ABSTRACT

Aboriginal residency of Australia began over 50,000 years ago. This landscape has sustained many Aboriginal communities, whilst witnessing major geological and climate transformations. Aboriginal custodians have navigated a vast spectrum of new and changing food sources to sustain themselves through their integration of custodial responsibilities with traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). Contemporary Australia is intrigued by Aboriginal bush foods, although this is only part of the larger body of Indigenous knowledge that concerns the protocols and foraging patterns that have sustained Aboriginal populations, while accommodating large food harvesting and sharing at celebratory events. This chapter surveys the unique Aboriginal food-security paradigm by providing an overview of Aboriginal ethno-botany, TEK, and foraging protocols. It examines food-sharing events and describes key food types that were harvested. The chapter offers an alternate ethno-ecological insight as to how this generational Indigenous knowledge could be applied today in Australian landscape architecture, planning, and landscape management practice.