Photos of Aboriginal Bushtucker in the Northern Territory, Australia

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Aboriginal Bushtucker in the Northern Territory

For thousands of years Aboriginal people throughout Australia have lived by hunting and gathering various wild foods (also known as "bushtucker"). Recently non-Aboriginal people too have started to discover these fruits and vegetables. Tests have proved the nutritional value of these foods; many fruits are rich in vitamines, among other things.

Witchetty grubs
 
Cooking witchetty grubs
 
Lajamanu
 
Wild watermelon
 
Eating a little bird
 
Honey from flowers
 
Catching a snake
 
Bush banana
 
Eating
 
Showing bush banana
 
Cooking bush bean
 
Getting bushberries
 
Collecting wild nuts
 
Collecting edible gum
 
Looking for edible gum
 
Pose with a goanna
 
Longneck tortoise
 
Getting bushtucker
 
Edible waterlilies
 
Collecting waterlily stems
 
Edible gum
 
Eating bush gum
 
Boys with waterlilies
 
Turtle eggs
 
Eating carpet snake
 
Butchering a possum
 
Cooking crabs
 
Collecting cockle-berries
 
Picking berries
 
Cooking small birds
 
Getting turtle eggs
 
Collecting oysters
 
Collecting turtle eggs
 
Spearing crabs
 
Caught stingray
 
A mud crab
 

Although there are now supermarkets in most Aboriginal communities, gathering bushtucker is still very popular, especially among children, who always know exactly when and where to go. These photos were taken in various communities in the Northern Territory of Australia.

Children especially love to get the wild fruits, like the stems of water lillies, tasting a bit like celery or various berries, like "pikiki", bushberries that may only be collected by throwing a rock against the tree. Some trees ooze an edible gum and in the desert regions witchetty grubs, the larvae of a large moth, are extracted from the roots of certain shrubs and lightly roasted.

In coastal regions gathering turtle eggs is a yearly treat and large crabs can be found in the mangroves. All these foods have excellent value. And what's more, they're free!