Decolonise Your Diet starts June 27th 2018 6pm on 98.9FM
A 10 part docuseries by Kaiyu and Tiga Bayles. .
The series will also be promoted as podcasts. Links posted when published.
We hope you u enjoy part 1, the beginning of An Australian Health Revolution.
In the series we look at what the country looked like at the time of invasion, the changes to land, animals, health and wellbeing, the many benefits of eating bush food, the problems with the current guidelines and model of health, solutions and recommendations to help turn things around. Mother and son team Kaiyu Bayles and Tiga Bayles Jnr caught up with those leading the way in the push to return to traditional approaches to wellbeing.
If u can’t tune in, u can listen online at 6pm EST
https://989fm.com.au/get-live-streaming/
DYD Series 1 Overview
1. “The Oldest, Most Nutritious Food on Earth” – interview with John Newton about his book “The Oldest Foods on Earth. Broadcasts: 27/6/18 podcast: https://989fm.com.au/?powerpress_pinw=325169-podcast
2. “The Biggest Estate On Earth” – interview with author of the book “The Biggest Estate On Earth, How Aboriginal People Made Australia”, Bill Gammage. Broadcasts: 4/7/18
3. “Agriculture or Accident” – yarn with uncle Bruce Pasco, author of “Dark Emu, Agriculture Or Accident?” Broadcasts:11/7/18
4. “A National Snapshot of the health and wellbeing of First Nation People” – Professor Gregory Phillips. He is a medical anthropologist, has a PhD in psychology (Dancing With Power: Aboriginal Health, Cultural Safety and Medical Education), a research master’s degree in medical science (Addictions and Healing in Aboriginal Country, published as a book in 2003) and a bachelor degree in arts (Aboriginal Studies and Government majors). Broadcasts: 18/7/18
5. “Amazing Results Using Bushfoods and Medicines” – We catch up with aunty Thelma ‘Bubsy’ Lander, who says trading a diet of western junk food and alcohol for the traditional Aboriginal cuisine of kangaroo tail and emu meat has helped her to lose 48 kilograms. Kaiyu looks at things like an index that measures wellbeing and the how this relates/affects First Nations people. Broadcasts: 25/7/18
6. “Traditional Approaches To Health” – Interview with Clint Bussy – We discuss Historical Diet transition/ Health transition, Food security and health benefits of traditional foods. Broadcasts: 1/8/18
7. “That Sugar Film” – Interview with filmmaker Damon Gameau, Award winning Documentary Filmmaker. While making the film he learned of the achievements that have been made through the work of community owned and directed organisations such as the Mai Wiru Regional Stores Council, Nganampa Health Council and Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Women’s Council (NPY Women’s Council). Broadcasts: 8/8/18
8. “The Results Are In” – Professor Kerrin O’Dae In just seven weeks eating bushtucker, mob who returned to the bush from the city lost weight and all their health markers (insulin resistance, blood pressure, cholesterol levels) normalized. Broadcasts: 15/8/18
9. “Question & Answers with Documentary makers Kaiyu Bayles and her son Tiga Bayles Jnr”. Broadcasts: 22/8/18
10. “A Bushtucker Health Revolution” – Interview with Mike and Gayle Quarmby and Professor Kerin O’Dae. Mike and Gail planted over 500,000 bushfood plants on Aboriginal communities. And an interview Professor Kerin O’Dae who was behind a study in the 70’s with a group of First Nations people who had grown up in a traditional hunter gatherer environments, and then moved into urban environments where they adopted modern diets, lifestyles and (unsurprisingly) health concerns such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. They returned to the outback and their hunter gatherer ways for a seven week period. Broadcasts: 29/8/18
Series Overview
Its up to all of us to learn the lessons of the past and formulate solutions for a better tomorrow. When talking about the important issues we face in Australia and how we do this, the Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has this to say “It is clear that Closing the Gap is a national responsibility that belongs with every Australian. Ending the disparity is complex and challenging. This will not lessen our resolve or diminish our efforts, even when some problems seem intractable and targets elusive.”
Introducing “Decolonise your Diet”, a 10- part series of interviews with those on the front line of a health revolution in Australia. Our guest John Newton asks if Australia has the oldest most nutritious foods on earth, why aren’t we eating them? Bill Gammage explains in his book how the Australian landscape resembled a gentleman’s estate and Uncle Bruce Pascoe also shares his perspective of what our land looked like at the time of colonisation and asks was this all agriculture or Accident? After 200 years we have the information needed to thrive again as our First People did in this land for 10’s of thousands of years.
