Newton extolls the virtues of eating insects and worms, arguing that the embrace of native foods “could be a path to reconciliation”, ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) reported.
The Conversation says real, non-racist Australian food “sustained the indigenous people of the land for over 50 000 years”.
“If we eat only the food brought by the first settlers and all those who followed, can we call ourselves Australian? The successive waves of migrant arrivals since 1945 also brought their cultures and foods with them. And what did Anglo Australia do? Ate them up.
“Embraced the food of migrants more than just about any country in the world. The result is that Australia is not just multicultural, it’s multiculinary. Australians will go to a Thai restaurant — any kind of restaurant — and have no fear.
“They’ll happily eat boat noodle soup with beef blood stirred through it or stinking tofu: but not witchetty grubs (worms) or quandongs or akudjura (bush tomatoes).”
The grubs are large, white, wood-eating larvae of several moths, the most important staple of the desert and has historically been a staple in the diets of Aboriginals. Traditionally it is rare for men to dig for them, but the obvious gender bias is being ignored for the moment.
The “food racism” came up after participants on an ITV show, named I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here, told audiences how disgusting the worms tasted and that it had made them sick.
“The witchetty grub that the aboriginal people depend on is an important source of protein. It has a religious significance. For us to go and make fun of that is very disrespectful,” presenter Ray Mears argued.
Ray said: ‘It’s rather like someone coming to Britain and saying, “Eating a roast potato, isn’t that weird?”
But the worm-eating has now been scrapped from the show following concerns that the challenge could be deemed offensive to aboriginal Australians because white Australians have refused to swallow.
One comment
“food racism” ..really?
This guy doesn’t know much if he thinks eating perfectly tasty roast potato is disgusting.
I wonder how much that racist would eat of this Swedish shit called “Surströmming”…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgV2imaOCao
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surströmming
Never underestimate collective stupidity.
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