Mayi: Bush Tucker Recipes (page 6)

nurrkku (snappy gum; Eucalyptus leucophloia)

Ngurrku can be used as a herb, a bush medicine or protective covering. The bark is used to treat sores and blind boils. You get the bark and boil it. It makes the water go red, but if you leave it for a couple of hours it goes purplish black and the medicine is stronger. You put it in the bathtub with hot water, and soak the child or adult. They should sit in the bath for a long time. You can also boil the him, likkarr, and use it for sores. You can use the leaves as a herb for cooking in a ground oven. When cookng bush turkey or porcupine, collect snappy gum leaves and put them into the hole over the hot coals. Straight away put the kuyu (meat) in and cover it quickly before the smell of herbs comes out. Ngurrku leaves and oher eucalypt leaves are also used to cover water in a water carrier, to stop it from splashing, or to rest cooked or uncooked meat on, to keep it off the ground.

R. Frank Narrurlu and A. Morrison Nangali, J. Nixon Nakkamarra, D.D. Frank Jakkamarra. Photo A. Alder.

parnttali (bush orange; Capparis umbonata)

This grows in rock country. When the fruit is ripe, the tree smells very strong and you can eat the fruit skin, seeds and all. If the fruit is unripe and hard, you dig the ground and put them in a hole about half a metre deep. Put earth on top, and some water to harden the surface and make it straight, and then put a blanket over that. Leave it for at least a week. When you smell a sweet smell, the fruit is ripe and you dig them out. They are nice and soft and they taste sweet. You can eat the skin, seeds and all. When the fruit is dry and falls off the tree, we pick them up and take them home. You can take them on long travels. We soak them in water and eat them all. They are very filling, and make you full when you have no bread. You can also eat the gum from parnttarli, and use the roots and bark for bush medicine. We scrape the roots and bark with a knife, put them in water and boil them. We use this to wash sores and makes them clean.

E. Graham Nakkamarra, J. Nixon Nakkamarra and N. Nelson Nakkamarra. Photo by A. Alder

pakarli (green paperbark, broad left paperbark; Melaleuca viridiflora)

This grows in wet country, around soakages. The bark is used to line coolamons for babies to sleep in. It was also used to makes sheaths for stone knifes with resin handles.

M. Jones Jampin. Photo G. Warner