Decolonise Your Diet, a revolutionary concept that will change the way with think about food, hunting, gathering and bushtucker in general. Available as podcasts from our website at 98.9fm.com.au/interviews.
“Before the British invaded, Aboriginal Australians were thriving on a vast diet of more than 6000 plants, grains and meats. There is a native strain of rice; grass seeds used for bread and native birds with meat comparable to the best poultry in our restaurants. Yet in those same restaurants we have an insignificant sample of our country’s produce, just a few garnishes or maybe a kangaroo tail. Our supermarkets barely stock a single Indigenous spice, herb or dried fruit, let alone anything fresh.”
“There are about 30 varieties of Kakadu plum trees,” Newton says. “How many have we tried? Hardly any. There’s so much still to be explored.”
This produce not only sustained Australia’s first peoples but formed part of their life and culture. It wasn’t simply nomadically picked, it was cared for and controlled. Newton writes that pre-colonial Aboriginal communities reared possums, emus and cassowaries; penned young pelican chicks; they used fishing nets, duck traps and terraced farming. “The entire country was carefully and thoroughly farmed in a manner that left the land and its bounty in balance and abundance.”
Until colonisation. “By bringing our own food and farming, which were totally unsuitable for the country, we obliterated the mercantile and nutritional life of the Indigenous community. We wiped it out.” Newton writes that food was an essential part of Aboriginal life. Without the land to source it, its nutritional value, and the cultural meaning behind its harvesting and procurement, the Aboriginal way of life was forcefully degraded.
Newton claims one of the most important parts of his book is the account of food rationing. Among the countless crimes against Aboriginal people this was one of the most subtle but significant. The book quotes historian and sociologist Tim Rowse who says, “From the 1980s rationing began to replace violence as a mode of government.” Although the rations were meagre, it was an easy source of food and brought Aboriginal communities away from their land and into the settlements. The degradation of Aboriginal culture and diet, combined with the colonial disregard and distaste for Australia’s produce, led to a history of illiteracy and ignorance regarding native foods.
The ration diet largely consisting of flour, sugar, fat and tea and the effect it still has in First Nation Communities has created the cycles of ill health we still see today. The introduced food and lifestyle has kept communities in a state of despair, this can be seen with the latest statistics.
INTRODUCTION – COLONISATION: played before all Segments
So that the full impact of what I want to say is understood in its context, let me begin with a short lesson on colonialism. This is necessary, because colonisation is seen in western minds as something in the past, that should stay there, and be for-gotten about. While the impact of the process on the colonised is recognised, there is a reluctance on the part of the colonisers to recognise how they, too, have lost something of their humanity.
So many in this land still see the difference between Murris and those boat people who began coming here 216 years ago, as being one of race, rather than the difference between coloniser and colonised. That difference, and the historical legacy of colonisation, is at the root of much of the conflict throughout the world today. Re-solving it can contribute insights into there solution of other conflicts, globally and locally.
Murri Elder, Aunty Lilla Watson.
The Series begins June 27th 2018 6pm
1. “The Oldest, Most Nutritious Food on Earth” – interview with John Newton about his book “The Oldest Foods on Earth. Broadcasts: 27/6/18
Did you know Australia Has the Oldest and Most Nutritious Foods on Earth?
So why aren’t we eating them? Before the British invaded, The First People of Australia were thriving on a vast diet of more than 6000 plants, grains and meats. There is a native strain of rice; grass seeds used for bread and native birds with meat comparable to the best poultry in our restaurants. Join us for the launch of our new series “Decolonise Your Diet”. Featuring our interview with John Newton, author of Oldest Foods On Earth.
2. “The Biggest Estate On Earth” – interview with author of the book “The Biggest Estate On Earth, How Aboriginal People Made Australia”, Bill Gammage. Broadcasts: 4/7/18
With European settlement “a majestic achievement ended”, now “we have a continent to learn”. Says author of “The Biggest Estate on Earth” Bill Gammage. His challenge to us all: a revelation of what will be required if we are to one day “understand our country” and “become Australian”. If you want to hear more from authors Bruce Pascoe, John Newton and Bill Gammage, join us for our upcoming series as we take a journey discovering the oldest super foods and the genius knowledge systems of our First People of this country we all call home now. This is our shared history. “Decolonise Your Diet”, coming to you across the airwaves this June.
