How Food Wisdom from the Past Helps Create a Better Future
After extensive collaboration with property group Mirvac, Christian Hampson founded Yerrabingin Native Rooftop Farm back in 2019, a new urban space growing local native foods that sits atop a 6 star green rated building in the Sydney suburb of Eveleigh.
With over 40 species of Australian natives and over 2,000 edible, medicinal and cultural plants grown to date, the space serves to create a connection between today's modern environment and the wealth of knowledge that exists within the traditional Aboriginal food culture of the past.
The farm is part of a number of projects that have been created under the Yerrabingin banner. The organisation is on a mission to put an end to conventional approaches to Aboriginal disadvantage and to interweave creative design thinking with Indigenous knowledge to create environmentally conscious native landscapes that become a leading force in commercial design.
The farm for example supplies ingredients directly to local and city-wide restaurants that are increasingly interested in incorporating native ingredients on their menus and represents an economically viable, sustainable and healthy enterprise.
It's a great example of the innovation that can arise when wisdom from the past is acknowledged and drawn upon to solve the problems of the future.
The rooftop farm helps:
Improve biodiversity by cultivating and preserving less common and in some cases, rare and threatened species of plants, including species of tubers, native parsnip, wild onion, native raspberries, and beach bananas. These are distributed to chefs and restaurants to highlight in menus, therefore, creating interest in a greater variety of native ingredients.
Provide a green urban space that contributes to the health and wellbeing of the local workforce by providing a place to sit and re-connect with nature.
Manage food waste by providing a place that the local cafes can bring their food scraps as dinner for the worms.
Provide a space to celebrate culture including music and art and provides employment opportunities for local people, disrupting traditional approaches to Aboriginal disadvantage.
Organisations looking to make a difference to the future through food and the way it is produced and marketed may benefit from collaborating with Indigenous groups who can share wisdom and knowledge about how to this well.