Victoria’s Traditional Owners have released a strategy restoring their leadership of the state’s native foods and botanicals industry. The strategy is an Australian first and backed by the Victorian Government.
The plan is to create a strong, authentic, sustainable bushfood industry. The strategy outlines that the best way to turn native foods and botanicals into a major, sustainable industry is to protect its integrity and authenticity.
It will guide recovery and reclamation of important knowledge and practices by mapping out the actions needed for Victorian Traditional Owners to restore their rights of biocultural species, knowledge and practices.
Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation CEO and Project Control Group chair Rodney Carter said the strategy was about making sure economic development was a positive thing for the communities and “safeguards our traditional knowledge and helps us to authentically share our culture and ancient wisdom with the world”.
The Federation of Victorian Traditional Owner Corporations facilitated the development of the Strategy with $100,000 support from the Victorian Government.
Federation of Victorian Traditional Owner Corporation CEO Paul Baton said: “With Treaty just over the horizon, this is another great example of the Victorian Government empowering Traditional Owner leadership, in self-determination mode, to build a future where we can all benefit from the traditional knowledge and practices passed on to us by our ancestors, and celebrate that with pride.”
The new strategy aligns with the government’s agriculture sector plan to maximise the growth potential of key emerging industries.
More information can be found here.
The strategy details four guiding principles: culture, country, community, and commercial, which have been developed through engagement with Traditional Owners and their communities, including Elders, Knowledge Holders, and Traditional Owner Corporations.
Official data on the Australian native foods and botanicals industry is limited. It’s estimated the farm-gate value of the sector is now close to $50 million, with potential through investment and value-adding to increase that to $250 million.
The Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation has identified 13 priority species: lemon myrtle; mountain pepper; bush tomato; anise myrtle; finger limes; kakadu plum; desert limes; quandong; muntries, wattleseed; riberry; davidson plum; and lemon aspen.
The industry currently employs between 500 to 1000 people, with half the workforce Indigenous Australians.
The strategy said native food’s rapid growth was due to the industry maturing as it transitions from wild harvest to the development of viable cultivation and post-harvest management systems. Most native species are now sourced from cultivated harvests, although wild harvest remains the dominant source of supply for mountain pepper, bush tomato and Kakadu plum.
Increased demand has also been driven by innovations in food and beverage product technology, with research and development extracting oils and essences from native plant species for nutraceutical and pharmaceutical producers, it said.
At a commercial scale, several native food species are traded on the open market. In 2010, the production of 12 of the 13 priority species (including Davidson plum, riberry, wattleseed, native citrus varieties, quandong and Kakadu plum) averaged eight tonnes a year.
The standout priority species has been lemon myrtle leaf, with annual production ranging between 575 tonnes and 1,100 tonnes.
The strategy said that according to industry sources, these 12 species are successful because they have developed reliable production, supply chain management systems, food standards and trade compliance – and built confidence within national and international markets.
In 2019 the inaugural National Indigenous Bushfood Symposium was held, with this statement issued at its conclusion:
Our Indigenous Knowledge, plants and animals have ended up in supermarkets, databases and research projects without our consent or participation.
Culture and country have been exploited by the food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and agricultural industry, research institutions and universities. We reclaim our cultural heritage, rights to water and country and our right to ethical, principled engagement with us.
We have the right to pass on this knowledge to our children in accordance with our Indigenous Knowledge systems, including the requirements for privacy and secrecy required by those ancient systems.
This is a key pathway to economic independence and equality. We assert our rights to continue to develop our pre-existing Indigenous economies, carry them forward in accordance with our Knowledge systems, caring for country and creating intergenerational wealth, locally and in international markets.
One of the symposium’s outcomes was the First Nations Bushfood and Botanical Alliance Australia, the sector’s first national, Indigenous-controlled bushfoods industry body.
The full strategy is here.
