Exploring Bush Foods in the Early Years

Exploring bush foods in the early childhood setting, looking at their flavours, uses and where they come from, is a great way of introducing children to the vast and diverse range of ways Aboriginal people have utilised and cared for the Australian landscape. Young children, though they may be quite familiar with the idea of farming and agriculture in terms of the types of fruits and vegetables they see in the supermarket, are often surprised to learn of the immense range of native Australian foods that can be found in their own backyards.

Taking children's on bush walks in their local area is a great way to spot native foods. Wattle trees are an easy example to share with little ones. There are over 300 varieties of wattle in Australia, but only a small number are edible. Aboriginal groups collected these edible wattleseed and ground them into a flour, which when mixed with water was then able to be eaten as a paste or cooked as a damper.

Throughout history, native foods were not only collected from the landscape by Aboriginal communities, but actively propagated. Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu outlines some of the intricate methods of land management employed by Aboriginal people; including seed propagation, irrigation, harvesting and storage of seeds, fire stick farming, and more.

Other great ways to explore native foods include cooking activities with your children. Many native Australian spices are readily available, such as lemon myrtle and strawberry gum, and these are easy additions to simple cooking experiences with children. Various native flavoured pantry foods like jams and sauces, are also easy ways to share with children the flavours of the Australian bush. You can even buy damper mixes and muffin mixes which showcase flavours such as wattleseed, lemon myrtle, Davidson’s Plum and more.

You may even have a lemon myrtle tree already growing in your garden. If not, planting a bush food garden is a great learning opportunity for children, as well as a wonderful way of engaging with your local Aboriginal community, who could assist you in the design and inclusion of appropriate local plants.

Learning about bush foods offer such a diverse range of learning elements for young children, and is a great platform for bringing in Indigenous perspectives. We have a range of resources that can compliment your learning sessions on bush foods, including our Bush Foods Snap Cards and other teacher resource books on the topic, like Dark Emu and Bushfoods and Botanicals. A bigger range of books on bush foods can be found here.