This season of SNACK has been produced by the Empaur, as part of the COTA Queensland Home Care Workforce Support Program which received grant funding from the Australian Government.
EmPauR is a Torres Strait Islander-owned business dedicated to fostering cultural understanding and empowerment within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Our mission is to bridge cultural divides, promote mutual respect, and create pathways for authentic engagement between Indigenous and non-Indigenous individuals and organisations. Through comprehensive cultural awareness training, meaningful dialogue facilitation, and the honouring of Indigenous Elders, EmPauR serves as a guide for cultural resilience and empowerment, preserving and celebrating the rich heritage of Australia’s First Nations peoples.
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EmPaur would like to advise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners that the following podcast I mentioned names of people who have gone before us into the stars and the dreaming. Empower acknowledges the Gimli Walburga in the NG people whose traditional lands this podcast has been recorded on. We pay our respects to the ongoing cultural connection that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to hold with the land, sea and wind miam sail Napa welcome to today’s podcast episode, where we embark on a delicious journey into the world and Torres Strait Islander cuisine. In this culinary episode, food adventures traditional meets Western will discover how balancing traditional Islander dishes with Western society dishes helps maintain cultural significance and fosters a heartwarming sense of community, especially when delivering services to elders. My name is Joanne and I’m a MER woman of Eastern tourist rates. I will be yawning with Barlow Reggie Powell and Bala Jarrell Bailey. Follow Reggie who has connections to the some sub tribes of Arab in the eastern islands of the Torres Strait was born on Thursday Island with family origins, tracing back to Arab and the cookery Island bachelor people. Bala Gerald, an emerging elder and traditional owner from the American tribe on body Island brings his rich experience and dedication to community well being. Together, they will guide us. Together, they will guide us through the art of using food to tell stories and bridge cultures. Celebrate with us as we explore the importance of food in preserving traditions and creating connections across diverse cultures. Blending traditions, how can non Indigenous caregivers ensure Torres Strait Islander elders have access to and benefit from traditional foods while balancing cultural influences and dietary needs in aged care? Well,
02:26
I would I would think you know the you will give a talk to the family you will talk to the community and other elders that are associated with the families or the individual the HPA setting and we should gain some understanding of how the people or the individual or the community have shared you know, their food and on how to so Chuck is shared abroad. And I think it’s something that in the aged care setting would be accepted once talking to the significant family members or community members
03:02
and our forefathers they lived long over the years in 18th and 19th century just despicable they they work hard and they eat the right food they they lived have a veggie garden vegetable and fruit garden and the lives of the sea. Now that’s telling me that’s telling me those kinds of foods that can can be introduced to h k in order so instead of in outside influence, diet over time, our old people they can have like we can introduce that kind of food or engage that kind of food, but when they when they and they really enjoy because so our ancestors and grandfathers are we really doing seasonal Ohia but due to climate change, things are now changed the life seasons delay the pattern in the water, which is the sea and the land and today’s we’ve got Western influence, we have a goddess anymore that people shop through stores, shopping center markets, and its outcome of that is a big risk to our wealth if no one’s working on anymore in the land in the sea. So I suppose with with couple of our dishes, engage to do the H K that’s gonna you know, boost them up as well eating traditional food they know important those resources or
04:38
cultural significance of food, how can aged care services better understand and respect the cultural importance of Torres Strait Islander cuisine while providing options that align with both traditional and Western dietary preferences?
04:55
Yes, and again. A lot of a lot of this Would seasonal food. So we would, we would eat around our season. And our season would also reflect our dietary or our health in general. From time to time, as I mentioned, a lot of our dietary or food consumption is based in its seasons. And respectfully, we can marry that across to the Western way of eating now we can understand our body now we’ve we’ve sort of transitioned from a space from eating like 20 years ago to now the food are more preserved, and we don’t see much of those seasonal food around anymore, we tend to eat better processed food, and we can only allow some time or some some opportunity for our traditional food to be presented in the HK setting. And from time to time, in ceremonies or traditional celebration or cultural celebration, we tend to see a banquet of of that season of food. But in a setting such as an HP, there is a close alliance or post a partnership with our families to make those food available from time to time.
06:21
I think if we put this and have back to our people, as a string, we need to engage of workshop over this. So it does play a big part on their life. I mean, all if we can look into it by doing more studies, as as we did through years, what is the best food to eat and what’s not. And if we come down in that sense, and I Avalon workshop, I think that’s going to provide a better quality, better feedback and a better direction. What’s good for people, especially around non traditional medicines and traditional food, some are unique LT and some Castro in the meat and the fat. So it’s something that we have to work through. And it’s something we already know. But if we do every talking professional, I think more for this study in history going into this especially, it’s a community source, it’s for community, it’s not for individual patient,
07:29
can you tell a story about how serving traditional foods brings tourists straight elders in aged care closer together, and makes them feel better? Also, How can everyone else in the community help make sure these foods are available in aged care.
07:43
So a lot of the opportunity come from the community approach. When I when I say community, when I when an elder or family member enters the you know, the care, the family works together from an holistic approach. And from time to time you find a lot of sharing around the community. In that sense, if my garden don’t produce Well, well, my my family or my neighboring garden, would would would step in and provide in that space. And we find a lot of that partnership within the community. Not not only on special occasion, but when when there’s a big celebration happens in the community, we tend to see an overload or great input from the community that we bring to the HK I know there was a celebration in my community back Dallin where we would cook for the community to have a celebration, but we would also have a portion of that traditional taka be taken to the aged care facility for some of our elders that are not able to attend physically. So a lot of that none of the tocca it’s driven by the community. And even today, we still we still we are only blessed to see that it’s still happening. And my but my worry is for the next generation to come with whether whether it’s it’s something of significant that it will be carried on. But from where I am now in what I’m seeing today. It’s still a strength within the community itself.
09:38
Well, I can only speak to what I’ve seen what’s fun of me and what I’ve what I’ve learned fully 47 years of my life, or what I seen when we remaini come together when when there’s a cultural event, like weddings, shaving 21st And if there’s us A sad sadness funeral. So we need cell culture to share food with our families. So we’re very good example when when we spear you home tomorrow, we’re going to make 20 to 30 shares to people off of that particular animal. That’s how we used to leave our, our combination with families. No togetherness is very strong. Now with with the Western society, what I’ve seen at cheap, finance or cheap of each individuals, it’s now moving families apart. What can be engaged or incorporated into the multiple home or aged care is the regular cultural events and give them awareness, stories, ideas, wisdoms, you know that they can even speak wisdom. Most of them are still strong, physically, mentally strong. So if you incorporate all these events, major key is going to carry the happiness and they are going to be strong.
11:20
As we wrap up our exploration of Torres Strait Islander food, we’ve unraveled a tapestry of flavors, stories and connections through the blending of traditions, the cultural significance of food, and the bonds forged over meals. We’ve witnessed the power of food as a bridge between cultures and generations. So the next time you sit down to savor a meal, remember the profound way it can tell a story and bring people closer together, just as it does in the vibrant world with the Torres Strait Islander cuisine. Funding for this podcast has been provided by the Council on the aging Queensland homecare workforce Support Consortium as part of the home care workforce Support Program, which was funded through grant funding from the Australian Government