3. “Agriculture or Accident” – yarn with uncle Bruce Pascoe, author of “Dark Emu, Agriculture Or Accident?” Broadcasts 11/7/18
Did you know that Aboriginal people were the first people in the world to make bread, 15,000 years in advance of the Egyptians? Or that we have the oldest art in the world, the oldest tool manufacture in the world? These are important facts – we should all share in our pride that this country was a leader in human development. Join us for our 3rd episode of Decolonise Your Diet with uncle Bruce Pascoe, author of the award winning book Dark Emu.
4. “A National Snapshot of the health and wellbeing of First Nation People” 18/7/18
Interview with Professor Gregory Phillips, a medical anthropologist, with a PhD in psychology (Dancing With Power: Aboriginal Health, Cultural Safety and Medical Education), a research master’s degree in medical science (Addictions and Healing in Aboriginal Country, published as a book in 2003) and a bachelor degree in arts (Aboriginal Studies and Government majors).
The Bringing Them Home Report exposed the extent to which trauma has impacted on Indigenous Australians and concluded that most families have been affected by the forcible removal of one or more children. The need to address the legacy of forced removal, by considering special investment in Indigenous healing, was a strongly supported recommendation at the 2020 Summit held in Canberra in April 2008. Reference was made by summit participants to the medical anthropologist Gregory Phillips proposal that healing is fundamentally about therapeutic change and cultural renewal.
A holistic view of healing approaches was elegantly outlined by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) in their National Inquiry into the Separation of 3 of 25 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Children from their Families. HREOC supported measures of restitution of language, culture, and records of harm done; be combined with measures of rehabilitation such as offering therapeutic services.
5. “Amazing Results Using Bushfoods and Medicines” Broadcasts: 25/7/18
We catch up with auntyThelma ‘Bubsy’ Lander, who says trading a diet of western junk food and alcohol for the traditional Aboriginal cuisine of kangaroo tail and emu meat has helped her to lose 48 kilograms.
At her heaviest, Bubsy, as she is affectionately known around her hometown of Quilpie in south-west Queensland, weighed in at 136 kilograms. “It was just exhausting to go anywhere because I was fat and my enlarged heart and my lungs … it was a real effort to walk around,” she said. “There were many fences I used to lean on, on the way downtown and back.” The great grandmother says alcohol and junk food were her biggest weaknesses. “I used to hook into the booze a bit, being an alcoholic I’d get the munchies,” she said. “I’d come home and cook up a storm, eat up big and not do exercise but … I realised what I was doing to me own life. “[So instead of] thinking ‘why me lord?’ I got off me backside to do something about it.”
Several years ago a friend advised Bubsy that if she wanted to lose weight she should try cooked kangaroo tail and emu meat. Bubsy says she quickly developed a taste for the traditional Aboriginal food and before too long her weight began to reduce.
While previously she fit into size 26 clothes, she can now fit into size 18 and 20 clothes. “Now I can walk downtown no problem,” she said. She says the kangaroo tail she cooks is particularly delicious. “I really feel proud of what I’ve achieved and now I can help people … a lot of people come around here, Aboriginal and white people and I just give them some advice … just for them to do the best they can and turn their lives around.”
6. “Traditional Approaches To Health” – Broadcasts: 1/8/18
Interview with Clint Bussy. We discuss Historical Diet transition/ Health transition, Food security and health benefits of traditional foods.
Traditional foods have had a significant and beneficial role in the diets and way of life of Aboriginal people for thousands of years. Before European settlement in Australia the diets of Aboriginal people safeguarded them against diabetes and obesity. The benefits of traditional foods and their procurement are well established and compelling. The indirect benefits of traditional foods on the wider social determinants of health are as equally important. Traditional foods and associated resources can be the foundations of improved education, employment and commercial opportunities.
These foods must be protected from contaminants from mining or other practices that are increasingly widespread among regions where Aboriginal communities exist. Promoting and protection of traditional foods will improve food security and this will ultimately be dependent on the continued access and preference for these foods by Aboriginal people.
7. “That Sugar Film” – Broadcasts: 8/8/18
Award winning Documentary – Interview with Filmmaker Damon Gameau who was off sugar for 3 years when he decided to make the film and after 60 days the movie shows you what happened. In short: liver disease, 10cm of visceral fat around his waist, signs of type 2 diabetes, mood swings and (according to doctors) early signs of what could lead to coronary problems.
