Indigenous performance
With The Curated Plate just a number of days away excitement is building around such a diverse array of sensational food events, each with their own story to tell of connectivity, sharing, and the abundance with which we are faced in the way of regional produce.
But perhaps the most important story of all is the one of our indigenous heritage, their connection to the land and the honouring of cultural traditions into the future. It is with great privilege, as part of the Destination Series, visitors can enjoy two events that give insight and understanding to our great Sunshine Coast region, as traditional owners and custodians share with us, a rich and vibrant history of the indigenous foods that are making their way into popular cuisine worldwide.
Indigenous performance
Bushtucker on the menu
The Sunshine Coast is alive with native food sources. Bushtucker, as it is commonly referred to, is finding its way on to menus throughout Australia and causing ripples around the world. Many of us are already familiar with fingerlimes, an Australian native citrus, which is now being farmed commercially on the Sunshine Coast, and which is featured heavily throughout The Curated Plate as a star ingredient amongst chefs. But there are also many lesser know bush foods, that are emerging into the spotlight, largely through the education of local indigenous communities who have been championing these ingredients, intertwining stories of their dreamtime and indigenous cuisine.
The Curated Plate Destination Series has two amazing experiences – Experience Eumundi’s Eumundi Bush Tucker Journey and Feast (daytime), and Tribalink’s Songs and Stories of the People (evening).
Indigenous performance
A bushtucker journey through Eumundi with Lyndon Davis – celebrating tradition
Led by Kabi Kabi custodian, Lyndon Davis, join a discovery tour of the Eumundi region as part of Experience Eumundi’s incredible Eumundi’s Bush Tucker Journey and Feast.
Weaving together the stories of Kabi Kabi history along with an understanding of the indigenous plants that grow in the region, Lyndon shares traditions, history and the beautiful stories of creation. The Gubbi Gubbi dancers will join in to perform a cultural song and dance ceremony with a traditional welcome for guests to be immersed into sensory feast of history and legend.
Share in a delicious bushtucker lunch and then join Lyndon on a guided bushtucker tour through the Eumundi township to discover how nature provides, as he shares the uses, identifiers and seasonal calendar of our abundant bushfoods and opens your eyes to a food source that is creating a great deal of excitement worldwide.
Songs, stories, and bushtucker under the stars – stories of the Kabi Kabi
Meanwhile, in the heart of Jinibara country, Goombuckar Creations’ founder, Kerry Neill, extends a heartfelt welcome to the TribalLink Cultural Centre at Mapleton to enjoy an authentic aboriginal experience under the wandering night sky. As a traditional custodian to this beautiful patch of paradise, Kerry takes you on a journey of understanding, inviting you to immerse yourself in legends of the Dreamtime, and stories of the Kabi Kabi people, invoking thoughtful conversation and cultural insight that will leave you with a greater feeling of belonging and awareness.
Indigenous food
In the evening glow, walk with Kerry to a magical rainforest waterfall before making your way back to the main campsite, reproduced to reflect how a traditional campsite would have looked in times past. The yarning circle, art poles and rock art add to the authenticity of the experience, the darkness casting an ethereal warmth across the camp.
Chef Tahneeka Adams creates an incredible selection of bushtucker dishes. Warragul greens, bush tomatoes, lemon myrtle, Davidson plums, wild mulberry and bunya nuts are amongst the fabulous fresh native ingredients foraged locally or grown on the property. The menu, is an explosion of native flavours; smoked kangaroo, bush tomato relish, saltbush seared scallops, bunya nut and crocodile wontons, emu root vegetable stew, and a show stopping paperbark barramundi. It is a feast that will introduce you to a sensation of food and flavours, respecting sustainable abundance and time-honoured traditions.
Indigenous performance
In the glowing ambience of the campfire and candlelight, enjoy a bunya nut hibiscus cheesecake or graze from the indigenous fruit and nuts that glisten like jewels amongst a lavish local cheese platter. While you enjoy the native sweet treats, the Dee’rum Wan’dum (Sunrise) dance troupe perform a medley of traditional and contemporary dances to the evocative sound of the didgeridoo that fills the night air.
Indigenous performance
The yarns and storytelling continue around the campfire, marshmallows in hand, completing the evening with a sharing of friendship and newfound sense of belonging. Riches that come with an awareness of indigenous cultural diversity and connection it can bring. Enjoy!
Tickets to both of these events are almost sold out, so make sure you get your bookings in soon so you can be part of one of these fabulous cultural experiences.