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🇦🇺 Australia /Culture & Society

Native food cafe passes Indigenous cooking knowledge to younger generations

From ABC Australia · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Context piece
  • The Ngamrapku Cafe in Glossop, South Australia, uses native ingredients and Indigenous recipes to pass knowledge from Aboriginal elders to younger generations.
  • The cafe forms part of the Kawunwampu Cultural Centre, developed by the River Murray and Mallee Aboriginal Corporation from a 2020 food-truck vision.
  • Australia's native food industry is valued at $100 million, but less than 1% of its revenue is estimated to return to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

For Julie Cook, watching her children and grandchildren prepare kangaroo sliders in an Indigenous-owned cafe is about far more than food. It is a way for younger generations to reconnect with Country and learn practices passed down by Aboriginal elders.

"I can't explain it because, in a First Nations way, it's our kids starting to connect back to Country and they are learning the ways that we've been taught," said Cook, chair of the River Murray and Mallee Aboriginal Corporation. She said the connection ran so deeply that she struggled to put her feelings into words.

I can't explain it because, in a First Nations way, it's our kids starting to connect back to Country and they are learning the ways that we've been taught.

· Julie CookThe RMMAC chair described how the cafe passes Indigenous knowledge to younger generations.

The Ngamrapku Cafe forms part of the Kawunwampu Cultural Centre in Glossop, on Erawirung country. The site includes a cultural garden and native plants cared for by the corporation's rangers. It occupies the former Jerry Mason Senior Memorial Centre, a building once used by Aboriginal communities that had stood vacant for years.

Growing up we've had access to that from our elders, but here to be able to have a cafe, it's amazing.

· Sarah LindsayThe RMMAC director discussed the cafe's role in preserving access to traditional foods and knowledge.

The menu gives familiar dishes a native twist, including kangaroo sausage rolls and hamburgers, old man saltbush-salted fries, and fried bread served with native jams. For RMMAC director Sarah Lindsay, the cafe also helps reclaim knowledge lost across generations, including traditional foods and language.

The project has a broader economic purpose. A Southern Cross University study valued Australia's native food industry at $100 million, while estimating that less than 1% of its revenue reaches Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Around 200 people attended the cafe's opening. RMMAC also hopes the venue can help revive Glossop, a town of 919 people whose high school closed in 2022. Chief executive Les Harris said the closure had been followed by the loss of local businesses.

Glossop has pretty much died since the close-down of the high school.

· Les HarrisThe RMMAC chief executive described the town's decline after its high school closed.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Australia in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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