could also be made from roots and corms of plants. In the Top End of Australia, people such as the Yolngu used the lotus root and wild taro. These were ground, then mixed to a paste to make bread. ROOT is an object-oriented software package developed by CERN. It was originally designed for particle physics data analysis and contains several features specific to this field, but it is also commonly used in other applications such as astronomy and data mining. ... A corm is a short, vertical, swollen underground stem of a plant (usually one of the monocots) that serves as a storage organ to enable the plant to survive winter or other adverse conditions such as summer drought and heat (estivation). ... The Top End is, Cape York Peninsula aside, the northernmost part of Australia. ... For Yolngu language see Yolngu Matha. ... This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Binomial name (L.) Schott Taro (from Tahitian or other Polynesian languages), more rarely kalo (from Hawaiian), is a tropical plant grown primarily as a vegetable food for its edible corm, and secondarily as a leaf vegetable. ...

Water lily seed bread was also popular in the Top End. The two species of water lily used were Nelumbo nucifera and Nymphaea macrosperma. During the early part of the dry season, water lilies were an important part of the diet, with seed pods eaten raw or ground into paste. Genera Barclaya Wall. ... The Top End is, Cape York Peninsula aside, the northernmost part of Australia. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

Women had expert knowledge of how to "de-toxify" certain plant foods. The seeds of the cycad palm, Cycas media, are highly carcenogenic when raw and require elaborate treatment includuing shelling, crushing, leaching in running water for up to five days, then cooking. After this they are made into small loaves, which can keep for a number of weeks. A ripe red jalapeño cut open to show the seeds For other uses, see Seed (disambiguation). ... Families Cycadaceae cycas family Stangeriaceae stangeria family Zamiaceae zamia family Leaves and male cone of Cycas revoluta Cycads are an ancient group of seed plants characterized by a large crown of compound leaves and a stout trunk. ...

In Queensland, the people of the Mount Tamborine area used the Bunya Pine cone (bunya nut), endemic to the area, to make bread in this way. Capital Brisbane Government Constitutional monarchy Governor Quentin Bryce Premier Peter Beattie (ALP) Federal representation  - House seats 28  - Senate seats 12 Gross State Product (2004-05)  - Product ($m)  $158,506 (3rd)  - Product per capita  $40,170/person (6th) Population (End of November 2006)  - Population  4,164,590 (3rd)  - Density  2. ... Tamborine is a national park in Queensland (Australia), 45 km south of Brisbane. ... Binomial name Araucaria bidwillii (Molina) K. Koch Araucaria bidwillii is a species in the genus Araucaria, family Araucariaceae. ... Binomial name Araucaria bidwillii (Molina) K. Koch Araucaria bidwillii is a species in the genus Araucaria, family Araucariaceae. ...

Burke and Wills

Ill-fated explorers, Burke and Wills, survived on bush bread for some time after they ran out of rations due to the death of their camels. The Cooper Creek Aborigines, the Yandruwandha people, gave them fish, beans called 'padlu' and bread made from the ground seeds of the ngardu (nardoo) plant (Marsilea drummondii). The route Burke & Wills took north (red) and south (dark blue) Robert OHara Burke William John Wills Artists depiction of Burkes death In 1860-61, Robert OHara Burke and William John Wills were sent on an expedition to cross Australia from south to north. ... Marsilea is a genus of approximately 65 species of aquatic ferns of family Marsileaceae. ...

There is some belief that the ngardu was a cause of their deaths. Wills's last journal entry includes the following:

..starvation on nardoo is by no means very unpleasant, but for the weakness one feels, and the utter inability to move oneself, for as far as appetite is concerned, it gives me the greatest satisfaction. Certainly, fat and sugar would be more to one's taste, in fact, those seem to me to be the great stand by for one in this extraordinary continent; not that I mean to depreciate the farinacious food, but the want of sugar and fat in all substances obtainable here is so great that they become almost valueless to us as articles of food, without the addition of something else..

It is probable that the explorers, in preparing the bread themselves, were not preparing it in the traditional way of the Aboriginal people^[2], which may have involved soaking seeds prior to grinding. It is therefore likely that the deaths of Burke and Wills resulted in part from beri-beri. Beri-beri is a nutritional disease, deficiency in vitamin 1 (thiamine). ...

