A chance meeting has allowed bush tucker to be taken to the world stage.
West Australian Indigenous chef, Josh Whiteland, forages for bush foods as part of his cultural tours on the coast at Yallingup.
"All the way along the coast ... there is over six or seven kinds of bush plant from bush celery to salt bush," he told NITV.
"These are some of the foods that we forage for regularly. They go really well with the food that relates to the coast."
It was on one of these cultural tours, organised for a group of international chefs, that Whiteland met Danish chef Rene Redzepi, from the world-famous Noma Restaurant.
"They were organised to come down for the Margaret River food Festival and there were about 25 chefs who came for a walk with me and I really gave them a perspective for the area," Whiteland said.
So impressed with his knowledge of his local produce, Redzepi asked Josh Whiteland to give a presentation on Indigenous food and culture in Copenhagen.
Whiteland says although they couldn't come from more different backgrounds, the two chefs share a similar philosophy of food.
"I know someone like Rene who sources all their ingredients within 100 kimometres of their restaurant is very similar to what we do," he said.
"Aboriginal people never hunted emus when they were spawning. It's important we still maintain those same sustainable food practices and have a dialogue so we can source our food a forage for our food on country "
Although he is about to take Noongar Bush food to an international audience, mass production for mass consumption is far from Josh Whiteland's mind.
"I'm thinking more of an indentity thing I would not be wanting to harvest and supply bush foods that's not what its about what I'm about is the experience and if you're coming on for an Aboriginal experience you're engaging with people you're sharing and connecting to country."
Mr Whiteland believes that kangaroo should be our national food and that Aboriginal influence on our diet, in general, can only help to merge Indigenous and non Indigenous cultures.
