Central Australian Food And Clothing Essay

Central Australian Food and Clothing

Weather and climate are immensely influential forces in every society, and central Australia demonstrates this nicely. Throughout history, the influence of weather has been evident. The aborigines, European settlers and modern Australians all had or have to negotiate the impacts of weather in their daily lives. The respective cultures of the aborigines and the Europeans are products of weather and worked together to create modern society in Australia. The modern culture has been produced by a combination of cultural and climatic forces and has changed over time as the different groups within it influenced each other. The cultural aspects that I will focus on in this paper are food and clothing. Both have been carefully shaped by cultural and climatic aspects over time, and demonstrate how the aborigines and European settlers influenced each other.

It is seen as a delicacy and coveted by those who appreciate diverse food and can appreciate the culture associated with it. This has created a rise in the demand for various types of bush food that is incompatible with the supply of many of these desert grown plants. Wattleseed, because of its sensitivity to weather conditions and fire, does not live up to the demand for it. The ways that the aborigines dealt with wildfires has been integrated with European fire-fighting methods. So there are ways to make agriculture in central Australia effective despite the difficult weather conditions, however weather still poses a barrier to widespread consumption and export of bush food. Aboriginal dishes of animals such as emus and kangaroos are becoming more popular in mainstream food culture as well. Emus are now being raised in farms for their meat. All of these animals and plants are able to thrive because of the climate. Aboriginal food is an interesting and important part of Australian cuisine