See also

Indigenous Australians are descendants of the first known human inhabitants of the Australian continent and its nearby islands. ... This List of Indigenous Australian group names contains names and collective designations which have been applied, either formerly or in the past, to groups of Indigenous Australians. ... The Torres Strait Islander Flag. ... Numerous Indigenous Australians have been notable for their contributions to politics, including participation in governments and activism in Australia. ... Numerous Indigenous Australians and noted sportspeople. ... Numerous Indigenous Australians are noted for their participation in, and contributions to, the visual arts in Australia and abroad. ... // Mark Bin Bakar -- actor & comedian Stephen Page Frances Rings Kylie Belling -- actor Ernie Dingo -- actor and television presenter Stan Grant (journalist) television presenter David Gulpilil -- actor Tom E. Lewis -- actor, musician Deborah Mailman -- actor Leah Purcell -- actor Everlyn Sampi -- actor Justine Saunders -- actor Caitlin Stasey -- actor Ivan Sen -- filmmaker Robert... Numerous Indigenous Australians are notable for their contributions to Australian literature and journalism. ... This is a list of Indigenous Australian musicians. ... Aboriginal Australia contains a large number of tribal divisions and language groups, and, corresponding to this, a wide variety of diversity exists within cultural practices. ... Dreaming is a common term among Indigenous Australians for a personal, or group, creation story and for the mythological time of creation, as well as for the places where the creation spirits now lie dormant in the land. ... opens chapter nine of The Dreaming Universe (1994) entitled The Dreamtime with a quote from The Last Wave, a film by Peter Weir: Aboriginals believe in two forms of time. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Australian Aboriginal kinship is the system of law governing social interaction, particularly marriage, in traditional Aboriginal culture. ... Australian Aboriginal avoidance practices refers to those relationships in traditional Aboriginal society where certain people were required to avoid others in their family or clan. ... Indigenous Australians had distinct ways of dividing the year up. ... Australian Aboriginal enumeration refers to the way some Australian Aborigines traditionally counted. ... Marn Grook (also spelt marngrook) is an Australian Aboriginal ball game, which is claimed to have had an influence on the modern game of Australian rules football, most notably in the spectacular jumping and high marking exhibited by the players of both games. ... Kurdaitcha (or kurdaitcha man) is a ritual executioner in Aboriginal Australian culture. ... Many of the Australian Aboriginal cultures have a strong element of astronomy. ... Songlines - the British based world music magazine featuring the greatest artists in the current music scene on the web at [Songlines http://www. ... A message stick is a form of communication traditionally used by Indigenous Australians. ... The Deadlys are an annual celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander achievement in music, sport, entertainment and community. ... NAIDOC National Aboriginal Islander Day Observance Committee ... A Bora is the name given both to an initiation ceremony of Indigenous Australians, and to the site on which the initiation is performed. ... The Outstation movement refers to the relocation of Indigenous Australians from towns to remote outposts on traditional tribal land. ... Riji are the pearl shells traditionally worn by Aboriginal men in the north-west part of Australia, around present day Broome. ... This List of Indigenous Australian group names contains names and collective designations which have been applied, either formerly or in the past, to groups of Indigenous Australians. ... The Pama-Nyungan languages are the most widespread family of Australian languages. ... Many Australian Aboriginal cultures have or traditionally had a sign language counterpart to their spoken language. ... Avoidance speech, or mother-in-law languages, is a feature of many Australian Aboriginal languages and some North American languages whereby in the presence of certain relatives it is taboo to use everyday speech style, and instead a special speech style must be used. ... . ... These words of Australian Aboriginal origin include some which are almost universal in the English-speaking world, such as kangaroo and boomerang. ... The Gunwinyguan languages form the second largest family of Australian Aboriginal languages. ... Australian Aboriginal English (AAE) is a term referring to the various varieties of the English language used by Indigenous Australians. ... Kriol is an Australian creole that developed out of the contact between European settlers and the indigenous people in the northern regions of Australia. ... There are two languages indigenous to Torres Strait Islanders. ... The Northern Land Council (NLC) is in the Top End of the Northern Territory of Australia. ... The Central Land Council is in the southern half of the Northern Territory of Australia. ... The Aboriginal Medical Service (AMS) was established in Redfern from 1971. ... Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR) is an independent, national network of mainly non-Indigenous organisations and individuals working in support of justice for Indigenous Australians. ... Reconciliation Australia is the non-government, not-for-profit foundation established in January 2001 to provide a continuing national focus for reconciliation. ... European Network for Indigenous Australian Rights (ENIAR) is a European wide non-profit organisation that promotes awareness of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues and to provide information for Indigenous Australians about European and international organisations. ... The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) is an independent Australian Government statutory authority. ... The National Indigenous Council is an appointed advisory body to the Australian Government through the Ministerial Taskforce on Indigenous Affairs. ... The Aborigines Advancement League (also known as the Aboriginal Advancement League) is the oldest Aboriginal organisation in Australia[1]. It is primarily concerned with Aboriginal welfare issues and the preservation of Aboriginal culture and heritage, and is based in Melbourne. ... 