Indigenous Australian food culture is in the spotlight with the June World's 50 Best Restaurants win for chef Mindy Woods, a proud Bundjalung woman and advocate for First Nations cuisine. 

Travellers who would like to experience Indigenous cuisine can take part in cultural and culinary experiences with Mindy at Karkalla on Bundjalung Country, immersed in the beauty of her hinterland Byron Bay farm in northern New South Wales.

From bush food tours to dining under the stars, and hunting or foraging for your own meal, travellers can expect to be awed by the diversity of native flavours found across Australia. 

Discover Aboriginal Experiences (DAE) invites foodies to visit nature's supermarket on guided Aboriginal bush-tucker walks, and to taste the unique flavours of Australian landscapes including wattleseed that can be used to make damper, Kakadu plum and saltbush to season and enhance flavours. 

“Some of the best experiences are learning how to hunt traditionally, and to forage and then to try your hand at catching your own dinner,” said Nicole Mitchell, Executive Officer Discover Aboriginal Experiences.

“Food is at the heart of culture and experiencing food is essential for understanding the world's oldest continuous living cultures.”

In Western Australia, just a short drive from Perth, Dale Tilbrook, a proud Wardandi Bibbulmun woman, shares her deep knowledge of Aboriginal food traditions, the benefits of Australian native ingredients, and how they can be used in cooking today, on her tours.

Guests are invited to taste a variety of wild bush foods, including quandong, native limes, sandalwood nuts and local coastal greens. Learn about – and sniff, touch and taste – native Australian herbs, spices and other aromatics. Discover the uses of bush-tucker plants, their medicinal properties and the surprising health benefits they offer.  

Other activities here include exploring Dale's bush-food garden and learning the local history and culture. Explore the incredible world of native Australian bush foods with Dale in this video here.

An Aboriginal Bush Tucker tour in the Royal Botanic Garden of Sydney / Warrane, with a First Nations Guide, invites guests to experience the power of plants by walking through the Cadi Jam Ora garden to discover Indigenous bush foods and learn how they were used traditionally – before sampling.

In Broome / Rubibi in Western Australia, Mabu Buru Tours is an Aboriginal-owned and -operated tourism business that provides an Indigenous perspective to the landscape in and around this northern region, and introduces guests to the ancient culture of the Yawuru and Karajarri Peoples. On a Binba Mayii 4WD Tag-along experience, visitors track down and forage for local delicacies like mud crabs, mud shells, mangrove snails, stingray and fish, learning about the local Indigenous cultures before feasting on their fresh catch.

Seafood plays a starring role on experiences hosted by Saltwater Eco Tours on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. Feast on fresh Mooloolaba prawns and oysters alongside other bush tucker-inspired treats, on the Mooloolaba Bushtucker Cruise – while you drift you learn how the local Gubbi Gubbi/Kabi Kabi people have lived in harmony with these waterways for thousands of years. Indigenous co-owner Simon Thornalley shares his own deep connection to Sea Country through storytelling and the soulful sounds of his didgeridoo.

At Ayers Rock Resort's Tali Wiru experience in the Northern Territory, guests experience bush flavours in an open-air setting, with Uluru as a backdrop. Each dish in the four-course meal showcases native produce and might include pressed wallaby with fermented quandong or roasted toothfish and coastal greens.

August 9 marks the United Nations International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples – an opportunity to recognise and celebrate the knowledge, resilience and living cultures of Indigenous communities worldwide. There is no better time to experience the richness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culinary traditions, connect with the stories of the world's oldest living cultures, and support Indigenous-led tourism across Australia.

Resources

All articles can be found in our Media Kit, available to download here.

Refer to the Food and Drink section under Explore Contents by Theme (page 14 of Media Kit) for articles on culinary experiences.

All DAE experiences listed under the culinary category can be found here. 

For more information on bush foods, refer to the following Cultural Insights guides (additional guides are available in our Media Kit):
Guide to the Finger Lime
Guide to the Kakadu Plum

Editor's Notes

The Discover Aboriginal Experiences collective is part of Tourism Australia's Signature Experiences of Australia program that promotes outstanding tourism experiences within a variety of special categories. This collection showcases a diversity of experiences delivered by the world's oldest living cultures, creating memorable trips for adventure seekers, culture enthusiasts, foodies and nature lovers, ranging from exploring hidden rock art galleries to foraging for native delicacies, stand-up paddleboarding on culturally significant waterways to bedding down at wilderness lodges in serene natural settings.   

There are currently 51 members in the Discover Aboriginal Experiences collective, offering more than 200 Aboriginal-guided experiences around Australia. Aboriginal guides don't just afford a unique means of bringing Australia's landscapes to life. As the owners of the stories they share with you, they provide a way to connect with Australian places and cultures quite unlike any other medium. Each member of this collection is considered a world-class leader in Aboriginal tourism, representing local Aboriginal cultures with integrity and authenticity. 

Find out more about the Discover Aboriginal Experiences collective via our website. From the website you can access a dedicated trade and media portal, replete with a digital brochure listing all 51 members and the experiences they offer, a media kit packed with story ideas, interviews, Discover Aboriginal Experiences resources and more. 

A collection of royalty-free Aboriginal tourism images is available here. Please see the dropdown menu for Discover Aboriginal Experiences on the Resources tab.

For further information contact:

Nicole Mitchell – Tourism Australia

Executive Officer Discover Aboriginal Experiences

T: +61 410 499 525 E: dae@tourism.australia.com

W: discoveraboriginalexperiences.com

Media in North America

Julie Earle-Levine in New York

julie@julieearle.net