Bush Tukka Guide - Samantha Martin

Bush Tukka Guide: Identify Australian Plants and Animals, and Learn How to Cook with Them

By Samantha Martin

Published by Hardie Grant Explore – April 2014 – Paperback – 200pp – 18.5cm x 12.5cm

In this gorgeous and compact book, Samantha Martin – the ‘Bush Tukka Woman’ – shares her knowledge and love of bush tukka as taught to her by her mother and other Aboriginal elders. Her Bush Tukka Guide offers rich and wonderful insights into how Aboriginal people survived for centuries unearthing the bounty of this sometimes lush and often desolate land.

The book is divided into three chapters covering plants, animals and some recipes to get you started using bush tukka at home. Learn how to find billygoat plums and mountain bush pepper in the wild; discover the reasons Aboriginal people ate magpie geese and honey ants; and test out the delicious flavours of bush tukka recipes like bunya nut pesto, lemon myrtle slow-cooked kangaroo or caramelised cluster figs with ice-cream.

Samantha Martin is a descendant of the Kija and Jaru from the east Kimberley region of Western Australia. She was born into a long line of traditional hunters and gatherers, and had the opportunity to learn from her family how to eat off the land and surrounding waters. Samantha understands the nutritional properties and diversity of Australian bush foods, and now wants to help others introduce native foods into their kitchens. She is also passionate about sharing her knowledge of basic survival skills, including how to hunt, prepare and cook bush foods. Known as the 'Bush Tukka Woman', her four-part documentary My Bush Tukka Adventures with Samantha Martin, has been screened on SBS/NITV (National Indigenous TV station) for the past six years.