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. ... Australian Aboriginal fibrecraft refers to the various ways Australian Aborigines created fibres traditionally. ... A soakage, or soak, is a source of water in Australian deserts. ... A 19th century engraving showing Aboriginal people and humpy. ... Sewn and incised possum-skin cloak of Wurundjeri origin (Melbourne Museum) Possum-skin cloaks were a form of clothing worn by Australian Aborigines in the south-east of the continent – present-day Victoria and southern New South Wales. ... Buka, or Boka, is the name for the cloak traditionally worn by Noongar people, the Indigenous people of south-western Australia. ... Indigenous Australian peoples traditionally classified food sources in a methodical way. ... Australian Aborigines had many ways to source sweet foods. ... Fire-stick farming is a term coined by Australian archeologist Rhys Jones in 1969 to describe the practice of Indigenous Australians where fire was used regularly to burn vegetation to facilitate hunting and to change the composition of plant and animal species in an area. ... The woomera in this picture is the wooden object at left A woomera is an Australian Aboriginal spear-throwing device. ... This article is about the wooden implement. ... The coolamon in this picture is at top left. ... A Waddy is an Australian Aboriginal war club. ... Aboriginal hollow log tomb Indigenous Australian art is art produced by Indigenous Australians, covering works that pre-date European colonisation as well as contemporary art by Aboriginal Australians based on traditional culture. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... Papunya Tula, or Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd, is an artists cooperative, formed in 1972 to market the paintings of a group of Aboriginal Australian men who had begun painting traditional designs using western art materials at the Papunya settlement, 240 km northwest of Alice Springs in Central Australia in... Indigenous Australian music includes the music of Australian Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, who are collectively called Indigenous Australians; it incorporates a wide variety of distinctive traditional music styles practised by Indigenous Australian peoples, as well as a range of contemporary musical styles both derivative of and fusion with European... Aboriginal rock is a rather nebulous term for a style of music which mixes traditional rock music elements (guitar, drums, bass etc) with the instrumentation of Indigenous Australians (Didjeridu, clap-sticks etc). ... A didgeridoo. ... Vibe Australia Pty Ltd (Vibe) is an Aboriginal media, communications and events management agency. ... The National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award (NATSIAA) is one of the most prestigious art awards in Australia. ... The prehistory of Australia is a term which may be used to describe the period of approximately 40-45,000 years (or more, as is contended by some studies) between the first human habitation of the Australian continent and the first definitive sighting of Australia by Europeans in 1606, which... // A 19th century engraving of an Indigenous Australian encampment, showing the indigenous mode of life in the cooler parts of Australia at the time of European settlement. ... Some Indigenous Australians are remembered in history for leadership prior to European colonisation, some for their resistance to that colonisation, others for assisting Europeans explore the country. ... The Aboriginal History of Western Australia is the history of the indigenous inhabitants of the western third of the Australian continent, from their own perspective. ... The 1946 Pilbara strike was a landmark strike by Indigenous Australian pastoral workers in the Pilbara region of Western Australia for human rights recognition and payment of fair wages and working conditions. ... Shows location of Gurindji (blue, near top left) in the Northern Territory The Gurindji Strike lasted from 1966 to 1975 at Wave Hill cattle station in the Northern Territory of Australia. ... This is a list of massacres of Indigenous Australians. ... Umbarra, King Merriman, from the Djirringanj of Bermagui with King plate King plates were a form of regalia used chiefly in pre-Federation Australia by white colonial authorities to recognise local Aboriginal leaders. ... Proclamation of the Day of Mourning. ... The Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra has existed intermittently since 1972. ... The Caledon bay crisis refers to a series of killings in Caledon Bay in the Northern Territory of Australia in 1932-1934. ... From as early as the 1830s, a Native Police Corps was established in the Australian colony of New South Wales (now Victoria). ... Proclamation of the Day of Mourning. ... The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) (1990–2005) was the Australian Government body through which Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders were formally involved in the processes of government affecting their lives. ... The Pintupi Nine refers to a group of nine Pintupi people who were discovered living a traditional semi-nomadic desert-dwelling life in the Gibson Desert in 1984. ... A picture of the last four Tasmanian Aborigines c. ... The Stolen Generation (or Stolen Generations) is a term used to describe the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, usually of mixed descent, who were taken from their families by Australian government agencies and church missions, under various state acts of parliament, denying the rights of parents and making... Native title is a concept in the law of Australia that recognises the continued ownership of land by local Indigenous Australians. ... Petrol sniffing is a form of substance abuse where a person deliberately inhales petrol fumes for the intoxicating effect. ... The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (1987-1991) investigated allegations of murder of Australian Aboriginals in prison. ...

References

1. ^ http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/monitoringandsurveillance/nuttab2006/onlineversionintroduction/onlineversion.cfm?&action=listFoods&group=Indigenous%20Foods
2. ^ http://farrer.csu.edu.au/ASGAP/APOL26/jun02-6.html

• Bush Bread artwork
• Grass seed artwork
• Aboriginal Technology
• Australian History
• Making bread from bush bean
• Peterson, Nicholas, Donald Thomson in Arnhem Land, Melbourne University Press ISBN 0-522-85063-4, pp168-9.