For Bidjigal and Dharawal man Jordan Ryan-Hennessey, working with native foods at IndigiGrow is part of a personal passion.
"I'm getting to come in here and work with our plants every day to grow them, propagate them but it's good just putting them back out into community and out on Country," he told NITV.
"Keeping our plants alive and keeping our culture alive as well. The plants are a big part of our identity."
The Aboriginal-owned social enterprise is run from an old caretaker's cottage at La Perouse Public School in the south of Sydney.
"I'm from La Perouse, this is my mother's Country," Jordan explained.
Past the school oval are gardens of lemon-myrtle trees over six feet tall.
The leaves are harvested by hand; from there it can be steeped for tea, infusing traditional medicines or grounded into a herbal cooking ingredient.
Over at a Marrickville bakery in Sydney's inner-west, the lemon myrtle finds its way into freshly baked sourdough from The Bread & Butter Project.
A collaboration years in the making
For Bidjigal man and IndigiGrow CEO Peter Cooley, he first heard about the social enterprise bakery as a case study through coursework.
"I got to study it, and then I actually got to visit it as well.
"And when I was there, I got to take some of the products, but I absolutely fell in love with the sourdough that they were making," he told NITV.
While "nothing came of it then", when he founded IndigiGrow there were over two years of discussion to incorporate native foods into their bakery products.
A delicious way to connect to Country
The bakery is a social enterprise that invest their profits into providing training for people seeking refuge in Australia, where bakers like Samer Salhab are excited to learn how to work with these ingredients.
"To use native ingredients in Australia, it's very important and supports people who work with these ingredients," Samer told NITV.
Samer's journey from escaping war in Syria to being a full-time baker in Sydney has taken over 7 years. She says that working with ingredients like lemon myrtle helps her understanding of Australia.
"I'm studying [for my] citizenship. I studied about Aboriginal people, so I'm interested in this.
"[Aboriginal people] are the original inhabitants here in Australia and [this collaboration is] meeting with new people - refugees."
A shared goal for connection and celebration
For Eva Rabanal, seeing the impact of the work at The Bread & Butter Project as their CEO makes her think about her family journey.
"My family migrated to Australia as refugees in the 70s, to be able to be in a position now where I can give back and help our newest arrivals means the world to me," she told NITV.
"A big part of what we do in training refugees is their socialisation into Australian lifestyle and culture, and what better place to start than with the Indigenous community."
The launch of the bakery line was timed to coincide with national recognition of both communities across June and July.
"We really love the idea of bringing together Australia's First Nations people and our newest arrivals ... celebrate both NAIDOC week and Refugee Week," Eva explained.
'Doesn't matter where you are, food connects everyone'
Back on Bidjigal Country, Peter and Jordan believe food have the power to improve wellbeing, revitalise Country and connect diverse communities.
"It's ancient culture, the oldest culture, coming together with newest Australians.
"To come together through food and share stories. The wonderful thing about food, it's a great connector of all people, all cultures."
For Jordan, sharing knowledge about plants and food extends care from Country.
"Obviously, they've looked after us for you know, 65,000 years plus, and it's good to be able to share that with non-Aboriginal people, and in the food industry as well," he said.
"It's really enjoyable to be able to share our native bush foods because then they get to experience that same enjoyment we do."
