July 19, 2018
The spotlight was on Indigenous culture at Kingaroy State High School on Tuesday as students celebrated NAIDOC with music, bush tucker and a good old-fashioned sausage sizzle.
Duncan Hegarty, from Cherbourg, was a special guest. Duncan, who conducts didgeridoo and cultural workshops, brought down a collection of didjs to show the students.
The Barambah Environmental Education Centre, an Education Department residential camp located at Wrattens Forest, north-east of Manumbar, had an interesting display of bush foods for the students to learn about and taste.
Treats included bopple nuts (macadamias), finger lime jam, native violets, bunya nuts, lilli pilli jam drops, wattle seed damper and lemon myrtle cordial.
Examples of some of the plants used to make these fusion foods were also on display.
Students were also encouraged to explore their artistic talents with face-painting and decorating mini-boomerangs, while others were looking after the sausage sizzle.
Chris Macaskill-Hants, director of the Clontarf Academy based at Kingaroy State High School, was cooking damper in the traditional bush way at the back of the school: In a camp oven, over hot ashes on corrugated iron.
But there were no complaints about the rough-and-ready kitchen … the pull-apart damper was delicious!
