Feature

Bringing First Peoples and community together with food

A one-of-a-kind food festival, Grazing Down the Lachlan, is taking place in Forbes along a drover's stock route and ancient Wiradjuri songline.

Chefs O Tama Carey and Mat Lindsay

Chefs Mat and O Tama have been working on the menu for over a year. Source: Denise Yates

Bringing the local Indigenous Wiradjuri mob, generational farmers and two of Sydney’s hottest chefs, Mat Lindsay of and O Tama Carey of and , to eat and drink for , in Forbes in Central West NSW, is as much about celebrating local culture and food as it is about throwing a jammin’ country shindig.

800 pairs of feet will be walking and eating along the Galari

On September 23, hundreds of people (local and food enthusiasts alike) – they’re expecting 800 – will make their way to Forbes, where their journey walking along a drover’s stock route following the eucalypt-lined Lachlan River begins. Think of the walk, which stretches over about two-and-a-half meandering kilometres of the Galari – the local Wiradjuri name – as an epic moveable feast of seven courses.
Grazing Down the Lachlan
Doesn't this look like a nice place to sit on a haybale, have a drink and nibble? Source: Denise Yates
Joy Russell, a local Wiradjuri woman who has been consulting on Grazing Down the Lachlan and helping revive the area’s Indigenous language recognises how symbolic the event will be.

“Our [Wiradjuri] community makes up just over 10 per cent of Forbes,” says Joy.

“My great grandmother married my great grandfather who was a landholder here in Forbes. I was unaware when I was young of being an Aboriginal person because there was such shame, in Forbes especially. But with things like Grazing Down the Lachlan and the work they’re doing with the Aboriginal community that stigma has faded significantly. We’re trying to work together better.”
An epic moveable feast of seven courses.
One of the team behind the scenes of Grazing Down the Lachlan is Wendy Muffet, a resident of Forbes for the past 40 years and a fourth-generation farmer, who chairs the volunteer committee that has been working tenaciously for nearly two years to make the festival a reality.

“Our goal is to walk alongside our Wiradjuri friends,” says Wendy. “We’re proud to be on the front foot of celebrating the cultural history of the area."
Grazing Down the Lachlan
Tracking Wiradjuri songlines in the hoof prints of drovers. Source: Denise Yates

Tracing an ancient songline of the Wiradjuri First People

The collaborative spirit behind Grazing Down the Lachlan springs from the stock route itself. The trail along the Galari is believed to be part of an ancient songline (our First People’s ongoing connection to land and culture passed on for millennia orally through ).

“It’s thought that when the white explorers crossed the mountains, the Aboriginal people showed them these walking tracks, part of a songline, which told people where to find food, in what season to find it, how to care for the land and how to live together peacefully,” says Wendy.

Joy admits that she personally “knows nothing about songlines because of the policy of not being able to speak our language and not being able to know our history”.

But that has been changing. Key to Grazing Down the Lachlan is to celebrate Wiradjuri history, weaving the community spirit together - including plans to install local Indigenous artwork along the (the funds raised from Grazing will be invested into commissioning artworks for the trail) - and marrying regional farmed ingredients with native ingredients from the area.
Grazing Down the Lachlan
Beautiful red quandongs, prized for their tartness, will be on the menu. Source: Denise Yates

Indigenous native foods and farmed foods on one plate

The gathering of local native ingredients will be coordinated by Adam Shipp, a Wiradjuri man, based in Canberra, who has spent the past seven years learning about bush foods and bush medicine from his elders and currently works at Greening Australia as their Indigenous Engagement and Training Officer. With the help of children from the local primary school, they will collect ingredients just prior to the event.

“When I get there [Forbes] and walk through the bush,” says Adam, “I’ll be able to identify some things we’ll be able to use. Hopefully there will be nice bush-fruiting plants.”

Although the first thing he will be doing when he sets foot in Forbes is meeting with the Wiradjuri elders to seek “permission to be on their country to get permission to be passing on cultural knowledge in their area,” says Adam.

