Tasmanian Business Celebrated Aboriginal History, Culture and Achievements Last Week

NAIDOC Week is held across Australia each July in celebration of the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

This year, NAIDOC Week has officially been moved to November the 8^th due to coronavirus restrictions however one Tasmanian business went ahead with their celebrations last week by coming up with a way to get the community involved whilst adhering to social distancing measures.

Kitana Mansell is a project worker for the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre and is involved in the first ever Tasmanian Aboriginal food business in Australia called Palawa kipli.

For the original NAIDOC Week, Kitana and the team at Palawa kipli put together food packages with native ingredients, a recipe and a method for people to learn how to create traditional Tasmanian Aboriginal dishes at home.

She says that it is extremely important that we celebrate the achievements of indigenous people and use the week to reflect on what has happened in the past.

“[we need] to reflect on what has happened to us in the past and what has been denied of us for the last 200 years and to use that to come together to strengthen those areas as we have done and push through those hard times to get where we are today in our community.”

Palawa kipli is a unique cultural experience bringing you dishes from the ‘land to the pan’.

“I just think that a lot of the knowledge on Tasmanian Aboriginal bush foods has been lost in the past and I think it would be really good to incorporate what we have in Tasmania produce wise to then be able to use that in contemporary dishes in Tasmania.”

Palawa means Tasmanian Aborigine and kipli means food/eat in palawa kani and this fantastic initiative is bringing awareness and acknowledgement to the rich history and culture of past and present Tasmanian Aboriginals.

Kitana says food and culture really come together as one and despite there being coronavirus restrictions, her and her team have come up with the idea of food packages as a way to celebrate NAIDOC week safely.

“I just think with everything going on at the moment it is really just… getting non-aboriginal people to educate themselves about our history and acknowledging the past. Without acknowledging the past, people aren’t going to be moving forward as a community.”

NAIDOC Week is a fantastic opportunity to participate and support the local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community and learn about and celebrate the culture.

For more information visit:

Palawa kipli’s Facebook page here.

Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre here.

Celebrating NAIDOC Week here.