While making the film he learned of the achievements that have been made through the work of community owned and directed organisations such as the Mai Wiru Regional Stores Council, Nganampa Health Council and Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Women’s Council (NPY Women’s Council).
8. “The Results Are In” Broadcasts: 15/8/18
Interview with Professor Kerin O’Dae. An Australian study was done with a group of First Nations people who had grown up in a traditional hunter gatherer environments, and then moved into urban environments where they adopted modern diets, lifestyles and (unsurprisingly) health concerns such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. They returned to the outback and their hunter gatherer ways for a seven week period.
In just seven weeks (!!), they lost weight and all their health markers (insulin resistance, blood pressure, cholesterol levels) normalized.
Interestingly, they were less active than in their urban environments, so exercise was NOT a factor.– Very simply, as Prof. Mike Richards, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology says, “What we are adapted to [evolutionarily] is not what we are living [or eating] right now.”I do wish the film spent a little more time diving into the issue of quality.
Clearly our Paleolithic ancestors were eating exclusively wild game, and wild fruits and vegetables grown in nutrient-rich soil.
There was no such thing as a feedlot or chemical pesticide.Ultimately, what we choose to eat is a very personal decision. But what we are designed to eat is evolutionarily and genetically wired. I highly encourage you to take the time to watch the thought-provoking film “The Perfect Human Diet” that mentions this Australian study.
9. “Question & Answers with Documentary maker Kaiyu Bayles”. Broadcasts: 22/8/18
Kaiyu discusses the journey behind the scenes and how the experience shaped her life after her late father discussed the idea with her. This idea is what you have listened to and shared with Kaiyu and Tiga Bayles Jnr, her son and Tiga’s grandson, is the idea Tiga shared with Kaiyu Before his passing. A special episode, not to be missed.
– Over 70% of the foods we eat today did not exist before the industrial revolution. From an evolutionary perspective, there is simply no way for our bodies to know what to do with these “foods” (which, as we all know, aren’t real food at all).
– Broken down by nutrient ratios, what we feed cattle to “fatten them up” is almost identical to the government-sanctioned food pyramid for a “healthy” diet. Is it any wonder we are in the middle of an obesity epidemic?
10. “A Bushtucker Health Revolution” – Interview with Mike and Gayle Quarmby founders of Outback Pride, who planted over 500,000 bushfood plants on Aboriginal communities. Broadcasts: 29/8/18
The Outback Pride Project is promoting the Australian native food industry by developing a network of production sites within traditional Aboriginal communities.
The cultivation of Australian native food provides indigenous Australians with jobs and training in horticulture and the food industry. The project also acknowledges the intellectual property of the traditional uses of bush foods.
Mike and Gayle felt that their combined skills could provide a platform for a unique development in the bush food industry. The focus of the project is their vision of “Jobs and Training for Indigenous Australians”.
Mike Quarmby has had a lifetime of experience in the commercial horticultural industry. During that time he was particularly involved in the development of arid zone horticultural practices. Mike’s talent for innovation in species development, plant propagation, cultivation and new product development was always an integral part of this project. Gayle’s family involvement with traditional communities goes back to 1932, when her father Rex Battarbee travelled in a model T Ford to the central Australian desert. While at Hermannsburg Rex met a young camel team worker called Albert Namatjira.They developed a strong friendship, which resulted in Rex training Albert as a landscape artist.
Mike and Gayle, saw that the bush food industry should be operated as a parallel to the aboriginal art industry. Both these industries have a unique cultural and commercial ownership by Indigenous Australians. The journey, beginning in 2001, has taken Mike and Gayle on a complex and interesting path. Initially they spent time in the outback with aboriginal people researching the bush food species. While mapping the best types relative to their commercial potential, invaluable support was received from their good friend and botanist Peter Latz. The next step was to create the systems of propagation and cultivation for up to 64 bush food species. This process continues to be ongoing and consumes a large amount of Mike’s time. The systems developed at this time were then put into practice on numerous trial sites in across South Australia and Northern Territory. http://www.outbackpridefresh.com.au/about/our-story/
We hope you enjoyed this documentary series, brought to you by mother and son team Kaiyu and Tiga Bayles. But the idea for the doco came from the late, great Tiga Bayles. Spoken about with his daughter Kaiyu, before he passed away in April last year. It’s a great honour to pay tribute to one of the founders of this station and a pioneer in Black Media among many other achievements. We hope you will join Kaiyu Bayles live in the studio at the usual time, on the. Broadcasts: Friday 8th December, 2017
The top ten most shocking health stats for Aboriginal People
1. Prevalence of rheumatic heart disease is 36 times higher for males and 28 times higher for females for Aboriginals living in the Top End, when compared to non-Indigenous people.
