White Flour, White Power

Two-way food: bush tucker and whitefella's food

“…14 As the Arrernte and Yangunytjatjara/Pitjantjatjara spent increasing amounts of time at mission settlements food rations from governments, missions and pastoralists became a staple part of many people's diet. 15 Food rations did not comprise a total diet, they were designed to offer staples of carbohydrate Á flour and sugar Á and tea. Meat rations were rare, as were vegetables and fruit.…”

“…Rowse has labelled the missionary role in this exchange system 'mercantile evangelism' in which the missionaries 'commodif[ied] the products of people's unsupervised work of hunting, gathering and making implements', rewarding them with rations and cash. 22 For Aboriginal people it was a new means of accessing food. There are loose parallels with the Canadian fur trade.…”

“…The way rations were distributed also had an important social impact. The early Lutheran missionaries neither understood, nor approved the extended family networks of the Arrernte, or how these networks acted to provide and allocate food in the 22 P. Brock community. They preferred people to live in nuclear family units in which a mother and father were responsible for their children.…”

“…It disordered Aboriginal internal social relations as they attempted to meld two systems of food procurement Á one which was familiar, the other socially disruptive. 24 In 1899 the missionary Carl Strehlow very candidly set out the nexus between food rations offered by the Lutherans and the appearance of Arrernte at Hermannsburg mission at a time of severe drought. The Arrernte were congregating at the settlement to catch 'the crumbs which fell from our table'.…”

“…It was a series of exchange relationships, although the two parties to this reciprocal relationship were not agreed on the terms of exchange. 26 The donors' rules of engagement changed frequently, and varied from one ration depot to another, depending on what type of station it was: mission, cattle or police. The exchanges Aboriginal recipients were willing to make also varied with their circumstances Á how much evangelism, work or sedentarisation they tolerated was governed by many factors including availability of bush foods, fear of attack and curiosity.…”