In new cookbook The Australian Ingredients Kitchen, Elder Bruno Dann and Kakadu Plum Co. founder Tahlia Mandie have worked together to share recipes, tips and stories. In this edited extract from the book, Elder Bruno – a Traditional Owner and Nyul Nyul Elder, who lives on and cares for land on the Dampier Peninsula, north of Broome – tells us his story, picking up from when he moved back to the land of his roots, after being taken from his mother as a four-year-old, then living and working around different regions in Australia before returning to Country.
"In the mid-nineties I met my current partner, Marion Louise Manson, a guddier – white woman – from Sydney/Warrang, and we decided to move to the area called Gunmamirrd and Goolyaroodk, Twin Lakes. It was in this area that I spent time as a child, riding donkeys and meeting up with my old people out on Country.
During our school holidays we were allowed to go to the coast to camp out, hunt and fish. My old people used to be out there waiting to spend some time with us and they would show us little boys places and teach us about the food from the land and the sea. These were wonderful experiences and happy times for us. They would tell us where to go and where not to go, and we knew to do what we were told. Those were the days when we had discipline in us and so much respect for our Elders.
Elder Bruno Dann at Tooker Point, Nyul Nyul Country, Western Australia. Credit: Murdoch Books / Peter Brockman
We had one fruit on our Country called the gubinge, in Nyul Nyul language – kakadu plum is its common name for the rest of the world. Gubinge had been noticed by scientists in the late 1950s and quite a bit of research had been done over the years because it has the highest vitamin C content of any fruit known in the world.
We saw an opportunity to stay on our lands and started harvesting it. We use the fire and land management techniques the old people taught us and harvest the fruit in the wet season – that’s from around December through to May.
Elder Bruno's chicken curry with maarr (native lemongrass). Credit: Murdoch Books / Alicia Taylor
My grandfather, Gulloord Irimi, had told me when I was a little boy that one day the world will notice this fruit, and so it was true, the world had noticed it! I knew I was good to share it. Later we joined together with other Aboriginal groups, all of us keen to do the wild harvest, and today there are lots of Aboriginal people in the Kimberley that wild harvest for profit. The fruit is found throughout the Kimberley and the Northern Territory.
When we arrived at Gunmamirrd and Goolyaroodk back in the mid-nineties, I had a big problem. The Country was so degraded by bushfires, and it had been badly neglected. My Country was crying out to me and I was so sad for it. This land was pristine when Nyul Nyul people lived here! They knew when to burn and how to burn and were land carers. White people – the police or priests from the mission – they said to our old people, ‘You people are useless and hopeless, you never did anything with this land. You don’t deserve to have this Country.’ This broke my old people’s heart. This Country, and every living thing on it, has always meant everything to the old people.
Keeping our Country clean and pure, as it was in the time it was created, is important to us. This is the job we, the Nyul Nyul people, have been given by our great creator.
Damper with wattleseed. Credit: Murdoch Books / Alicia Taylor
My Elders used to talk to trees. They would hold on to them and let a tree feel their heart beating. ‘Rub them down and make them feel special,’ they’d say. ‘Talk to trees, because they are living things, it’s only nature! They give us shade and shelter and sometimes we take refuge under them. Most times we don’t notice them at all, but they can see and feel us at all times.’
My partner, Marion, was so moved by my stories that she was committed to helping me, so for the past 27 years we’ve been living out here, and I can say to my old people l did my best to care, to carry on my traditions of caring for this Country. The land is starting to bloom again, just like it used to. Trees are fruiting and wildlife is multiplying.
The children and grandchildren from both our families have spent a lot of time with us out here, and we have been restoring Country together, bringing it back to life. It was full of gubinge orchards and many other fruits in the old days when it was maintained by the Nyul Nyul people. Today it has become a conservation area.
The land is starting to bloom again, just like it used to. Trees are fruiting and wildlife is multiplying.Elder Bruno Dann
I met Tahlia Mandie about eight years ago and she was so enthusiastic and genuinely loved everything to do with the Australian Aboriginal cultures, bushfoods and the bush. We have had a very good relationship together promoting Australian native bushfoods and their uses, and now we are collaborating on our book.
Our relationship has been one of the truest reconciliations and has been a turning point for me, as well as helping me to recover from my own traumas and old prejudices and extreme pain from the past. We have all learnt a lot and shared a lot with each other. I’ve made my own progress! I tell my own story to the world and have reached many people and I share my cultural knowledge by working on different projects with my family’s support.
Elder Bruno Dann and co-author Tahlia Mandie, of the Kakadu Plum Co, and their book. Credit: Murdoch Books
Our relationship has been one of the truest reconciliations and has been a turning point for me.
They will take it all further into the future. People say to me, why don’t you do your own products and why don’t you be the one to sell these bushfood products, but I tell them that’s not my responsibility because I’ve been left a job to do here on Country. This was passed on to me. Sure, I can also travel and help others, help my mob to realise that they can do their things their way as well. We can all be an inspiration to each other! We, each and every one of us, are given a purpose in this world and this is my purpose.
Nyul Nyul people were a sharing and caring tribe and my culture is still so important to me. I also feel very fortunate and grateful to be able to do my job here on Country. Don’t forget, thousands of years means thousands of years, that’s us, we are still here, the Nyul Nyul people!"
This is an edited extract from The Australian Ingredients Kitchen by Elder Bruno Dann and Tahlia Mandie. (Murdoch Books RRP $39.99.)