2. Overall, diabetes is around four times more common among Indigenous people than among other Australians. Diabetes was more common for Indigenous people living in remote areas than for those living in nonremote areas
3. Chronic disease is responsible for 80% of the mortality gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, with diabetes accounting for 12%
4. Cardio Vascular Disease was the leading cause of death of Indigenous people in 2012. It was responsible for 25% of the deaths of Indigenous people living in NSW, Qld, WA, SA and the NT. After age adjustment, the death rate for Indigenous people was almost twice as high as that for nonIndigenous people.
5. Chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease (CVD) and type 2 diabetes contribute to mortality rates for chronic disease over 100 times higher in the Indigenous population than the non-Indigenous population.
6. Overall mortality rates for chronic diseases are 10-15 times higher in Indigenous than non-Indigenous Australians.
7. According to ABS statistics, in 2012-13, 41% of Indigenous people aged 15 years and over reported smoking on a daily basis. Indigenous people aged 15 years and over were 2.6 times as likely as non-Indigenous people to be current daily smokers.
8. Indicators of psychogenic stress were found in greater concentrations for Indigenous than for non-Indigenous groups. Stress is known to adversely affect health. Social changes, low control, and living conditions associated with westernisation may be inherently stressful at the biological level for indigenous populations in westernised countries.
9. It has been found that Indigenous people aged 18 years and over were more likely than non-Indigenous people to have recorded a high blood pressure reading at a rate of 1.2 times the reading.
10. Last but not least – Life expectancy gaps of 10-12 years persist between Indigenous Australians and non-Indigenous Australians! While Australia is ranked in the top ten nations in the world for overall life expectancy, life expectancies for Indigenous Australians are comparable to less developed nations life Bangladesh and Indonesia.
https://chuffed.org/project/ourhopeforhealth
Books & Films referenced:
The Oldest Foods on Earth, John Newton
https://www.booktopia.com.au/the-oldest-foods-on-earth-john-newton/prod9781742234373.html
The Biggest Estate on Earth- How Aborigines made Australia. Bill Gammage
https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/general-books/history/The-Biggest-Estate-on-Earth-Bill-Gammage-9781742377483
Dark Emu: Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident? Bruce Pascoe
https://www.bookdepository.com/Dark-Emu-Bruce-Pascoe/9781489380371
Professor Gregory Phillips interview by the late Tiga Bayles
http://989fm.com.au/podcasts/lets-talk/gregory-phillips/
Bushtucker Success Story, Thelma Lander
http://www.abc.net.au/local/photos/2015/05/18/4237619.htm
Where to buy bushfood, Outback Pride Fresh: http://www.outbackpridefresh.com.au/where-to-buy/distributors/
The Perfect Human Diet, C.J. Hunt – Movie
https://itunes.apple.com/au/movie/the-perfect-human-diet/id582517097
That Sugar Film, Damon Gameau – Movie
http://thatsugarfilm.com/film/watch-now/
Podcasts
Podcast episode 1 – “The Oldest, Most Nutritious Food on Earth”.
1st Episode now available on podcast
John Newton yarns with Kaiyu Bayles about his book “The Oldest Foods on Earth”.
Did you know Australia Has the Oldest and Most Nutritious Foods on Earth?
So why aren’t we eating them?
Before the British invaded, The First People of Australia were thriving on a vast diet of more than 6000 plants, grains and meats. There is a native strain of rice; grass seeds used for bread and native birds with meat comparable to the best poultry in our restaurants. Join us for the launch of our new series “Decolonise Your Diet”. Featuring our interview with John Newton, author of Oldest Foods On Earth.
Broadcasts: 27/6/18
98.9FM INTERVIEW 28/6/18
This mornings ‘Decolonise Your Diet’ Interview on Let’s Talk
On Let’s Talk this morning Boe and Kaava spoke to a few people first we had a yarn with Kaiyu Bayles about her new 10 part radio series called Decolonise Your Diet, exploring the traditional foods that sustained Aboriginal people for 60 thousand years.
https://989fm.com.au/?powerpress_pinw=325500-podcast
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