An Age-Old Beginning: Understanding, sharing, and celebrating Australian Native Foods and their cultural significance and unique benefits

This report aims to identify, emphasise and celebrate the cultural significance of Australian Native Foods (ANF) and explore their unique benefits. The ANF industry is still young, but it is growing rapidly. Research into ANF will highlight their nutritional value and distinctive benefits, which have driven increasing demand in a once-niche Australian market, now transitioning into a globally sought-after economy. Within this report, findings will illustrate the use of ANF and their relationship with First Nations communities and cultures across Australia. It will show how ANF is utilised in ceremonial and cultural practices and the role they play within First Nations knowledge systems and traditions.

Several case studies have been developed, focusing on products that range from those with established commercial markets and growing market presence, to non-mainstream, culturally vital foods for First Nations people, as well as internationally significant First Nations Foods:

• Terminalia ferdinandiana (Kakadu Plum)
• Tetragonia tetragonioides (Warrigal Green)
• Rock Fuchsia Bush (Bush Medicine)
• Heteropogon triticeus (Giant Spear Grass)
• Native North American Bannock

There are numerous challenges facing the ANF industry, with potential threats and risks related to the exploitation of cultural knowledge and provenance-driven information embedded within each ANF product. Best practice indicates that self-determination within First Nations communities and First Nations-led ANF businesses are essential for protecting Indigenous Cultural Intellectual Property (ICIP) and supporting First Nations knowledge systems to ensure the sustainable and ethical production and sale of ANF. Based on the findings of this report, I have collated a list of key challenges that face First Nations agriculturalists within the ANF industry, and barriers that inhibit the ethical practice of producing, harvesting, selling, and marketing ANFs.

After collating the benefits, risks, and market analysis of the ANF industry, I have designed several key recommendations that I believe will enhance the protection of culturally significant information that ANF holds, and highlight economic empowerment, opportunity, and celebration of ANF and First Nations knowledge systems. Those recommendations are:

• Strengthen IP and Traditional Knowledge protection
• Build consumer trust through authentic branding
• Greater investment in research and development
• Secure sustainable supply chains through capability and capacity building for First Nations agribusiness
• Increased capital investment in First Nations agriculture businesses
• Majority share of First Nations-owned bush food businesses
• Culturally safe Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander governance structures for First Nations businesses in the Native Foods sector