One of the edible native plants that Adam has identified is kurrajong, a tree that is prevalent in Central West NSW. “It has a nutritious seed that’s been eaten for thousands of years, says Adam.”

Sydney chefs O Tama and Mat Lindsay are crafting the menu

Chef O Tama is quite excited about working with kurrajong seed. “We toasted them and they’re almost buttery and crunchy like popcorn kernels.”

The seed will go into the first snack on the route – a trail mix of dehydrated kangaroo with fried saltbush, hazelnuts and figs seasoned with pepperberry.
Grazing Down the Lachlan
Trail mix, consisting of dehydrated kangaroo and kurrajong seeds. Source: Denise Yates
Another bush food native to the area is cumbung or gabudha in Wiradjuri language, an edible water reed. “The new shoots are like a salad-type vegetable and there is an underground root system that can be dug up, roasted and eaten,” says Adam. Chef O Tama likens the texture of the reed to a cross between bamboo and water chestnut: “It has a really delicate flavour and a good crunch to it”.

The festival’s culinary directors won’t reveal too much more of the menu, “we’re keeping it a surprise”, says O Tama.

However, she does reveal that the menu echoes the symbolism underpinning the entire the event.

“We want to ensure the surrounding environment is simpatico with the food, so we looked at where each part of the trail is and this informed which dish we would do. For example, one of the fresh-water dishes is a served on a spot next to the river so you can see where the food is from,” says O Tama.

Wendy adds that “the menu is a true fusion. Not one station is all about Wiradjuri or all about farmed food. Every station is a fusion of the two.”
There is no packaging. There is no plastic ... There will not be one piece of rubbish.
The farmed foods that will complement the native bush ingredients have been selected based on two criteria: must be local and must be grown sustainably - philosophies that are the backbone of both O Tama and Mat’s approach to food.
Grazing Down the Lachlan
Part of the food festival will be learning about local bush foods, like these wattle seed pods. Source: Denise Yates

The food festival will be zero-waste

Indeed, the culinary theme of sustainability permeates the entire event.

“There is no packaging. There is no plastic. And the very few pieces of paper will be 100 per cent compostable. There will be not one piece of rubbish,” says Penelope McGufficke, Secretary of Grazing Down the Lachlan and Tourism Development Officer for Forbes Shire Council. “This is really about leaving the country better than you find it. I know it’s a passion of Wendy’s and the committee has really gone 200 per cent to achieve this.”

And it’s not just the Grazing committee getting behind a no-waste event. The Salvation Army stores in the area have been cleaned out as have the linen presses of people’s homes.

“People have given unwanted sheets and tablecloths, we’ve had volunteers cut them into 800 napkins, another volunteer sewing the edges, and more volunteers stamping on the Grazing logo,” smiles Wendy. “And we’ll be asking guests to give us everything back to use again next year.”

“We’ve made corrugated iron water tanks for every station to fill up with beautiful rainwater,” adds Wendy.

Every last detail has been considered and planned for - including the most appropriate footwear for festival goers.

“Strictly no high heels,” heeds Wendy.

“The droving route is still in use today,” she says. “We’ve had to negotiate with Local Land Services [who manage the area] so there isn’t a great mob of cattle through the day before - because we really don’t want people stepping in their offerings.”

 

SBS Food is a proud media partner of Grazing Down the Lachlan. Pack your Blundstones and come along and party with us from SBS Food HQ, the Wiradjuri, Wendy, O Tama and Mat at Grazing Down the Lachlan on 23 September 2017 in Forbes, NSW. You’ll need a ticket, so buy one . Hurry, though, as there are a limited number left. Or even better, enter our , valued up to $5,000. If you can’t make it to the festival, follow Grazing Down the Lachlan on and live vicariously.

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SBS Food is a 24/7 foodie channel for all Australians, with a focus on simple, authentic and everyday food inspiration from cultures everywhere. NSW stream only.
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8 min read
Published 31 August 2017 9:11am
Updated 1 September 2017 1:37pm
By Belinda So


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