iDIDJ Australia Didgeridoo Cultural Hub

This is a cool video, not didgeridoo-related but important nonetheless:



Ramingining residents Linda Namiyal, her daughter Bulanydjan, and David Warraya show how djitama - a bush yam - is prepared for eating. This is very important because wrong preparation will result in poisoning!

In the old days bush yams were one of the main carbohydrate sources for Yolngu people in Arnhem Land before bread, flour, damper and rice became a staple in contemporary times. The ideal season for gathering yams is Midawarr - after the heavy rains have ceased at the end of the wet season, and before the proper dry season. And there are plenty of different yam species to be had, some Dhuwa and some Yirritja, some can be eaten raw whilst others such as djitama need elaborate preparation.

During Midawarr there is luxurious growth of vegetation in the bush and herbivorous animals are fat. Midawarr is perfect for collecting yams for 3 main reasons. The ground is not too wet and thus the yams are not soggy or waterlogged. The foliage of yams is easily seen, which allows the vine of the yam to be traced back to the soil whereupon the tubers are dug up. Compare that to the dry season when Yolngu set fire to the bush in which grass, understory vegetation and the leaves and vines of yams are burned. Thirdly, yams are at their most nutritious in Midawarr and are loaded with starch, although they get unpalatable and hard later in the dry season.

The best djitama tubers are young ones, the foliage of the yam can tell Yolngu a lot about the condition and edibility of the underground portions.

When enough djitama has been collected, the shell of mendung (a terrestrial snail, a Yolngu favourite with an absolutely delicious taste, I love them) is found and a small hole made in it. This is used like a vegetable peeler, but instead of peeling off the skin of djitama, it is used to produce chip-like slivers of yam. These "chips" of djitama are placed in an open-weave mewana dilly bag, which is then sewn up and placed in a flowing stream for 1 day. It is very important that the water is moving in order to leach the toxins from the djitama.

After 1 day, the djitama is ready for eating!

Djitama is rarely rarely prepared and eaten in Arnhem Land these days. This video was produced to preserve the old knowledge for the new generation of Yolngu who have never seen the preparation of djitama before.

Collecting and preparing djitama is hard work, firstly there are the mosquitoes to contend with in the jungles where the yam grows! Whilst filming this video, we also partook in a variety of other 'bush tucker' - different fruit, seeds, and yams that can be eaten raw. You can also see a nice magpie goose (gurrumattji) in this video somewhere after having had its down singed off with fire! Magpie geese used to have a much wider distribution and was virtually found in all states including Victoria. Today, however, it is restricted to the Top End of Australia due to habit destruction in southern areas.

If you got a jolt of fright whilst David Warraya was placing the mewana dilly bag in the creek, so did we. A bolt of lightning nearby and the resulting thunder scared the shit out of us!

Guan

Just saw this after preparing my own dinner in somewhat different fashion - thanks for the privilege. If technology can be used to make a difference (in many different ways) I wonder how much backing could be extracted from institutions, grant bodies and government to permit widescale application? Nice thing about video/www is that it avoids the trampling tourist. Australia is sitting on a cultural gem, yet I'm continually flabbergasted by Oz folk on holiday over here who haven't the foggiest. Now I've gone and got one of those grandioise ideas developing - the National Cultural Library of Indigenous Australia - a living and recorded history based in an expansive, award-winning building, with feeds that set the standard for information-sharing in the C21st - the envy of all museums! If only I was a multi-millionaire...