What are some traditional foods eaten by the Aboriginal people?

Answer 1

Meat in the diet

There is increasing evidence that in tropical, savanna, coastal and desert areas diets were meat orientated. Besides those foods mentioned above, other important animal sources such as eggs, frogs, honey ants and some grubs have also been recorded.

Plant foods

Vegetable foods provided an important supplement rather than an alternative to animal foods. Proportions changed throughout the seasons. A few plant staples were eaten often. These included yams, bush tomatoes, fig and quandong fruits, corms of bush onion, wild orange truffles, gall nuts of the mulga apple or bloodwood apple and the seeds from some grasses. Bush vegetables, seeds and fruits are very rich in vitamins and minerals. The green plum, for instance, has the highest concentration of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) of any known plant (1 000-5 300mg/100g). Seeds of acacia species are high in the essential oils, linoleic and oleic acids.

Meal Patterns

The quality and quantity of food consumed varied greatly from day to day. People generally subsisted and the diet was supplemented when larger animals were killed. Larger animals were shared among group members. During times when a lot of meat was available people ate large quantities at one time. It has been argued that these 'feasts' provided excess energy which was stored as fatty tissue to cover periods of relative shortage of food.

Children were breast fed until approximately three years of age. The age of weaning depended on the birth of the next child. Solids were introduced when the baby had teeth.

Food Preparation

There was minimal processing and storage of food, no overcooking, and no leaching of vitamins and minerals in cooking water. Many plant foods were eaten raw. Fruits, bulbs, nectar and gums were often eaten straight after picking. Some vegetables were cooked to make them taste better. Tree, grass and waterlily seeds were often made into a damper which was baked in hot sand and ashes. Traditional law often influenced the way that animals were cooked. Meat was eaten rare, usually at one sitting and there was little wastage. Smaller animals were baked in hot sand and ashes, either directly or wrapped in bark and leaves. Large bones were broken and marrow extracted. Smaller bones were chewed or even pounded and eaten. Food distribution Foods were proportioned and distributed according to traditional law. Strict cultural practices were determined by kin obligations. Sharing food had a social purpose and was important to the strengthening of relationships. Distribution was also associated with ceremonies or 'righting a wrong'. In some areas older men received the choice cuts of meat and the remainder of an animal was distributed according to age and status. Fat The prime time for hunting or collecting was when animals were 'fat'. Although some animals such as witchetty grubs and green ants have a relatively high fat content, most land animals are very lean. Native animals have a much lower fat content than domesticated animals. The small, fatty deposits that were found in some parts of an animal were shared between many people. Delicacies Traditional diet was low in sugars. Honey ants, sugar-bag, other nectars and honey were considered delicacies and were highly prized. The above is quoted from the Related Link.

Answer 2

Australia's indigenous peoples were adept at living off the land. They hunted a variety of wild life: marsupials (such as kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, koalas, etc); bats; birds, including emus; insects (such as witchetty grubs and moths), reptiles (such as goannas, other lizards and snakes), and, in coastal areas, a variety of shellfish and fish.

They were also gatherers, collecting bush tucker from native trees, and moving from source to source with the seasons. Their diet also included native plants, fruits, and roots. For a comprehensive list, see the related link below.

They were semi-nomadic, often forced to travel in search of new food supplies and water.

Answer 3

One of the foods that the Aboriginals ate was the goanna, this was a large lizard that was considered a treat. They also ate insects, birds, fish, and eels.